When at the end of the Lakers win over the Clippers last week Pau Gasol reached out and rubbed Chris Paul’s head and Paul took offense, he turns at one point to Kobe and says, “he’s soft.”
Gasol has been hearing the soft thing since before he was drafted. From coaches, players (Kendrick Perkins, Amare Stoudemire), particularly Lakers fans. Stood up to Dwight Howard in the finals one year (Andrew Bynum was out) and fans are calling Gasol soft before training camp ends the next year. Heck, Pau probably hears it from his brother.
What does he say to all that? He doesn’t care, other guys are just talking He’s got rings. Other players are jealous.
Here is the quote, from 790 The Ticket in Miami with Dan Le Batard (via Sports Radio Interviews).“Sometimes I believe it is guys just talking for the heck of talking. They got nothing better to say and other times I believe there is a little bit of jealousy at times, but I can’t really control what other people say. I can control what I do and what I have been doing throughout my career, which has been very successful and help my team beat better teams. That is as much as I can control and that’s what I focus 100% on, so the rest of the stuff is a couple of guys talking here or there. It does not affect me or interfere with my life.”
“Again it is something that it is brought up after three consecutive finals and two championships. Those thoughts kind of went away with the two championships, but again I play.”I think there is a difference between being soft and having a finesse game. I don’t expect all my big men to play like Dwight Howard. Gasol is a finesse player, and he’s got better touch and moves around the post than any other big in the league. But he has some fight in him. He may not be demonstrative, but he’s got fight. Go back and watch those finals. He’s not soft. And a lot of guys are jealous.