{"id":476743,"date":"2026-01-01T15:51:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=476743"},"modified":"2026-01-01T15:51:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:51:58","slug":"pau-gasol-reveals-he-tried-to-recruit-andres-nocioni-to-memphis-before-bulls-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/pau-gasol-reveals-he-tried-to-recruit-andres-nocioni-to-memphis-before-bulls-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pau Gasol Reveals He Tried to Recruit Andr\u00e9s Nocioni to Memphis Before Bulls Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"282\" data-end=\"599\">NBA legend <strong data-start=\"293\" data-end=\"334\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Pau Gasol<\/span><\/span><\/strong> has shared an interesting behind-the-scenes story from his playing days, revealing that he personally tried to recruit <strong data-start=\"454\" data-end=\"495\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Andr\u00e9s Nocioni<\/span><\/span><\/strong> before the Argentine forward signed with the <strong data-start=\"541\" data-end=\"582\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Chicago Bulls<\/span><\/span><\/strong> as a free agent.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"601\" data-end=\"791\">Gasol explained that the <strong data-start=\"626\" data-end=\"667\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Memphis Grizzlies<\/span><\/span><\/strong> had both the interest and the financial flexibility to bring Nocioni to the franchise, prompting him to reach out directly.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"793\" data-end=\"947\">\u201cI called Chapu because we also had that option and that level of contract to bring him to Memphis,\u201d Gasol said. \u201cOf course, he was surprised by my call.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"949\" data-end=\"1124\">According to Gasol, Nocioni initially believed there was tension between them due to their intense international matchups, particularly in clashes between Spain and Argentina.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1126\" data-end=\"1395\">\u201cHe told me, \u2018I thought you didn\u2019t like me, because whenever we played against Argentina, it was always very competitive,\u2019\u201d Gasol recalled. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018No, I compete against you, against whoever. We\u2019ve had many tough battles, but I\u2019d love to have you as a teammate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1397\" data-end=\"1574\">Gasol emphasized his admiration for Nocioni\u2019s style of play, competitiveness, and impact on the floor, describing him as someone who would have been a perfect fit alongside him.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1576\" data-end=\"1707\">Despite the personal pitch, Nocioni ultimately chose Chicago, leaving Gasol to reflect humorously on the failed recruitment effort.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1709\" data-end=\"1818\">\u201cHe ended up signing with the Bulls, so the call didn\u2019t work out,\u201d Gasol said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t convincing enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gasol explained that the Memphis Grizzlies had both the interest and the financial flexibility to bring Nocioni to the franchise, prompting him to reach out directly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":295292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[175],"typology":[183],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-476743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","rumors-nba-rumors","typology-rumors"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/09\/phpimmg518889.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476743"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=476743"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=476743"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=476743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}