Marc Gasol not only looks sort of like a potato, but he was also playing like one to start the season. He endured some rough shooting nights and often would only find solace in eating entire boxes of Bagel Bites, but all the hardship has paid off now that he has finally amassed enough stats to assemble his first career triple-double.
That’s a relief because I (perhaps prematurely) had already begun to mourn the end of Gasol’s prime. He has always been kind of doughy and squishy looking, and I figured that the extra weight on his bones had ruined him at age thirty. I even went so far as to make a mini gravestone out of construction paper that said “RIP Marc Gasol” to place in my NBA career graveyard. This game was a wake-up call: if a player was never much of a jumper to begin with, he’ll probably play until he’s 38, and you should hold off on making the grave marker until he’s stated his intentions to for sure retire.
Vince Carter’s gravestone I think was justified though.