Pau Gasol Thanks Portland Trail Blazers

Former Portland Trail Blazers center Pau Gasol has announced his retirement. The 41-year-old shared a statement on Tuesday regarding his decision.

“I’m going to retire from professional basketball. It’s a difficult decision that I really thought over.”

Since the announcement, Gasol has posted many tweets highlighting the different parts of his career and all of the teams he played for, including one special post with a photo representing his retirement and the words of Kobe Bryant’s “Dear Basketball” in Spanish, English, and Catalan.

Gasol also took to Twitter to thank the Portland Trail Blazers.

The big man was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks before his draft rights were traded to the Memphis Grizzlies. He was the 3rd overall pick in the draft in 2001 and the first foreign player to win the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Gasol was with the Blazers for part of the 2019 season. The team signed him in July of 2019, but he was unable to rehab properly from surgery on his foot, leaving him unable to play with the team, and the Blazers released him in November of 2019.

From all of us here at Blazers Edge, we want to extend our congratulations on a long and successful career, and wish Pau the best of luck on his future endeavors.