Marc Gasol can hardly wait for one of the NBA All-Star game’s most mundane moments.
“I’m just really excited for the jump ball,” he said.
That is because it is to be against his big brother.
Photo: AFP
Teammates for Spain, once traded for each other and sharing a lifetime love of basketball that developed in their grandmother’s backyard, Marc and Pau Gasol are set to make history as the first brothers to start in the All-Star game on Sunday.
“That jump ball is going to symbolize a lot of things, different ways to do things with the same kind of goal, and what we stand for as players and as men, so that jump ball is going to be unique,” Marc said. “It’s hard to put into words what that jump ball is going to mean.”
Not for those who know the brothers best.
“When you’re close to somebody like I am with those two guys, you feel really special,” said New York Knicks guard Jose Calderon, a longtime teammate of the Gasols with Spain.
“We’ve been working together and playing together for so many years, so we’re like brothers, like family. It’s really great for Spanish basketball, for Spain, even for the NBA,” he said. “You’ve got two brothers starting for two different conferences. I don’t know if that is going to happen again in basketball
Pau, 34, is in his first season with the Chicago Bulls and was elected to start for the Eastern Conference. Marc, who has followed Pau as Memphis’ man in the middle, was voted by fans to start for the West.
It is the first time two brothers have been named to start an All-Star game. They are the first siblings to play in the same game since Tom and Dick Van Arsdale in 1970 and 1971.
“It’s a beautiful thing. We are a lucky family,” Pau said during a conference call with his brother.
It is to be the fifth All-Star appearance for Pau, who was a star from nearly the minute he came to the NBA. He was the 2002 Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player of the 2006 world basketball championship, and he won two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers after they acquired him from Memphis during the 2007-2008 season.
Success for 30-year-old Marc, whose draft rights were traded from the Lakers to the Grizzlies in the deal, was slower and a little more unexpected — except to Pau.
“I’m just happy to see him do so well and also with his team, with the Grizzlies, a franchise that has also been a big part of my career,” Pau said. “Just overall, a lot of pride, a lot of joy to see your brother do so well, and I know he’s going to continue to do well.”
Time together is rare during the season — especially now that they are in different conferences. So they will enjoy these days in New York, along with parents, wives, kids and other supporters.
Marc should have plenty of them inside Madison Square Garden. A free agent this summer, who could draw interest from the Knicks, he laughed off the idea that he might receive some of the loudest cheers on Sunday.
“There’s going to be many more popular guys than me in that arena, but I don’t know how it’s going to go,” he said. “It’s going to be one very unique night and I can’t wait to enjoy it.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with