The Path Not Taken: Pau Gasol, M.D.
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m. ET, ESPN)
Pau Gasol was an 11-year-old Barcelona schoolboy in 1991 when he heard the news that his hero, Magic Johnson, had HIV. Shaken, he decided he wanted to become a doctor and find the cure for AIDS. At age 18, Gasol entered medical school, but having grown to 7 feet, he dropped out to pursue basketball, and has now helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers to back-to-back NBA titles. Gasol has remained curious about medicine, and just days after this year’s NBA Finals he was able to observe a major spinal operation at Children’s Hospital in L.A. The day was both cathartic and overwhelming for him. Tom Friend has the story.
“I think he looks upon being a doctor and a surgeon as the path not taken. He clearly is one of us.” – Dr. David Skaggs, Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles, on Pau Gasol’s interest in medicine
“The most interesting part was to be able to go to the lab, work with cadavers, discover the human body as it is. I wanted to give it a try. But at the same time, I was also playing basketball and getting good at it. I went through the first year and I had to make a decision, and I chose basketball because I thought if it didn’t work I could always go back to medicine.” — Pau Gasol
“I was wandering around school and just thinking about it — just wow, one of my idols has HIV. He’s going to die. I wanted to find the cure. I wanted to be able to find the cure for major sicknesses.” — Gasol, on hearing the news that Magic Johnson had HIV
Girls Lacrosse: Fastest-Growing Sport; Highest Concussion Rate
E:60 (Tuesday, 7 p.m., ESPN)
Girls lacrosse is the fastest-growing team sport in the country, having gone from 90,000 participants to more than 220,000 in less than a decade. But it also has the highest concussion rate among girls sports, according to national high school data compiled over the past two years. Unlike boys lacrosse, in which helmets are required, it is against the rules for girls to wear helmets to protect their heads from reckless sticks and balls flying as fast as 65 mph. Tom Farrey reports on the rising trend of head injuries in girls lacrosse and whether players should be allowed to wear helmets.
Jason Heyward grew up just 32 miles from Atlanta. He told his high school hitting coach that one day he would play at Turner Field. Less than a decade later, Heyward was indeed starting in right field for the 2010 Atlanta Braves and at 21, has already electrified Atlanta. He hit a home run in his first major league at bat and became the second-youngest player ever to start an All-Star game this July. But it’s what that home run meant to someone sitting in the right field stands that demonstrates the maturity of this rookie. E:60 guest reporter Buster Olney tells the story of this Braves’ phenom.
Latavious Williams Graduates to NBA without College
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m., ESPN)
The Sporting Life with Jeremy Schaap (Friday, 7 p.m., ESPN Radio)
Latavious Williams did not have the grades for college, and did not want to play basketball overseas, so he became the first player to go from high school to the NBA Development League and then to the NBA. He was drafted in the second round by Miami then traded to Oklahoma City. Williams’ circuitous route to the NBA helped establish a new way for players to reach the league, and raises questions about whether others will bypass college. David Amber reports.
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