Celebrity Settings

With Extra Time on His Hands, Pau Gasol Graces Gjelina

Photo: Tatiana Arbogast

Hey Pau Gasol, you just acted like a big baby during the NBA playoffs, helped dishonor The Lakers, and even made Magic Johnson sad. What’s next? “I’m going to Gjelina!” Yep, creepy stalker-types that we are, we spotted the Catalonian beanstalk sneaking into the Venice restaurant’s backdoor for lunch yesterday with a friend, already planning to idle away the off-season instead of making restitution to our traumatized bar-owners.

Pau poses

When Gasol finally emerged, he personally thanked the kitchen crew and posed for pictures, reminding us of two things we’ve always suspected of the baller in person (besides the fact that he’s probably a pretty nice guy). Number one: He is very, very, very tall. Just look at how he towers over the staff here, it looks like Gulliver just landed on Lilliputia.

Number two: Dude is totally European, as clearly evidenced by choosing to wear a t-shirt that actually says: “Basketball.” Nothing more! Just a Nike shirt reading “Basketball.” That’s like if we walked around with shirts that said: “Eating Food.” Anyway, we have no idea what The Spaniard consumed while visiting the restaurant. Let’s just say he went straight for the pasta rags with chorizo.

We have long heard that Pau is a major foodie. Since Dodger foodie Andre Ethier is busy blazing a path to home with his bat, we think it’s just about the right moment for The Lakers to use their downtime and talk Gasol into starting his own food-blog. Just in case, we’re totally buying the domain name Gasolsgastronomy.com.

Gasol greeting his fans
With Extra Time on His Hands, Pau Gasol Graces Gjelina