Q&A with Pau Gasol: The NBA and Spanish basketball icon on his past, present and future 

It's been nine months since Olympian and former Los Angeles Lakers great Pau Gasol retired from basketball.

In that time the Spanish star has been keeping himself busy, if not busier than when he was on the court.

In a wide-ranging interview, the 42-year-old - who celebrates his birthday today, 6 July - sat down with Olympics.com to discuss everything from his basketball career and becoming a father, to supporting Kobe Bryant's widow and children. He also spoke about working with NBA franchises, his role with the International Olympic Committee's Athletes Commission plus his hopes for the future.

You can listen to the full interview, which includes his accurate prediction for the 2022 NBA finals on the Olympic Channel Podcast.

Read on for a transcript of the interview below.

Pau Gasol: The full interview with Olympics.com

Olympics.com: There are many titles that you have these days. To name a few, retired basketball player, UNICEF ambassador, member of the IOC Athletes Commission, and father. So how do you fit it all in and what does life look like for you nowadays?

Pau Gasol: It's entertaining, exciting with a lot of different things. I'm also the president of the Pau Gasol foundation and we're also increasing our level of investing and advisory with companies and organisations that I'm getting involved with. I'm also exploring a way to work with an NBA franchise. So there's quite a bit, but at the same time, I dictate my schedule which is pretty nice for the most part at least. I'm not travelling as much as I was, which is nice to be at home with a family. But little by little the plate is getting fuller and in the summer it's going to be pretty busy. Now that I'm back in Europe and Spain, it's going to be a pretty busy couple of months, but exciting months as well because these are all things that I enjoy doing and have an impact and are meaningful. So, you know, I try to juggle a lot. I have a great team that helps me organise myself and make things easier for me, and that's also what it takes.

O: Life sounds good.

PG: Yeah, life is great. I'm lucky.

O: You said you're looking at ways to be involved in an NBA franchise. What more can you tell me about that?

PG: Well, it's just been this year since I've been in San Francisco. I've been going into the Warriors facility and talking to them and and helping a little bit with some of the young players and being in meetings. Just trying to learn more about the other side of the business outside of the court. Talking with executives, with scouts and so forth, and that's been fun.

Also, obviously, I'm also in talks with the (LA) Lakers and with our relationship and history obviously, it's very meaningful. We're looking at ways to to do stuff together, whether in the basketball side or in the community side. We already have a lot of programmes there with our foundation. So, again, just exploring things, knowing that I cannot fully commit to a high profile, high responsibility role because of my commitments, mainly with the IOC, (International Olympic Committee) to be honest. With all the all the meetings, calls, potential trips, Games and so forth, it's quite a lot already. So I want to make sure that I once I take on a role, I want to do it to the best of my ability. I take the commitment seriously. I just want to do do the best I can.So that's what I'm exploring. I feel in a way, when I'm in the States, I can go in once a week or once every two weeks or twice every two weeks, whatever it is and and kind of still be involved in the game and share knowledge and learn from what's going on around the team, which I think is very helpful as well.

O: No doubt it's appreciated as I'm sure there's a lot of respect and admiration for you. You mentioned the Warriors, they just won the 2022 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. Jason Tatum was a star for the Celtics and was mentored by a good friend of yours, Kobe Bryant. Do do you see any sort of glimpses of his greatness in him? And and what are you expecting from him?

PG: Well, I love the impact that Kobe had with all these young players. I love how he inspired and motivated Giannis Antetokounmpo to be MVP and to win a championship. Same with Devin Booker and with Jayson Tatum. He also worked with Kawhi Leonard, who worked out with Paul George. He worked out with so many guys that he just touched and inspired in a way that is very meaningful. Anthony Davis, another guy when he hit that game winning shot against Denver in the bubble, he called Kobe when he made it. It's touching. It's very moving for me too. To see how my big brother touched so many, besides me. Obviously he touched so many lives of young players that and for Tatum to wear a purple and gold arm band with the Celtics. It's pretty amazing. I was like, wow. But that's how much he impacted him.

O: I can still hear it in your voice talking about Kobe. It must still very real for you.

PG: It is very real, very emotional. So it's hard because I miss him. It's hard because I'm very close to Vanessa and the girls. And now it's one of those things in life that is just heartbreaking. That something like that had to happen. So many children were involved in that accident and so many families affected by it. It's hard to talk about someone that you feel so strongly about that is no longer there. But he's still very here in a way, because he touched so many lives, so many players lives and in so many different ways.

O: You mention Vanessa. I understand she is the godmother to your daughter, Elizabeth Gianna Gasol. So you even named your daughter's middle name after Gianna, Kobe's daughter. Why was that so important to you?

PG: I think it was just a way to honour Gianna and in Kobe at the same time in the family. And what bigger way to do that than with your own daughter - your first daughter. Then Vanessa accepted being the godmother of our child. It's just something that we feel very strongly about and it's beautiful. I think that's what life is also about. He brought our families very, very close together.

O: How would you describe as your role in Vanessa and Kobe's daughter's lives?

