“Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as brother and brother,” said Marc Gasol, breathing heavily through his durasteel helmet as he stood menacingly over older sibling Pau on Cloud City. OK, maybe I got the Gasol family Thanksgiving dinner confused with a scene from The Empire Strikes Back, but as it turns out, that image might not be too far from the truth.
In an interview with EuropaPress on Wednesday, Marc discussed the possibility of Pau joining forces with him in Memphis as a free agent one day.
“It’s not impossible that one day we could play together,” said the Grizzlies center as translated by HoopsHype. “I think he has two more years in Chicago and I think it’s difficult that he would leave the team, I wouldn’t like it. But for us, and for Memphis to add someone like Pau, it would be unbelievable. We will try. Why not?”
Marc just inked a new five-year, $110 million deal with Memphis over the summer. Meanwhile, Pau does indeed have two years remaining on his deal with the Bulls, but the final year is a player option which he can decline and become a free agent next offseason.
Pau, of course, played the first seven seasons of his career with the Grizzlies, becoming the team’s all-time leading scorer, before being traded to the Lakers for a pu pu platter that included a young Marc. Watching the now-35-year-old Pau play out the final years of his NBA career alongside his brother in Memphis where it all began and retiring in a Grizzlies uniform seems awfully fitting.
For what it’s worth, Marc’s current frontcourt mate Zach Randolph comes off the books after the 2016-17 season. With the beautiful big-to-big connection the brothers have fostered playing next to each other for many years in international play for their native Spain, it’s a possibility that would make a lot of sense for both feel-good purposes and basketball purposes, alike.
Now if only Memphis could draft Adria next June…
