Pau Gasol 12th player in Lakers history to have jersey retired

LOS ANGELES — Pau Gasol, the perfect complementary player to Kobe Bryant, was paid the best compliment possible by his former team: The Los Angeles Lakers retired his jersey.

«I mean life goes by pretty fast, right? In the blink of an eye, you can be a kid playing basketball in your school with your buddies, then all of a sudden, you're realizing your dream,» Gasol said before Lakers hosted the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. «But tonight, it really exceeds any dream or expectation that I've had because it means so much. And obviously with Kobe up there, it just adds something meaningful and powerful, and sad and happy, and painful and joyful.

»It's a lot of things."

It was a full-circle type of night for Gasol, who was honored by the Lakers on a night they were playing the team that traded him to L.A. His younger brother Marc, who was part of the trade going the opposite direction from L.A. to Memphis, was in attendance to boot.

A black veil was lowered during a halftime ceremony, revealing Gasol's No. 16 — placed in the rafters directly beside Bryant's Nos. 8 and 24.

Gasol addressed the crowd at center court during the break between the second and third quarters, flanked by his parents, brothers, wife and children as well as Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, and Vanessa Bryant, making her first public appearance at Crypto.com Arena since her late husband's memorial service.

«I miss him a lot,» Gasol said when asked about Bryant. «There's nothing I can do about it but to love his family. That's how I deal with it.»

The Lakers made it to three straight NBA Finals as soon Gasol arrived in February 2008, winning back-to-back championships in 2009 over