NBA

Why Pau Gasol Might Secretly Hate Chris Paul

It’s easy to forget now after all the Lob City talk, but before Chris Paul was traded to the Clippers, he was briefly traded to the Lakers. One of the Lakers who’d have been sent packing: Pau Gasol. One wouldn’t expect Gasol to be thrilled about that, and according to Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski, he wasn’t. Wojnarowski also speculated that perhaps that (along with Paul dropping the dreaded “soft” bomb on Gasol) was what led to last night’s head-touching/near-fight antics:

No one had grown more weary of hearing Chris Paul’s name this season, and now no one had grown more weary of listening to Chris Paul on Wednesday night…Gasol hasn’t forgotten the Lakers traded him for Paul, and he hasn’t forgotten most fans – and maybe most coaches and teammates, too – wish the NBA hadn’t voided the deal.

The smart money says Wojnarowski’s on to something. Imagine you’re Pau Gasol. You’ve won two titles with the Lakers as the team’s second-best player. You’ve been considered one of the NBA’s top big men for years. You’ve put in a decade in the league, been productive every single year – and now, in addition to constantly facing allegations that you’re “soft” pretty much because you’re from Spain, not only are you traded, you’re an afterthought in the deal? You might be tired of hearing about Chris Paul, too.

But there’s a flipside, too: Paul’s reaction to Gasol’s head-pat. Gasol said he didn’t mean to belittle Paul. Paul disagreed and thought it was patronizing that a guy a foot taller than he is was patting his head “like I’m one of your kids.” Paul’s six feet tall. For a long time now, he’s almost always been the shortest player on the floor whenever he’s played. He’s also usually been the best player, which goes a long way toward making up for that, but still, it’s hard to blame Paul for being extra sensitive to feeling like he’s been looked down on. And it especially makes sense when Kobe says this:

“Chris doesn’t like that stuff. He’s got that little-man complex. I do that to his head all the time. Man, he just hates it.”

Gee, we wonder why.