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Adria Gasol, the 18-year-old brother of NBA big men Pau and Marc Gasol, has enrolled as a student at UCLA and intends to walk-on to the team next season. A UCLA spokesman said the youngest Gasol brother will not join the Bruins on their exhibition tour of China next week, but he will begin practicing with the team this fall.
Although the youngest Gasol is 6-foot-10 and has impressive bloodlines, expectations for him at UCLA should be realistic.
He wasn't interested in following in his brothers' footsteps in basketball growing up and played sparingly as a freshman and sophomore at Lausanne High School in Memphis before returning to Spain the past two years. He is far enough behind his brothers at the same stage that it would be a surprise if he is able to make much impact at UCLA in the near future.
Nonetheless, Adria's famous last name alone should make him a favorite among UCLA fans and a source of intrigue in the final minutes of blowouts.
If he focuses on basketball and develops into a surprise contributor at some point in the next few years, then that's a coup for UCLA. And if he does nothing more than persuade Pau or Marc to occasionally work out against the UCLA frontcourt during the offseason, then that's still a greater contribution than the average walk-on makes.