Pau Gasol retired Tuesday after 18 NBA seasons that included two league titles.
Gasol made the announcement, which was expected, on Tuesday in his native Spain.
The 7-foot-1 Gasol, now 41, was the No. 3 overall selection of the 2001 NBA Draft.
The six-time All-Star had been out of the NBA since March 2019, when he underwent surgery for a stress fracture in his left foot. He signed with the Portland Trail Blazers as a free agent the following offseason but never played for the team, instead opting to continue to rehabilitate the injury.
Gasol played the remainder of the 2020-21 Liga ACB season with Barcelona while preparing to play for Spain at the Tokyo Olympics.
“It’s a difficult decision after so many years,” Gasol said at the news conference, “but it’s a decision that I really thought over.”
In 1998, Gasol was a teenager when he joined Barcelona before jumping to the NBA, where he played for the Memphis Grizzlies (2001-08), Los Angeles Lakers (2008-14), Chicago Bulls (2014-16), San Antonio Spurs (2016-19) and Milwaukee Bucks (2019).
In 1,226 career NBA games, he averaged 17.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
Gasol is one of just four NBA players to record more than 20,000 points, 11,000 rebounds, 3,500 assists and 1,500 blocks in a career, joining Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and 2020 Hall of Fame inductees Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
Gasol won two Olympic silver medals and one bronze with Spain. The U.S. defeated Spain 95-81 in the quarterfinal round in Tokyo. In four games, he averaged 6.5 points in 12.9 minutes per game.
–Field Level Media
