words // Brandon Richard
Unlike big brother Pau, Marc Gasol has never been accused of being "soft." If you were in need of a reminder of exactly how ruthless a competitor Marc is, he served one up in Saturday night's game against the Utah Jazz.
Early in the fourth quarter, Utah's Derrick Favors stepped on Gasol's heel, causing him to step out of his size 17 Nike Hyperdunk PE shoe. Gasol then ran back on defense shoeless, complaining to the referee about not getting the call on the other end. New teammate Ed Davis was kind enough to retrieve the shoe for Marc, but he didn't put it back on right away.
After Favors received a pass and blew by Gasol, the Spaniard used his Hyperdunk to take a swipe at the ball. He was successful for disrupting the play, but was also whistled for an obvious foul.
It's unclear exactly why Gasol was so frustrated. Perhaps he forgot about that one time he stepped on a guy's $200 sneaker and caused it to completely fall apart...in a playoff game.
Whatever the case may be, we learned two things about Marc last night. One, don't step on his heels. Two, if you do, watch the hell out.
