When Marc Gasol returns to FedExForum this weekend, to see his No. 33 placed in the arena’s rafters, he will do so having worn that number for the Memphis Grizzlies in 769 career regular-season games. Having scored 11,684 points on rumbling hooks and flat-footed, soft-touch “jumpers.” Having corralled a franchise record 5,942 burly rebounds. Having dished 2,639 assists worth of high-post feeds, two-handed bouncers to cutters and butterfly-flutter outlets. 

And there might have been just a little bit more of each. 

Transactionally speaking, Gasol left the NBA the same way he entered it, via a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Memphis Grizzlies.

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The first one, on Feb. 1, 2008, brought the rights to Gasol – Gasol the Second? Gasol the Younger? – to Memphis as a partial return for his big brother, Pau. It’s probably the most discussed and analyzed transaction in Grizzlies history.

The second, on Sept. 10, 2021, was so quiet it’s perhaps been forgotten. The Grizzlies acquired Marc Gasol from the Lakers, along with cash and a second-round pick, and then waived him, with one year left on his contract, as Gasol returned to finish his basketball career in Spain. 

“I thank the Grizzlies for making it happen,” said Gasol, speaking late last week, shortly after arriving back in Memphis. “I think it worked out for both sides and it kind of ended the way it should, right, as a Grizzly player?”

Not technically. But Gasol donning his Grizzlies’ No. 33 one last time was somewhat closer to happening than has been previously known.

Grizzlies fans had wondered about a true Gasol return, if not after the apparent accounting maneuver trade in 2021, then later on, perhaps after center Steven Adams was injured during the 2022-2023 season.

It turns out, this possibility was at least slightly more than fan fiction.

“We definitely had discussions about my situation and where I was at, but I don’t think I could have really helped the team the way I would want to,” Gasol says now. 

“And that would have frustrated me. Health-wise, you know, the game has sped up so much and obviously you slow down with years and the wear and tear on my body. It just didn’t make sense, unfortunately.”

Gasol says that these cursory discussions happened a couple of times, both before and after he was acquired and waived in 2021. But, in addition to his doubts, he also had other plans, namely to suit up for Basquet Girona, the basketball club he’d founded while still a player for the Grizzlies, and for whom he is team president. 

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“It wasn’t even like a formal thing or that serious. But (the Grizzlies) did, in a very mild way or subtle way, ask ‘Would you ever?’ And I’m like, ‘No,’” Gasol said.

“I had a clear goal of going back and bringing my own team back to the (Spanish) ACB (league). That was something that I really wanted to do before my whole body broke down. And I was able to do that for two years. I played one year in the second division, brought the team up to first division and we were able to stay in the league in my last year. The ACB is probably the second strongest home league besides the NBA, right? So it’s something that was a personal thing for me that I wanted to do before everything was said and done, and we did it.”

Still, Grizzlies fans would have enjoyed seeing Big Spain in Beale Street Blue one last time. 

“I would have too, but it would not have been pretty,” said Gasol, with a laugh. “It would not have made the documentary, let’s put it that way.” 

Back in Memphis, now in better times

The documentary referenced is “Marc Gasol: Memphis Made,” a nearly two-hour film from the Grizzlies’ Mike Blevins and his crew, made in the lead-up to Gasol’s number retirement ceremony on Saturday at FedExForum.

The film debuted for some long-time season ticket holders and Grizzlies staffers at a Memphis theater last week and is now available for free on YouTube.

It tells a different kind of story than “#50ForDaCity,” the documentary made for Zach Randolph’s number retirement two years ago. 

That one was a celebration of all things “Z-Bo.” This one is both fuller and thornier, fitting the unique place Gasol has in Grizzlies lore, as the teenage fan who became a player and is now a fan again. One whose personal relationship with the franchise, as the younger brother of original Memphis Grizzly Pau Gasol, begins essentially as the franchise arrived in Memphis. 

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This week is Marc Gasol’s first time in Memphis since he made an appearance on Randolph’s night two years ago. 

Unlike Randolph, Gasol never got a proper sendoff as a player. 

