No present hoops icon is extra motivated to assist girls’s basketball attain important development than Pau Gasol.
For Gasol, his persevering with marketing campaign to promote girls’s hoops is simply an acceptable tribute to none apart from his good good friend – the late, nice Kobe Bryant.
As he and Sue Bird have been formally launched as the worldwide ambassadors of the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, the Spanish hoops nice remarked his beloved teammate as an inspiration for him to domesticate girls in basketball.
“For different reasons. I’ve always enjoyed watching the women’s game. Sue [Bird], her teams, were unbelievable. Her commitment to our country, to our national team, to the game – I mean, it’s just something that I felt very strongly about and I felt pretty much the same,” Gasol stated.
“Obviously, Kobe [Bryant] was an inspiration there, too. His impact, in his involvement with Gigi. It was something that is close to my heart. And by him, and their passing, I felt I wanted to kind of try of follow that path and get more involved because I’m having my own daughter as well. I want her to have any opportunity as my son will have.”
Upon concluding his illustrious NBA profession in 2016, Bryant ultimately targeted his treasured time on aiding the expansion of his household and youngsters – most notably Gigi.
Bryant famously introduced Gigi beneath his wings and even mentored her daughter to turn into a destined basketball star. But a tragic 2020 helicopter crash in Calabasas, California took their lives alongside 9 others.
For Gasol, he goals to carry the torch for girls’s basketball on behalf of Gigi and his former co-star in the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 2026 Women’s World Cup in Germany would mark the second straight time Gasol will symbolize the grand sporting occasion. He already crammed the particular place in 2022 when Syndey hosted the match.
“He wanted to have Gigi the same opportunities that he had, and if we say Gigi, then it’s every girl in the world. He was part of that change, so it inspired me, touched me, opened my eyes,” Gasol stated.
“It also helped me get more involved and be more proactive. Be part of the change and the growth.”
