The Gasol Brothers Forced to Do Battle

Warning: What follows is not hyper-serious analysis of tonight’s Lakers/Grizz meeting, which probably doesn’t deserve it, anyway.↵
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↵Here’s one we seem to have forgotten: Pau and Marc Gasol were effectively traded for each other. Now, both are quality NBA players, though Pau’s obviously the prize. Yet anyone who has watched Marc play loves him just the way he is, and hardly expects him to hold down the middle for Memphis without his fair share of zaniness. That’s what makes the Other Gasol Brother more than just Pau’s bro: The two could not be more different as players.↵
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With that backstory, how could you not want to take in the first-ever meeting between the two siblings? Certainly, The Press-Enterprise is not scrimping when it comes to fueling the hype, or at least helping script the storyline of two brothers, two ways of being, only one victor:↵↵⇥The more gregarious brother is Marc, who loves video games, answers to such nicknames as “Tanketa” and “The Big Burrito,” and has watched almost every episode of “Friends” in syndication. The more reserved brother is Pau, who spent a year in medical school, plays Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Swans” on the piano and appreciates going to the symphony as much as he does a Jay-Z concert.↵↵Oh, and my personal favorite:↵↵⇥There was the night growing up in the Barcelona suburbs when a hotly contested game of Parcheesi ended with the board overturned on the floor. Or all the times Marc would storm off and refuse to speak to Pau for hours after his older brother humbled him in ping-pong.↵↵I fully expect the Lakers to hobble the Grizzlies. And I don’t think Marc has a chip on his shoulder for getting dumped by Los Angeles when no one barely knew his name. But with all eyes on these two fascinating brothers, you can expect all of Spain, and anyone snowed in looking for a good basketball sideshow, to hope we get to witness our own little bit of Gasol family parcheesi.↵