"I know the Bulls organization and the fans had high expectations for our team. I came to Chicago to win and it stings that we weren’t able to live up to our potential.
I take so many positive things away from the entire experience in Chicago. I saw Jimmy Butler transform from a role player the season before I got to the team, into an All-Star in this league — and more importantly, into a leader. I hope to watch him continue to rise — and carry the team with him — for years to come.
I will be forever grateful to the Reinsdorf family, to the entire Bulls organization, to the players, and especially to the fans, for making me feel loved and at home, through good times and bad. Y ou were there for me, and I will carry the memories we made together at the United Center and in the community for the rest of my life."
What really touches me is the part when he talks about his relationship with Nikola Mirotic, who arrived in Chicago at the exact same time he did. It was comforting enough that the two were fellow countrymen. But that Gasol was able to impart the same wisdom bestowed upon him by the late Lorenzen Wright is particularly heartwarming. Mirotic's star began to rise after that with more minutes and better play.
But that's just one way Gasol made such a positive impact during his two-year stint in Chicago. He signed here after the Bulls missed out on Carmelo Anthony. It was a field day for the critics who always like to say the Bulls can never land the cream of the crop in free agency. Before long, most of them kept quiet.
Gasol made an immediate impact that lasted for the duration of his tenure here. While his defense was never the best, he made the most of his ample opportunities in the paint on offense. From there, his effectiveness was as high as it had ever been, resulting in the All-NBA Second Team in 2015 and back-to-back All-Star selections. The first of those selections was particularly special as he was voted to start opposite his brother Marc, the only such occurrence in league history.
Off the court, he was the Bull most active on social media. In both English and Spanish, he posted before every game and after every win, so he became an intriguing follow very quickly. While he posted about other things, that he wasted no time posting messages for his fans made him all the more personable. When I did my NBA Player Tweets blog for my grad school class, I said Gasol would be the player I'd most want to follow me back on Twitter.
Also while in grad school, my classmate and good friend Teresa Garica Alonso did an interview with him while working for Marca (translation here). She went back to Spain shortly before last Christmas, but continued to cover the Bulls until then. I have to think she had a good, trusting relationship with him throughout that gig. That she had that opportunity is absolutely amazing.
So there's a lot we're going to miss about Gasol as he moves onto Texas. He raised his game to as high as it had ever been, thus leaving his mark in Bulls history. He knew how to treat everybody, which is one of the most important things as an athlete and a person. If you can do both, you're going to make a lot of friends and be loved by each one of them.
Even if I've never met him like Teresa did, I feel like I've really gotten to know him through his play and personality. Other Bulls fans surely feel the same way. Accordingly, we should wish him the best going forward. Hopefully before he hangs it up, he can taste that championship glory one last time.
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