The two weeks in 2019 between when Gasol and teammate Mike Conley were informed they might be traded and when Gasol actually was dealt made for an emotional journey, with an abrupt, unsatisfying finale.

Gasol did not play in his last appearance at FedExForum as a member of the Grizzlies, when the team faced the Minnesota Timberwolves. Two days later, Gasol was traded to the Toronto Raptors. 

Gasol was pulled from the lineup ahead of the game, in anticipation of the trade. He appeared on the Grizzlies’ bench during the first quarter, got a big ovation and then left the arena at halftime. 

“Everything starts to move fast,” Gasol said. “When they told me I wasn’t gonna play, I’m like, ‘This is it, right?’

“That’s one of the tells when they tell you not to play. But one more time, I wanted to be on that bench and be out there. But then I didn’t want to make it about me. So I left.”

Gasol’s last game in a Grizzlies uniform came on the road a couple of nights earlier, scoring 24 points in a win at New York. 

In the documentary, Jaren Jackson Jr., who was then a 19-year-old rookie, recounts watching Gasol and Conley laugh and joke before a game at Charlotte, on the same road trip, in a manner that previously would have been out of character. They were, Jackson surmises, reminiscing, like old men remembering the good old days.

Gasol’s last home game in a Grizzlies uniform came right before that road trip, on Jan. 28, a loss to Denver. 

But what felt, then and even more now, like a kind of grand finale actually came a couple of days before that, more than a week before Gasol was finally traded.

That was Jan. 26, in a win over the Indiana Pacers, Gasol’s final home victory as a Grizzly.

This was the game in which Gasol, after a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, lifted Conley with a bear hug, and when he kissed Conley’s cheek in a postgame sideline interview.

If there was love in the air that night, there was also some defiance and some bitterness.

After a prior 3-pointer in the game’s closing stretch, Gasol let out a howl of celebration, and reached both hands up to the collar of his jersey for a moment before letting go.

Later, in the locker room, I mentioned to Gasol that I’d noticed this and asked him, “Were you going to pop it or rip it?”

“I was going to pop it,” he said, meaning to display the jersey proudly. “I thought it said ‘Memphis,’ but when I looked down it said ‘Grizzlies.’ I had thought we were wearing the white uniforms with ‘Memphis’ on the front and I wanted to pop it. But when I saw ‘Grizzlies’ … .” 

Then he sort of raised his eyebrows in a shrug and headed out.

That, in the heat of the moment, Gasol drew an emotional line between “Memphis” and “Grizzlies” was telling, an indication of his displeasure with the situation and reckoning with where it was headed.

Full acceptance only came later, as Gasol acknowledges in the documentary.

Perhaps it’s facile, but there was something of the stages of grief in Gasol’s exit.

“It’s true,” said Gasol. “A lot of emotions were being dealt with and you try to find like, OK, what can I do to change that idea of getting traded? Like, how can I adapt? What can I do to help this process? Because when asked, ‘Do you guys wanna get traded?’ me and Mike, we both said no. We both said no, we want to figure this out. We want to be part of the solution. Whatever we need to do, we’ll do.

“You’re in denial. You’re like, OK, well, this might not be happening. And then you try to fight it, like, OK, maybe if I played really well they won’t trade me, but then you’re bringing your value up. The way I look at it now is completely different than when I went through it. It needed to happen. For the Grizzlies to get better, they needed to move on. And it worked out great for everyone, right? It’s completely different now than when I was going through it. Because I felt so responsible. I wanted to fix it any way I could.”

When Gasol landed in Toronto that season, the team had already visited Memphis. 

A potential return to Memphis the following season got sidetracked by COVID-19, with the Raptors and Grizzlies facing off in the NBA’s contained “bubble” setup in Orlando.

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When Gasol finally returned to FedExForum in another uniform, it was for the Los Angeles Lakers, another year later. And to a mostly empty arena.

When Tony Allen had returned, with the New Orleans Pelicans in 2017, it was to fans waving a Growl Towel proclaiming “Grit Grind Forever.”

During Randolph’s return game, as a member of the Sacramento Kings in 2018, he walked the arena pregame to swarms of affection.

