CHICAGO -- Initially snubbed as fans voted for younger, more athletic players for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game, Pau Gasol eventually made the 65th mid-season classic as a replacement for fellow Chicago Bull Jimmy Butler who was sidelined by a knee injury.
And when he got to the big game on Sunday night at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada, the versatile 35-year old Spaniard acquitted himself well, scoring nine points and seven rebounds in 15 minutes of play.
Gasol's points production was more than his Eastern Conference teammates Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat (8 points), Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks (7 points) and Paul Millsap also of the Hawks (2 points).
The 7-foot, 250-pound Gasol was disappointed when he was narrowly voted out of this year?s All-Star Game, which was highlighted by the last appearance of his former teammate, Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, who will retire at the end of this season.
A 14-year NBA veteran, Gasol missed the All-Star fan voting by a mere few hundred votes.
Before signing with the Bulls in 2014, Gasol played with Kobe in Los Angeles from 2008 to 2014, winning back-to-back NBA titles in 2009 and 2010.
Gasol is averaging 17 points, 10.9 rebounds. 3.4 assists and two blocks a game this season. Gasol, the 2001-02 NBA Rookie of the Year, appeared in his first All Star Game in 2006 in Houston, Texas.
This year?s All-Star Game was broadcast live in 215 countires and territories and was covered in 49 languages.
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