NBA champion and Defensive Player of the Year Marc Gasol announces his formal basketball retirement.
Marc Gasol, who played basketball professionally for 13 years in the NBA and took home a championship
p, who won three All-Star selections and Defensive Player of the Year while playing for Toronto, declared his retirement from basketball on Wednesday.
Playing for FC Barcelona and CB Girona in his early career, Gasol was selected by the Lakers with the 48th pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. He spent one more season playing in Spain before being traded to Memphis in exchange for his brother Pau Gasol, who was acquired by the Lakers. We all benefited greatly from that arrangement.
After a ten-year tenure with the Grizzlies, where he anchors the paint for some of the greatest Memphis teams ever, Gasol was named an All-Star three times and won Defensive Player of the Year in 2013.
Midway through the 2018–19 season, Memphis traded Gasol to Toronto, where he added a defensive presence in the paint and some passing ability that helped Kyle Lowry, Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and the rest of the team get open. Without him, Toronto would not have a 2019 championship banner.