Gasol’s return came during COVID-era restrictions, with fewer than 100 fans in attendance. 

This was a small thing among big things that the pandemic took away. You might be surprised, or you might not, to learn that Gasol does not regret returning to barren stands.

“Actually, I’m happy that it happened that way,” said Gasol. “Obviously I’m not happy for COVID, but I’m happy that I never had to play against the Memphis crowd. I don’t think my head would have been in the right place.

“It was already weird enough playing the Grizzlies, but we did it in the bubble, against a whole new group. Jaren was still there and Dillon (Brooks), but the guys that were brought up with me were not there anymore. But the connection with the crowd? It would have been too much for me to play against. I play with my emotions a lot and I’m happy that they were not in the stands watching that game.” 

Grit & Grind Forever

That Gasol keeps his years with the Grizzlies, and his longer years just in Memphis, close to his heart is no surprise.

After he won a title with the Raptors, only months after leaving Memphis, he chose the Grizzlies’ rallying cry and team ethos “Grit&Grind” as the words to be inscribed inside his championship ring.

This was to be a private message, one made to himself. But an enterprising fan zoomed in on video footage from a documentary about the making of the Raptors’ rings.

The internet always finds out.

At the time, I reached out to Gasol to confirm the story. He responded with surprise that anyone would know.

“I didn’t know how you guys found out because the ring never leaves the house,” he says now. “It’s in a safe and it’s just there. Every time I take it out, I lose it. So I didn’t know how that was possible.”

At the time, Gasol hadn’t shared that he’d commemorated the Grit & Grind era in his ring, giving it some purchase on the title he and Conley and Randolph and Allen never won together. He didn’t even tell Conley.

“No, no, no. I didn’t tell anybody,” said Gasol.

But he’s OK, now, with the story being known.

“I don’t mind it. I was just surprised that it made it out. But it’s no secret. It’s not like I wrote my password to my email in it,” Gasol said.

“It’s something that meant, that means, a lot to me and that helped me accomplish and get to that. Without the Grit and Grind era, I don’t become the player that I became and I’m not able to do the things that I was able to do with Toronto to win the ring. It became a huge part of who I was as a person and as a player.”

If Gasol doesn’t usually wear “Grit & Grind” on his finger – it’s in the safe; he might lose it – as a basketball retiree, he’s back to where he was as a 16-year-old posted up at the Pyramid. 

He’s a Grizzlies fan. 

Gasol follows Grizzlies games from Spain. He often wears Morant’s Ja1 shoes when going to watch his Girona team play. 

“Yeah, I follow the team and the guys and how they’re doing, and also a little bit of the fan base,” Gasol said. 

“I still get the games and news and everything. It’s been a long time that I’ve been involved with the Grizzlies, since 2001. It’s been something that’s been around us and we’re forever tied to the city. It’s as simple as that. I don’t think there’s any secret to it. I’m sure Mike Conley, even though he’s playing for the Timberwolves now, still follows the Grizzlies. Like, I’m sure he does.”

Like most fans, Gasol’s suffered a down year but is guardedly excited about what might be on the horizon.

“You look at the team a lot differently than it used to be. It’s a lot more fun to watch,” he said. “Having a superstar like Ja and then stars like Jaren and Desmond Bane. You understand what the feeling can be.

“Hopefully Marcus Smart works out well and the team gets healthy at the right time so they can do great things on the court. But obviously that’s something that is not always controllable. They can only control what they can control.”

Gasol was not shy about offering his opinions as a Grizzlies player. He might be a fan now, but he’s got more access and standing than most other fans. 

Is he ever tempted to pick up the phone and dispense some advice?

“Oh no. No, no. No. I think they have a tough enough job,” Gasol said.

Gasol is back home this week.

Beyond his 11 great years as a Grizzlies player, the teammates and the fans and the nights at FedExForum, what does he miss most? What does he most associate with Memphis?

“The people,” he said. “The friends that I made through those years. Really good, trustworthy, honest friends that I was able to make during those times. Those friendships are gonna stand forever. The people from Memphis, that’s what I think of the most.”