Spanish club Barcelona is expected to try to lure Lakers center Marc Gasol back to his hometown franchise after the NBA season, per international reporter Antoni Daimiel of Carrusel Deportivo.
Former NBA guard and current Barcelona GM Juan Carlos Navarro actually has Gasol at the top of the list of offseason pursuits, Daimiel reported.
Gasol’s older brother, Pau Gasol, signed with Barcelona in February, leading to speculation that Marc might join next. Pau Gasol is a six-time NBA All-Star.
Marc Gasol, 36, is in his first season with the defending champion Lakers and averaged 5.0 points and 4.1 rebounds in 52 regular-season games. He has won two silver medals as a member of the Spanish national team.
His career began with Barcelona in 2003, and he was originally selected by the Lakers in the second round (No. 48 overall) of the 2007 NBA Draft. Gasol’s draft rights were traded to the Grizzlies in February 2008.
He spent 11 seasons in Memphis before being traded to the Raptors in 2018. Two seasons after winning a title with Toronto he joined Los Angeles on a one-year contract in free agency.
Marc recently told reporters he tries to watch all of Pau’s games with Barcelona.
“I watch all of them that I was able to. Very happy to see him play.” he said. “Happy to see him kind of build up on that foot and the motion that he’s playing.
“He’s always played with very emotional and actually I think I saw a little bend on the knees actually defensively that was very impressive. I told him the other day, like ‘Were you on the pick and roll?’ like ‘Were you actually trying to?’ So it was it was fun. I enjoy watching him. He’s happy, his family is happy so that’s all I care about.”
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