By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Although Pau Gasol becomes 38 years old next summer and has played with the Spanish national team since 2001, he has no intention of retiring any soon.
In fact, the mighty Spaniard says that he’ll be playing with the “Rojas” for as long as possible.
“It’s always a big pride to represent your country. It’s a special feeling, so as long as I can do it, I’m doing it,” Gasol said for FIBA.
“It’s been an incredible journey for me that I am trying to prolong as long as I can because it’s fun. It’s a privilege to represent your country and have fun in the process and compete for medals and win championships,” he added.
Gasol has celebrated numerous team and individual distinctions at an international level and thinks that the setbacks of the lost finals in the EuroBasket 2003 and 2007 tournaments have worked to his team’s favor.
“We’ve been really fortunate as a team to have accomplished as much as we have. Defeats have led us to work harder to get to the moments of success. We lost in 2003 the final. We lost in 2007 at home. That really hurt but at the same time, it motivated us to go out and win three out of the next four European Championships. And this incredible experience to go through such a team unity that I think we have shown it has been so critical through every tournament.”