Family, the most important team

My family has been my real point of reference. Its members have always encouraged me to give my best. Every day I feel fortunate to have a family that has always supported me. I know that they’ll always be there for me if I need them –just as I will be there for them.

As I go through life gaining experience, especially now that I’m a father, I am increasingly aware of the essential role of parents in passing on values and developing the capacities of their children.   They build the basis for the lives of their kids, thus making it possible for them to realize their full potential. From my earliest years, my parents gave me an education based on values that today are essential in my daily life, both on and off the court: teamwork, effort, eagerness to excel, ambition, humility and, above all, a great deal of respect. These may sound like mere words, but they’re my way of understanding life and how to behave.

Basketball is and always has been the big sport in my family. I wanted to play basketball ever since seeing my father play with his team, U. E. Gaudí. At that very instant my passion for this sport began. Watching my father play and encouraging him on those courts –most of them made of cement, and he with his high Converse sneakers– was a rush of excitement that only a father or mother can transmit.

A united family

When I began playing on my first team, at the Colegio Llor in Sant Boi del Llobregat, when I was just seven years old, my parents were my greatest supporters. They didn’t miss a game. During my next period, with the Cornellá club, people noticed they were there at every game. And when I began at Bar?a, my father, Agustí, a nurse administrator, organized his time so as to be able take me to all the training sessions. With the constant help and work of my mother, both of them made sacrifices so that I had the best chance to realize my dreams.

In 2001, I was able to join the NBA thanks to yet more help from my family. My parents got a leave of absence from their jobs and my brothers stopped going to school so as to accompany me on this great adventure. They all made sacrifices to join me in the United States and this kept our family united. It’s a wonderful example of putting the collective good ahead of the individual interests of each member of the “team” –an example I’ve always followed in my sporting career.

The members of my family were the first ones to believe in me, the first ones who saw in that child the athlete that, after years of work, I would finally become. More important still: they instilled in me those key values to become the person I am today. That’s why I can’t help but feel immensely fortunate for the parents I have and to thank them whenever I can for everything they’ve done for me and for my two younger brothers.

That’s why our Foundation gives so much importance to family. Although the mission of the Gasol Foundation is to reduce the alarming figures of childhood obesity in Spain and the United States, all our programs and initiatives make the family the central element. Marc and I want those same values we grew up with to guide the actions of the Gasol Foundation. The commitment of the family is essential so that kids can acquire the knowledge, attitudes and basic habits for their full development.

In other words, knowledge about healthy eating, a sporting attitude, the importance of rest, and emotional wellbeing. The family nucleus, for example, plays a key role in projects like SAFALíN (Salud/Familia/ Infancia).

The SAFALíN project is being developed in Sant Boi, where I lived most of my childhood, with the aim of combating childhood obesity in vulnerable families, the ones that have been most affected by an epidemic that has affected two out of every five children in Spain. This initiative is the result of the collaboration between the different sectors that educate children, such as public institutions, schools and teachers, and recreational facilities, under the leadership of the Gasol Foundation.

The levels of childhood obesity in our society are alarming. And the family plays an essential role in reversing them. According to the PASOS study, prepared by the Gasol Foundation, more than half of Spanish adolescents do not meet recommendations regarding the use of screens during the week, and almost  80% do not meet them on weekends. Non-compliance is higher in boys than in girls, and much higher in adolescence than at younger ages. This brings low levels not only of physical activity but of nutrition, rest and emotional wellbeing, which are the bases for their relations with other people and influence the character of the child.

Parental responsibility

Parents have an influential role in stopping this epidemic. It’s important that they educate their children and make them more aware, setting rules and being strict so as to limit the time that their children spend in front of electronic devices. Parents are both the mirrors that reflect their children and the people these children look to for habits that will mark their lives forever.

Family is the most important thing we have, and we sometimes don’t give it the value it merits. I was tremendously fortunate to have a close-knit family I’m proud of, especially my mother, Marisa, and my father, Agustí. 

-

This article was published in Spanish in Expansión.