Marc Gasol’s remarkable career as a remarkable person

Selflessness

In 2014, Marc and his brother established the Gasol Foundation which operates both in the US and Spain with the following mission statement:

"Gasol Foundation works to reduce childhood obesity rates through the promotion of sports and physical activity, healthy eating, sleep quality, and the emotional well-being of children, adolescents and their families in the United States and Spain."

As admirable as it is to head up a foundation for a good cause, Gasol’s selfless acts haven’t been limited to the safe spaces within the walls of the foundation. Gasol spent 10 days in the summer of 2018 with Open Arms, a non-profit organization based in Barcelona, Spain. Open Arms provides rescue to migrants in the Mediterranean who are fleeing unthinkable conditions in Africa and Turkey and are attempting to get to Europe.

Marc Gasol is such an altruistic person, that initially, he wasn’t even going to publicize that he had decided to crew one of Open Arms’ boats. But once he’d had first-hand experience with what was going on, he decided that he needed to use his celebrity to bring attention to the horrors these people are facing.

It can be all too easy to think of these people fleeing for their lives as less than, unworthy of safety, care, or support. But what if it were you? What if something happened tomorrow that meant that the best option for you and your family would be to pick up and leave your entire lives behind? You now have to make a dangerous journey with no guarantee that you won’t be turned back when you arrive at your planned destination. And still, running into that uncertain future is better than the alternative.

What if it was you?

Gasol thought about that when he was part of the rescue of a Cameroonian woman named Josefa who had been in the water for 48 hours at the time the rescue boat found her. Along with Josefa, the bodies of two other people were recovered. One of the bodies was that of a toddler.

"I will never forget that child. I am a father. I have children. And I imagine the pain of a father who is forced to face a journey like this where one risks everything, one risks one’s own life, to reach a country where one can live in peace and with dignity. At some point, the only difference between those people and ourselves is just where we were born. There’s no other difference than that. We can’t think of or treat anybody differently just because they were on the wrong side of a border."

This wasn’t just a matter of some rich guy… some famous athlete with some free time on his hands putting himself in a boat to be present, to simply look like he cared about something. And he certainly wasn’t just along for the ride. According to Sportsnet when Gasol asked Open Arms founder Oscar Camps if he could volunteer:

"Camps said yes — they could always use help — but warned Gasol that he’d have to go through training along with standard psychological testing to ensure he’d be able to deal with the shock of what he was about to see. Gasol readily agreed."

This wasn’t about a photo op for Gasol. What little press Gasol did after the fact wasn’t about saying, “Hey, look at this good thing that I did. Where’s my parade?”  No, instead he, “didn’t want to make it a thing.”

Gasol explained his change of heart by saying:

"When we saw the catastrophic situation we encountered, I thought, ‘This story must be told.’ I have a chance to use who I am, and use it for a reason I truly believe in. That’s the humane thing to do."

Gasol’s experiences with the Open Arms crew during those 10 days informed his play when he returned to the court as well.

"“To me it felt so right the way they interacted as a team. It taught me so much for what you do here,” he says, pointing out onto the court, “although obviously on a very different scale. But it teaches, first and foremost, to always look out for your guys. You put yourself second.”"

After landing in Toronto at the trade deadline last season, Gasol’s unselfishness was immediately apparent. I’d even go so far as to say there were times when I wished he’d been just a little more selfish in taking his shot.

In any case, Marc Gasol is a great example of how keeping your head down and focusing on your teammates first can land you at the very top of the basketball world, both in the NBA and internationally. But even more so, Gasol is an incredible example of seeing a situation, realizing that you can have a positive impact and not shying away from doing so.

And in the way that neither his NBA Championship nor his FIBA World Cup gold medal is about him as an individual neither is the way he sees his responsibility toward those less fortunate than himself making him someone worth imitating both on and off the court.