PG: Well, I'm their uncle. I'm Uncle Pau and I love all of them. Natalia, I love her so much. Now we just have a very close relationship. And obviously, B.B. and Coco are are just the sweetest. They're always so sweet and so loving. And again, that's a testament to Vanessa and Kobe and how they were raised. Vanessa is a sister to me and she's very close to my wife and very close to me. We just try to spend as much time as we can together. We fly down to L.A. a few times a year or so we can spend time together mainly on significant dates. Some dates and holidays are a little harder emotionally because of Gianna and Kobe not being there.

O: Well, congratulations on doing what you do as a human, because your work goes beyond just being a basketball player.

PG: That's what matters at the end of day, you know, us as human beings, whatever we do in life, whatever success we have, it's fine to a certain degree. But what really matters to me, I always had this clear, and that's why I'm not struggling as much in this retirement transition, because I didn't fall in love with me being just a basketball player.

O: Girl Dad is a term that gets thrown around a lot. Nice smile on your face when I say that.

It was Kobe's thing, but I feel like it's probably fair to say that it's also your thing. But I know it goes beyond the literal meaning. It's not just about being a dad with a daughter or dad with daughters. It's also the way that you help and see women in sport. So what is your view on that and helping and enabling women in sport?

PG: Well, we're trying to do it in different ways by investing in and women in sports, by being an advocate, by talking about it. It's about how women and all girls should should have the same chances and opportunities that they boys have. To create more of an equal playing field and if anybody's daughter wants to pursue a certain career in sports or outside of sports, that they can pursue that career and there's not a limitation because they are born female and the world is going in a much better direction.

There's still a lot of work to be done for sure, but as a girl dad and as a human being that's what I want to push for. I'm talking to organisations to find more ways to do that. I'm good friends with Angela Ruggiero, who used to be the chair of IOC Athletes Commission and and she's also a big promoter and I'm an investor also in her company and try to be an advisor as well. We're trying to find ways to continue to promote women in sports and show that it's not just the right thing to do, but It is also the the smart business thing to do. And it's good business. So it's not just trying to do something that is morally right. It makes sense in so many ways.

O: You went to five Olympic Games and won two silver medals and a bronze. Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. What what does what does the Olympic Games mean to you and what impact it had on your life?

PG: It had a huge impact in my life. It definitely means a lot. It's that tournament that's more than a tournament. It's that occasion. You don't want to miss it. When I was a 12 year old in Barcelona, Barcelona hosted the Olympics. It was the first time that the Dream Team got together and played. The pros decided to play in the Olympics because until that point, it was only the the college players who played for for the United States. It made a huge impact in my life. I think it made a huge impact to a generation of players, not just basketball players.

It gave me a vision and gave me a dream that I pursued and that I felt confident that I could accomplish. I didn't know how, but I was like, "okay, I'm just going to try to do this and visualise it" and it kind of happened. But those guys in the Olympics made me such a huge impact in my life. And probably I wouldn't be here if if the Olympics didn't happen.

I've been so fortunate to to be able to compete in five of them, thanks to the quality of my my team-mates and the quality of my team that we always played together. We played with respect, you know, regardless of our of our talent, sometimes a little more individual, some them are more most talented teams and end up winning when we were more favourites. We just had such a great, great unity. We call ourselves a family because we look and we try to live as a family for a month and a half. And that's how we got to qualify and play in the Olympics and play in Olympic finals and win medals and enjoy it because at the end of the day it's about the experience, about the journey. The medals, you know, they're like pieces, things that have a certain material value and other value too.

But it's really what the journey that you have to go through to get there. Then you don't even know where your medals are. You can have them like highlighted or exposed in your house if you're that type of person, mind are in a safe. I don't have them laid out. Because to me, what what really matters is just the whole experience. Those moments with my team-mates, those moments I'm against to my competitors, those moments with the fans.

Someone today just told me the game in 2008 finals in Beijing against USA was probably the best sports moment that they ever lived in. So my pride could not fit in the whole city of Beijing. This is what, 14 years later, and this is what we're talking about. Human stories. The story that it creates and the emotions that it creates. The impact it has on the world in different ways. You're not even aware of it because you're going through it. You try to do your best. You're trying to win. And yes if you do it really well you win a medal and it's fantastic and you're so proud and you kind of fulfil another dream. But it's really the ripple effect that it has on the world.

O: Amazing that the redeem team final was 14 years ago. Wow. And it's still making a What memories do you have from that?

PG: I remember it was a great championship because I think we played them in the group stages. They destroyed us in the group. I think they blew us out by 30 or 40. But that was a good kind of wake up call for us and to say, "okay, we're going to try to we're going to get to the final and we're going to try to beat them and it's not going to be a game like this."

I think they knew that as well, the way that we played and they played. I remember it being a huge fight. Very competitive and very physical throughout the 40 minutes. Back and forth. We never gave up. Obviously, they didn't want to lose and they were they were the redeem team because they had lost in 2000. There was disappointment because they're very talented players and a very powerful country, so again, they had to win.

Even though the original little dream team, I just talked about the value that it has an impact that it had in my life, but those guys were really, really talented individuals. Some of the best in the history as well. So again we gave them a run for their money. We pushed them to have to play their best. And they did. They stepped up. We made great plays down the stretch. Dwyane Wade had a great game. They all played well. But a lot of people think of that game as the best or one of the best basketball games in the history of the game. So that's something to be proud of.