Kobe Bryant: 曾經把08年奧運會金牌掛在Pau Gasol的儲物櫃中 以此來激勵他 精選

湖人在2009和2010年連續贏下NBA總冠軍，Pau Gasol和Kobe Bryant的默契愈發成熟是他們可以拿下那兩個冠軍的主因。今日Kobe Bryant接受訪問時透露了當年的一段小插曲，原來他曾經對Pau Gasol使用過激將法。
“2008年奧運會金牌是我最喜歡的冠軍之一，但是每次我講起這個獎牌的時候，Pau總是很生氣，”

Kobe回憶道，“08年總決賽我們輸給了塞爾特人，那是一輪對抗非常激烈的系列賽，他們徹底擊敗了我們。之後我隨著美國出戰奧運會。決賽我們對上了西班牙並撃敗了他們，拿下了金牌。

奧運會結束我們開始了訓練營，Pau第一天就來了，我把我的金牌掛在了他的更衣室儲物櫃中。Pau很愛自己的祖國，這對他而言意味著一切，我的舉動讓他氣瘋了，他對我說'你是個混蛋'，我回答說'聽著，你輸給了塞爾特人，又輸掉了奧運會決賽中，不要在決賽中連輸三次了。我們一起贏下它吧'。Pau在新賽季打出了現象級的表現，他提升了身體對抗，這是我們需要他做的，他也幫助我們贏下了兩連冠。”

引用"One of my favorite ones, Pau hates it every time I tell this story," Bryant recalls. "He hates it. We lost to the Celtics in '08 and it was a physical series. I mean they beat the crap out of us. We go into the Olympic year, that year, we wind up playing Spain for the gold-medal match and we beat them. So now we come back to start training camp and Pau shows up first day of training camp, I have my gold medal hanging in his locker.
"The one thing he truly, truly love is his country. That is like everything to him. So it just drove him crazy. He said 'You're an ass---!' I said, 'Listen Pau, you lost to the Celtics, you lost to us in the gold-medal match, let's not make this three in a row this year. Let's win this thing.' That was it for him.
"Pau was a phenomenon to begin with. For him, it was just stepping up a level of physicality, that we needed him to get to, which he did and we went on to win back-to-back championships."

2008/2009賽季，Pau Gasol出戰了81場比賽，場均上場37.0分鐘，交出了18.9分、9.6籃板、3.5助攻的數據。

(source: https://247sports.com/nba/los-angeles-lakers/Article/kobe-bryant-pau-gasol-gold-medal-usa-spain-lakers-video-121759006/)