Remember the 2008 NBA Finals? A gut punch for Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. Losing 4-2 to their biggest rivals, the Celtics, and that too hammered with a 131-92 blowout win in Boston, it wasn’t just a loss—it was a wound that cut deep. Falling short in the Lakers’ iconic purple and gold against Boston, Lakers’ oldest rival? That made it personal. And if you think the players just walked away from that loss without emotions boiling over, think again. Pau Gasol recently admitted he was this close to losing it back then.
Talking on the Knuckleheads podcast, Gasol didn’t hold back. “It was rough… We were taking it in… You got to feel the pain… It’s got to hurt,” he said. And man, it did hurt. Now, imagine trying to process that heartbreak, only to have Celtics fans make it even worse.
As revealed by Gasol in the podcast, when his team moved from the Locker room to their bus, it wasn’t moving. Why? Because Boston fans were rocking it, pounding on it, making sure the Lakers felt that loss. “… The fans were rocking it and hitting the bus… Couldn’t move. Feeling that you want to get off the bus and start some stuff…” Gasol admitted. Can you blame him? The emotions were raw, and the frustration was real. But instead of letting it get the best of him, Gasol did the smart thing. “… Just take it in. Take it all in. Let it fuel you… Feel for next year.” And if there was one guy who made sure no one forgot that pain, it was Kobe Bryant. The silence wasn’t a sign of weakness; it was day 1 of preparation to haunt them the next time they met.
Nov 2, 2010; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant (24) and center Pau Gasol (16) embrace during the game against the Memphis Grizzlies at the Staples Center. The Lakers defeated the Grizzlies 124-105. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports
Lakers-Celtics battles are legendary, but for Kobe, that loss in 2008 became an obsession. As Derek Fisher put it in an interview, “That energy from Kobe was like on the surface of everything that we did from that season on… That’s what really drove the 09…” The sting of 2008 never faded. And if you know Kobe, you know he’d use anything—anything—to push his teammates toward redemption:
Kobe Bryant hung his Olympics gold to fuel a desire to win in Pau Gasol
“That hurt me, too. Yeah, it was brutal,” Kobe once said of the loss in the 2008 NBA Finals series. For a moment, doubt crept in. Was this it for his championship run? But then again, that was not who Kobe Bryant was. Just by the next morning, he was done sulking.
“Nah, I gotta fix this,” Black Mamba told himself. And if one thing we know about Kobe is the once he decided something, he made sure it happened. Step one? Toughening up the Lakers. And that’s where Pau Gasol entered the equation.
Now, have you ever heard about the infamous gold medal stunt? Kobe hung his 2008 Olympic gold medal right in Gasol’s locker—not to gloat, but to make a point. A constant reminder that Pau had lost to Team USA in the final. Talk about motivation. “It just drove him crazy,” Kobe once said. Then came the final push: “Listen, Pau, you lost to the Celtics, you lost to us in the gold-medal match—let’s not make this three in a row. Let’s win this thing.”
And guess what? They did. The Lakers dominated in 2009 and then got the ultimate revenge in 2010, taking down the Celtics 4-3 in a nail-biting seven-game series. Revenge is sweeter, they say, but for Kobe, it was in his actions winning him the Most Valuable Player of the 2010 Finals.
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