Pau Gasol had been dating cheerleader Silvia Lopez Castro for well over a year, and by all accounts, things were going swimmingly. But following Gasol’s uncharacteristically awful 2011 postseason, Bill Plaschke of the LA Times casually (blog-like? How irresponsible of him!) floated this today:

“I have to learn from this,” Gasol said. ”I have to learn that when something happens off the court, you have to keep it off the court.”

He was referring to the report that he stopped talking to Bryant during the postseason because Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, had contributed to the breakup of Gasol and his longtime girlfriend. Lakers fans will remember that Karl Malone once publicly accused Vanessa of interfering with his personal life in a similar fashion.

What happened off the court? That’s a mystery. Kobe Bryant told Kevin Ding of the OC Register, “They [the wives] barely know each other.” But as Plaschke noted, it wouldn’t be the first time Kobe’s meddling wife was at the center of friction on the Lakers.

I wonder if anyone in Boston will try and get Shaq’s reaction about the Kobe-Gasol mess. Remember this story from 2004? Report: Kobe Said Shaq Paid Women Hush Money.

If the Lakers end up trading Gasol this summer – I doubt it, but you get a sense something is coming – that’ll make two high quality big men Kobe will have run out of LA. He’d have no titles without them.