MEMPHIS — Jason Peters was the boys’ basketball coach at Lausanne Collegiate School in August 2001 when he received some important news. A new student was enrolling at Lausanne, a private school here on the city’s east side. And that new student happened to be Pau Gasol’s younger brother.

Peters got on the phone and recommended that Jon Van Hoozer, his assistant, swing by. This was something he needed to see.

“Sure enough, the sky darkened and you look in the doorway, and here is this massive human being,” Van Hoozer said. “It was exciting.”

Long before he became a standout center with the Grizzlies and the N.B.A.’s defensive player of the year, Marc Gasol moved to Memphis with his family from Spain. He was 16, barely spoke English and stood nearly 7 feet tall. He was just an overgrown boy living in his older brother’s shadow.