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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS


June 13, 2019


Marc Gasol


Oakland, California - Postgame 6

Toronto - 114, Golden State - 110

Q. This is your first championship and how did your leadership play a part in making that happen and what does this mean to you?
MARC GASOL: It means a lot of things. It means the world. Still I've been floating for the past couple of hours. I'm thrilled. So many people deserve this. Even though Golden State had some tough injuries the last game and this game, they showed you how much heart they have. How much what it means to be a championship team. They didn't make any excuses, they kept playing, they kept coming at you every possession offensively and defensively. So very much respect for those guys and their organization. With that said, I'm very happy that we won. I'm so excited, it's just special, special feeling. We have a special group of guys that are so carefree. They help one another, especially through tough times when we could have pointed fingers at one another and blamed each other, we didn't do that. We just held on to our brothers. And just, I just have so many people to thank that we would be here for a couple hours, so I want to thank everybody.

Q. Have you spoken with Pau yet?
MARC GASOL: No. I haven't spoken to him. I've only spoke to my wife and that was good enough.

Q. Since that day that you arrived with this team in New York, a lot has happened, obviously. Is there, was there a moment though that you got the feeling that you could get to this level, that you could be part of this?
MARC GASOL: Oh, as soon as the trade happened. As soon as the trade happened, you saw the possibility. You just read the roster. It was pretty simple. You can make excuses and say like oh, it will take some time. But at the same time we all invested, and we all thought let's help one another, let's be the championship team that we can be. That doesn't mean that you are going to accomplish it, but the mindset was there and the will was there and the coaching staff was there, too. And they pushed us every step of the way. Then everyone that's around the team, it's first class. It's just not an organization that takes shortcuts in any way. And that doesn't guarantee you that you're going to win, but it helps for sure. It does help. And I thought that everyone is just so positive throughout the way even though when we were down 2-0 against Milwaukee guys, okay, let's get better, let's execute, let's help one another, let's do this, let's do that. Nobody was blaming and kind of taking the shortcuts and kind of being negative.

Q. What makes this team special? You almost answered, but you arrived in February, what kind of team you found back then when you arrived and how did you guys grow to become the NBA champions?
MARC GASOL: Just look at the roster, look at the roster of that team. You look at the depth, the depth of them. Then you look at the bench, you look at the young players that they have, you see the coaching staff, their mindset, you look at the front office, their mindset they have. Go from top to bottom, ownership, the trainers, physical therapists, chefs, everything. It's a top class organization. They're all about winning. And like I was telling your colleague, it doesn't guarantee you're going to win, but it does help that everyone has that championship mentality. I'm so happy that they got it because everyone in Toronto and Canada deserves this because they fought for it. I'm sure the Jurassic Park is going a little crazy right now, I just hope everybody is okay. But I'm sure there's a lot of people very happy, because we have shown a lot of resilience and togetherness.

Q. Second part is about Sergio Scariolo, how much did he help you becoming part of this team?
MARC GASOL: Tremendously. Tremendously. He helped me tremendously understand the schemes offensively. He was in charge of a lot of the offense. Defensively he's always someone that I've been through a lot of battles with and Sergio was great. And I'm happy that we got to live this together because we start training camp in a month, you know, again. So it's a different challenge now the world championship, but I'm going to be soaking in ice for a couple weeks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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