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He looks like the unlikeliest of stars.

His shaggy hair, curly and parted in the middle, falling over his ears, has stylists all over the country sharpening their shears.

His wispy, untrimmed beard looks like it never met a razor it liked. 

He's 7 feet, yes, but he looks like he could be blown out of his sneakers by a moderate wind, not to mention a pointed elbow.

He wears braces, for heaven's sake.

And he is from Spain, a country that has sent basketball stars to the NBA about as often as the U.S. has sent matadors to Madrid.

Yet it is Pau Gasol, the string-bean son of a doctor (his mother) and a hospital administrator (his father) in chic Barcelona, who now is a big man in L.A., having become a major factor in turning around a storied NBA franchise and making it hip to be a Los Angeles Lakers fan again.

Kobe Bryant remains the heart and soul of the Lakers - and, it was announced Tuesday, the Most Valuable Player of the NBA. But it is what Gasol has added since his midseason acquisition from the Memphis Grizzlies that has given the Lakers, mired in mediocrity the past several years, the look of a champion again.

And it has given the 27-year-old Gasol, after 6 1/2 seasons playing for the Grizzlies, the chance to be a champion.

After a sweep of the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs' first round, the Lakers try to take a 2-0 lead against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night in the Western Conference semifinals at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"All I've thought about since coming here is how great a situation this is, how fortunate I am and how much I want to take advantage of this position," Gasol says.

The position he's in is playing alongside Bryant, arguably the league's most talented player, and playing for a team that, after its seemingly effortless sweep of the 50-win Nuggets, is a strong contender to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since Shaquille O'Neal teamed with Bryant to send the Lakers to four Finals in five years and NBA titles in 2000, 01 and 02.

Bryant, 29, has fashioned a marvelous and unexpected season. He spent last summer complaining about the inability of Lakers owner Jerry Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak to surround him with better talent and asking to be traded. Then he spent the season making his teammates better, sharing the ball on the court and sharing more of his personality than usual in what has become a tight-knit locker room.

Gasol's season has been just as unexpected. He spent last summer wondering how awful the Grizzlies would be this year and where he might end up as the Memphis franchise looked to rebuild through trades and the draft. Then he spent the second half of this season as one of the biggest stories in the league, seeming to be the perfect counterpart to Bryant as the Lakers surged to the top of the heap in the Western Conference.

The 250-pound Gasol fits Lakers coach Phil Jackson's triangle offense to a T. He's a terrific shooter for a big man, an excellent passer and a smart player with or without the ball. In the sweep of Denver, Gasol averaged 22.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.8 blocks, all higher than his career averages of 18.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.8 blocks.

"He's very cerebral," says Hubie Brown, a TV commentator and formerly Gasol's coach in Memphis. "If you're open, he'll get you the ball. He's the perfect guy for the triangle offense when you run the ball into the post. He'll find the cutters, if they're open, and he's a handful to play in a one-on-one situation."


Gasol once labeled as 'soft'

Gasol and Bryant, in particular, have bonded quickly.

"It seems like we've been playing together for years instead of months," Bryant says. "It's amazing how that's worked. Since the first time he stepped on the floor, we automatically had a great relationship and understanding of where we like to operate on the floor. It's been unbelievable."

It's amusing to Gasol, after his seamless transition into the lineup and the obvious chemistry he has playing with Bryant, that the Lakers' superstar has sometimes been accused of being difficult to play with and of being a selfish player.

"From the moment I was traded, I was excited about playing with him," Gasol says. "He's such a great player and a great leader, and he just wants to win, over anything, over everything. I just want to win no matter what, too."

In Gasol's first game in a Lakers uniform, on Feb. 5, he scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 15-point victory against the New Jersey Nets.

In his third game, three nights later, Bryant scored 36 and Gasol 30 in a road victory against the Orlando Magic.

Gasol sat out nine consecutive games after spraining an ankle March 14, but the Lakers surged again when he returned and finished with the best record in the Western Conference (57-25). In the games in which he has played, the Lakers are 27-5, including the four playoff victories against Denver.

That was the Lakers' first win in a playoff series since 2004, and Gasol's first in his career. In Game 1, Gasol, who was in 12 consecutive playoff losses in Memphis, finished with 36 points, 16 rebounds, eight assists and three blocks.

After games like that, it seems odd to some of his teammates that Gasol once was considered by some observers to be a soft player, lacking competitiveness.

"That was silly to me," Bryant says. "I saw him play in Memphis and he didn't look soft to me. He had those matchups against (Kevin) Garnett and (Tim) Duncan, and he didn't look soft. If you ask them, I don't think any of them will tell you he's soft. That wasn't something we felt he had to dispel."

Lakers guard Derek Fisher tells a slightly different story.

"Even though Pau put up some great stats when he was in Memphis, I think there were some times when people questioned his toughness," Fisher says. "Those were things I heard in his first few years in the league."

Jerry West, the Hall of Fame former Lakers star who built two championship eras in L.A. as an executive - the Magic Johnson-led Showtime Lakers of the 1980s and the Bryant/O'Neal Lakers of the early 2000s - and then was the general manager in Memphis from 2002 until the end of last season, thinks Gasol has benefited immeasurably from playing with Bryant.

"I can see a difference in his effort," West says. "You start playing next to the ultimate competitor, which is what Kobe is, and it's going to make a difference.

"He's playing with great players. Being on a much better team makes his skill level more evident.

"I'm happy for him. He's a very good player and a great kid."

Gasol was the third pick of the 2001 draft and won Rookie of the Year honors in the 2001-02 season. By 2004, Memphis won 50 games and made the playoffs, and Gasol was its best player.

In 2006, he became the first Spaniard and the first Grizzlies player to play in the All-Star Game. But they were swept in the playoffs in 2004, 05 and 06.


A chance for championships

In the summer of 2006, Gasol broke his foot playing in the FIBA World Championships, and he missed the first 19 games of the NBA 2006-07 season. That set the tone for a dreadful campaign, as the Grizzlies sunk back to the worst record in the league.

West retired at the end of the season, setting the stage for new management to try to rebuild the team again. When the Grizzlies got off to another bad start this season and it became clear to general manager Chris Wallace the team was going nowhere, Gasol became available.

That it was the Lakers who landed him - without giving up any key players - shocked the league.

Gasol was stunned, too.

"I had no inkling, none," he says. "I was thinking maybe I'd get traded to (the) Chicago (Bulls). That was most of the talk."

Kupchak was able to acquire an All Star-caliber player for a little of this and a little of that: a disappointing and much-maligned center (Kwame Brown), an untested rookie guard (Javaris Crittenton), the contract of a retired player (Aaron McKie), draft rights to a European player (Gasol's younger brother, Marc) and two first-round draft picks.

In Lakerland, there were smiles all around. Then Gasol took the court, and optimism turned to jubilation.

Then victories.

And, maybe, a championship.

How unlikely was that last summer, when Bryant was an unhappy poster child for a seemingly dysfunctional franchise and Gasol was, well, 0-12 in his playoff career?

Now, the Lakers are in the second round of the playoffs, people care what Gasol says, and what he is saying is, "I think we have as good a chance as anyone."