Spanish star Gasol joins Lakers

Gasol was selected third overall in the 2001 NBA draft

Spain centre Pau Gasol, one of the best players to emerge from Europe in recent years, has been traded from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Gasol, 27, will stand in for the Lakers' injured centre Andrew Bynum and then change position to power forward.

In return, the Grizzlies receive Aaron McKie, Javaris Crittenton and Kwame Brown and Draft picks in 2008 and 2010.

The seven-footer played for Barcelona before being drafted by Atlanta and then traded to the Grizzlies in 2001.

Gasol, who won a World Championship winners' medal with Spain in 2006, has been eager to leave the struggling Memphis for the last two years.

Named the NBA Rookie of the year in 2002 and an All-Star four years later, he has never been on the winning side in a play-offs game, and the Grizzlies are unlikely to reach that stage this season.

One trade Memphis tried to make last season was rumoured to be for the Chicago pairing of Ben Gordon and Great Britain star Luol Deng.

"We're extremely pleased to be able to make this trade," said Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak. "Pau is a proven player of all-star calibre in this league who can score and rebound and is still a young player.

"We feel this strengthens our team in the short term as well as the long term." Gasol has averaged 18.9 points and 8.8 rebounds in the 39 games he has played this season.

Bynum, seen as one of the league's developing centres, is expected to return from injury in mid-March.

An ironic facet of the trade is that Gasol's brother 22-year-old brother Marc, selected by the Lakers in last year's draft, will now join the Grizzlies if he joins the NBA.