Is Pau Gasol the Best Big Man in the NBA?

Back in the summer of 2001, I took a flight from New York to Tennessee for a baseball tournament. The night before, the Memphis Grizzlies walked away from Madison Square Garden, and the NBA draft, with a pair of highly-touted prospects.

As I boarded the plane to Memphis, those prospects just happened to be in line with me.

They were wholesome, Duke favorite Shane Battier, and a tall, lanky, mysterious Spaniard named Pau Gasol.

When my teammates and I asked Gasol about his NBA goals, he pointed at Battier and said, "I just want to be like him."

Now, almost nine years later, Battier can't even shine Gasol's shoes. Battier's a glorified role player while Gasol is a legitimate star.

But how much of a star is Gasol?

Where does he stand in the grand s...

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