UnderdogMindset

Marc Gasol's Weight Loss Journey

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Marc Gasol
Posted: Aug 7, 2023
Basketball Doubters Weight Loss

As the younger brother of Pau Gasol by five years, Marc Gasol was always compared to Pau. Marc was a few inches shorter and did not excite the NBA scouts like his older brother due to being overweight, not as offensively gifted, and not coming over to the United States to work out for teams before the draft. Pau was drafted third overall, while Marc went 48th to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Before even playing in a game in the NBA, the Lakers traded Marc away to the Memphis Grizzlies in a trade for his brother, Pau. Many around the NBA panned the trade at the time, with many complaining about the Grizzlies giving away a star to the Lakers without getting much in return. Memphis considered Marc a pivotal part of the trade, but many critics saw him as a second-rounder throw-in piece.

When Marc first played for the Grizzlies, he was in much better shape than expected; his nickname in high school was the "Big Burrito," and he might have topped 350 pounds. Marc supposedly lost over eighty pounds since high school. He lost weight by improving his diet. Marc quickly proved the naysayers wrong after averaging 11.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in his first season. He would continue to diet and get in better shape as his career continued. In his third season, he would accomplish something for the Grizzlies his older brother never did, which was to help the team win a playoff series.

He would become an All-Star the next season and win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in his fifth season. In 2014-15, Marc became the center on the All-NBA First Team, making him the lowest-drafted player ever to do so. By losing weight, Marc emerged from under his brother's shadow and became a dominant defensive force in the NBA.

350 lb -> 270 lb
80 lbs
2003 - 2013
120 months
Total calorie deficit
280,000

Quotes

I come out of my room and this huge guy comes out, I mean, he was massive, tall. He must have been 350 (pounds) or something crazy. They said, 'Yeah, that's Pau's brother.' I never thought he would develop into that kind of (star) player.

Dirk Nowitzki

When we drafted him, he was still overweight and, at best, was a diamond in the rough. At very best.

Mitch Kupchak

My reaction was the same as everybody else's, Like, what is Memphis doing?

Shane Battier

What they did in Memphis is beyond comprehension, There should be a trade committee that can scratch all trades that make no sense. I just wish I had been on a trade committee that oversees NBA trades. I'd like to elect myself to that committee. I would have voted no to the L.A. trade.

Gregg Popovich
References

  • Worth a shot: The zany story of Marc Gasol’s draft, trade and reunion with the Lakers

    It is a well-known footnote of NBA history that before Marc Gasol became a three-time All-Star, first-team All-NBA center, Defensive Player of the Year and NBA champion with the Toronto Raptors that he was first drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, and then, before ever playing a game for them, traded to Memphis for his All-Star brother, Pau.

  • Q&A: Marc Gasol on his career and weird state of the Grizzlies

    Even hard-core fans didn't know much about Marc Gasol when his name popped up as part of what looked like a laughably lopsided trade in which the Lakers acquired his superstar older brother. Marc Gasol was just the pudgy teenage tagalong who went back to Spain for professional ball, and fell off the map.

  • Memphis' Main Man: How Big Macs, Blues City Made Marc Gasol NBA's Top Center

    "A below-average athlete by NBA standards, lacking quickness and leaping ability," DraftExpress declared in February 2007, calling him "just a good player." The site projected Gasol as a low second-rounder, with the potential to be the next Mehmet Okur (his best-case scenario) or the next Marc Jackson (the worst case).

  • Grizzlies' Marc Gasol transformed body to become dominant center, all-star

    Those close to him estimate he has lost as much as 80 pounds since his days at Lausanne, and the result is the best season of his NBA career: 19.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists per game. But that doesn’t stop him from talking about fat.

  • Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol is no longer an afterthought

    He was the younger brother, a throw-in from the Pau Gasol trade, his name often appearing at the end of sentences describing what the Memphis Grizzlies received in exchange for their best player.

  • Gasol trade sparks war of words

    To acquire Gasol, the Lakers parted with forward-center Kwame Brown, rookie point guard Javaris Crittenton, the rights to Pau's younger brother, Marc Gasol, and first-round picks in 2008 and 2010. The deal gives the Grizzlies salary-cap relief -- Brown is making $9.1 million in the last year of his deal while Pau Gasol is owed $49 million over the next three years -- but little in the way of established NBA talent.