Two-time NBA champion Pau Gasol is one of the most beloved athletes in Spanish history. His resume, which includes two Olympic silver medals, three gold medals and two MVPs at EuroBasket, two Spanish League championships, a gold medal and an MVP at the FIBA World Cup, a Spanish King’s Cup MVP, and two FIBA Europe Player of the Year Awards, all while playing for Spain, is arguably the greatest of any basketball player ever at the international level. To put it simply, he’s an absolute icon in the country so naturally, they don’t take too kindly to attempts to drag Gasol’s name through the mud.
According to a story on Marca.com on Friday, basketball authorities in Spain may sue a French blogger who claimed that Gasol has been doping. The president of the Spanish Sports Council, Miguel Cardenal, has reportedly spoken to the president of the Spanish Basketball Association about exploring that possibility.
“We’re going to work hard so that when someone does something so morally reprehensible, they have to answer for it in court,” said Cardenal. “Gasol is a colossus, a giant, a role model for our country and our sport. He has countless tests in Spain and abroad, it’s unimaginable to think these claims have an ounce of truth. The prestige of Spanish sport is in the balance.”
Per a recent report by thinkSPAIN.com, the accusations stem from a story by the blogger in France’s famed national newspaper Le Monde. The story questioned the five-time NBA All-Star’s supposed relationship with Spanish physiologist Dr. Nicolas Terrados, who was a general practitioner for the Spanish cycling team during the 1998 Tour de France when various performance-enhancing drugs were found in his hotel room. Interestingly enough, the piece was allegedly written after Spain defeated France in the EuroBasket semifinal game last week on the heels of a 40-point outing by Gasol himself. Spain would go on to win the tournament with Gasol claiming MVP honors.
The 35-year-old Gasol has always carried himself as the ultimate professional, both at the NBA level and the international level, and it’s a shame that a bitter blogger has to resort to libel as a means of coping with his country’s defeat. Spanish authorities are correct in seeking to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, especially against such baseless claims without any hard evidence whatsoever to support the accusations.
This definitely isn’t the first shot that has been fired in the Spain/France basketball rivalry recently, and now it looks like things are starting to get really nasty.
H/T NBA Reddit
