SAN ANTONIO — Veteran forward/center Pau Gasol, who reached a buyout agreement on his contract with the Spurs earlier this week, was praised by coach Gregg Popovich before Saturday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the AT&T Center.
Gasol, 38, played sparingly this season after falling out of the frontcourt rotation. Being relegated to the bench was tough on the four-time All-NBA pick, but from all accounts, he handled the situation with his characteristic aplomb.
Gasol is expected to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks, who are in their first season under coach Mike Budenholzer, a former Spurs assistant coach.
“Pau is a class act,” Popovich said. “He wants to play, and the way we’re constituted and what are our plan is, he wasn’t getting those minutes. We tried to work something out and it happened. R.C. (Buford, Spurs general manager) did a good job and he’ll (Gasol) will do great work in Milwaukee with Bud.”
Milwaukee (48-14) leads the Eastern Conference and has the best record in the NBA. The Spurs host the Bucks on Sunday, March 10.
Gasol, from Spain, is in his 19th NBA season.
“He’s a great teammate,” Popovich said. “Obviously, intelligent guy, really classy guy. Not playing was really difficult for him, but he was really helpful to everybody on a consistent basis. He was wonderful.”
A two-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, Gasol signed with San Antonio as an unrestricted free agent in July 2016. He played in 168 games with the Spurs, averaging 10 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 22.4 minutes.
But Gasol played in only 27 games this season, averaging 4.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 12.2 minutes – all career lows. He logged only 39 minutes in the entire month of February. Gasol missed 26 games earlier this season with a stress fracture in his left foot.
Gasol hadn’t played since finishing with five rebounds and one assist in the Spurs’ 130-118 road loss to the New York Knicks on Feb. 24.
Gasol has started 1,150 of the 1,223 NBA games in which he’s played. He has averaged 17.1 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.59 blocks in 33.5 minutes.
Considered a lock for induction in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Gasol has played for the Spanish Senior National Team since 2001. He appeared in the last four Summer Olympic Games (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016).
Gasol is one of four players in NBA history to record more than 20,000 points, 11,000 rebounds, 3,500 assists and 1,500 blocks in his career. The other three: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.