Memphis Grizzlies 2017/2018 Player Reviews: Marc Gasol

Marc Gasol entered his 10th season in the NBA with the Memphis Grizzlies, and showed more progression off the court then on the court.

What didn’t Marc Gasol do this season? Seriously, look back at the David Fizdale firing, who ran PR for the team? You guessed it, Marc did. When the team went on losing streak after losing streak, guess who took it the hardest? Marc did. Oh, and all of those practices, guess who continued to keep the young guys playing together, while progressing in the NBA? You’re right, Marc did.

Now, up until this season, Gasol’s slate was not totally clean, right? It honestly wasn’t. Making passive aggressive comments in pressers were as bad as his aggression on the court at times. Not taking that wide open mid-range jump shot, but with five on the shot clock passing it to the last guy you’d want to shoot. Showing clear emotion when things weren’t going his way or the teams way, and instead of getting up to fight, he’d deffer blame and lay down. Believe me, Gasol was all of those things until this season, but it wasn’t Fizdale’s firing that fired Marc up.

Back on the Grizzlies media day, I, along with several other media members were shocked, not because he 7’1, but he made a career move. He walked in thinner, not weak, but muscle. He answered every question very thoughtfully. Then, his first preseason game, I wrote an article about how shocked I was by Gasol in a preseason game.

See, with former Grizzly Zach Randolph’s departure, people questioned if Gasol could rebound and get “gritty” buckets in the paint, and he showed that this season. Unfortunately, it was overlooked, by a 60 loss season in which so much focus was on Gasol getting a coach fired.

His progression this season was his patience. His patience with young players, media members like me, coaches, and frustrated fans. I listened to him talk with a media member one game about his take on progression (off record) and it sounded no where near the Gasol of past. He started the conversation off with, “We start progression with the man.” The man, something Gasol has been for Memphis, but is finally learning how to use it in a positive manner.

I like to think of this season with this picture:

So much sadness, heart, anger, and most of all relief in this picture.

I will leave you with this, while this season was Gasol’s worst from a statistical stand point, he still did this.

He did all of this with non NBA talent around him at times, and playing more minutes then anyone wanted him to. So many times this season, he’d hit the deck for a lose ball, or go to aggressive towards the basket and hit the floor. All of us thinking “why, Marc?” The small things that build a winning culture even in a losing season. He sacrificed, something new to him, and has kept the team progressing towards something greater. A winning culture.