ORLANDO, Florida, (Reuters) – The Los Angeles Lakers used last year’s NBA Finals defeat to the Boston Celtics as the motivating factor to become a title-winning team, Spanish forward Pau Gasol said on Sunday.
Boston not only beat the Lakers in six games, the series finale was a humbling 131-92 wipeout.
“Last year’s experience, it made us tougher, it made us grow as a team, and we all were hurt by it,” Gasol said after the Lakers beat the Orlando Magic 99-86 to win the championship in five games. “We were very disappointed that we lost against Boston. They showed that they were more ready than we were at the time. “But it really made us want it even more than we did last year, and it got us to this point.”
Finals MVP Kobe Bryant may be grabbing a majority of the headlines but Gasol’s inside play was key to the title and the Spaniard scored 14 points and a team-leading 15 rebounds in the final game of the series.
SPECIAL JOURNEY
Gasol was jubilant after winning his first NBA crown. “The journey is what makes it so special and so beautiful,” he said. “I had to work really hard throughout my career and started off as a kid in Spain just loving to play basketball, not trying to really become a professional.
“But I really started to be really good and I was very ambitious and competitive. So I started becoming a really, really good player.”
Gasol said it was difficult playing for the lowly Memphis Grizzlies during the first chapter of his NBA career but then he got the phonecall that changed his life. “The adjustment, and six-and-a-half years in Memphis were tough as a professional, also personally, because I don’t take losing very lightly.
