Melissa Rohlin
Fox Sports NBA writer
Rudy Gobert was one of the most spectacular performances of any NBA player in this postseason, but it was not enough to stop criticism.
When Shaquille O’Neal gave the 7 -foot 1 center compliment, he simulated vomiting the TNT part -time show last Wednesday. “I never thought I would say thesis that come out of my mouth: Rudy Gobert is dominating.”
Gobert ended with 27 points and 24 rebounds in the victory of closing the Minnesota Timberwolves over the Los Angeles Lakers in game 5 of his first round playoff series, becoming ironically in the first player since O’Neal in the 2004 finals in finishing at least 25 points, 20 rebounds and 75 percent of shooting in a playoff game.
Gobert was informed of O’Neal’s compliment while sitting next to his locker after the game. When asked why current and previous players apparently enjoy taking it, Hehrugged.
“It’s a good question,” Gobert told Fox Sports. “I suppose that all I can do is keep Bee as the best Rudy Gobert I can be and try to win a championship. That’s where my approach is. And possible, one day, respect will be there.”
Despite being a defensive player four times of the year, three times All-Star and four times Selection All-Nba, Gobert is a lightning rod for criticism. He is about to face one of his greatest detractors in Drayond Green in the second round of the playoffs, with the Timberwolves organizing the Golden State Warriors in game 1 on Tuesday.
Gobert and Green’s vision dates back to 2019, when Gobert is filled while talking with journalists about not doing the All-Star team. His reaction went viral and became a meme. Green, whose streak of three consecutive appearances in All-Star broke that season, tweeted: “I think I should also cry.”
Three years later, Gobert Tok a shot in Green after he hit the then teammate Jordan Poole Duration to Warriors Practice in October 2022, tweeting: “Insecurity is always noisy.”
Six months later, Green responded after Gobert hit former teammate Kyle Anderson after Anderson called him “B-H” in the final of the regular season of the Timberwolves. Green tweeted the same four words: “Insecurity is always noisy.”
Things reached a critical point last season when a skirmish exploded between the former Warriors guard, Klay Thompson and the Timberwolves striker Jaden McDaniels, with Green inserting himself into the action by putting Gobert in a strangler. Green was expelled and suspended five games. Less than a month later, after Green hit the center of Phoenix Suns Justuf Nurkic on his face, Gobert weighed, he says ESPN“I have empathy for him. You see someone who is not right inside and suffers.”
Green got his revenge the last postseason while performing as a panelist about “Inside The NBA” of TNT, repeatedly criticizing Gobert’s defensive effort against the superstar of the Denver Nuggets, Nikola Jokic, his second round series. The Timberwolves fans responded by Heckling Green after game 2 of the western conference finals in Target Center, singing “Drayond Apesta” while I was in the air. The green responded: “Rudy stinks, not me.”
The Timberwolves then a position against Green’s mocking comments about Gobert, as well as Karl-Anthony Towns, refusing to appear in an interview after the game in “Inside The NBA” after game 4, according to The Atlético.
Gobert, who has never won a championship, and Green, who has won four titles, are two of the best defenders of the NBA in the last decade, after having won a defensive player award of the combined year on that period. Then, perhaps its rocky relationship can be partially attributed to the competition between two great defensive.
But Green is far from being the only player who is not a fan of Gobert, who played for Utah of 2013-2022 before being changed to Minnesota in July 2022.
Gobert was voted as the most overrated player in the league by his teammates last season in a survey by The Atlético. This season, it was the runner -up for that ignominious title, behind the star of the Indiana Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton.
But why don’t Gobert like?
“I have been asking that question for years, actually,” said the Clippers striker Nicolas Batum, Fox Sports from his teammate in the French national team.
“He has been in a winning team almost the last six, seven years. Utah was the seed no. 1 [in 2021]Playoffs every year. Minnesota has been a top [6] Seed in the West the last two, three years, conference ends last year. I mean, what do you want? In the national team, we reach the finals, the game of the gold medal. The man wins and plays defense. I really don’t know why people get angry at him. “
When it comes to Gobert, there are two moments that are easy to identify when trying to track their history of villain’s origin, starting with its effusion of emotions in 2019.
“I think that moment, more than anything, defines how people see me in the United States in front of whom I am really,” Gobert wrote in an essay in the first person Tribune of the players Last April, he added that he was niece, he felt unaned, but his mother gave him the news while crying, which reminded him of all the sacrifices he had done when he was a child.
Then, in March 2020, Gobert joked to the microphones and tape recorders lasting their first availability of media distinction without a social. Days later, he became the first NBA player to positive for COVID-19, which led the League to temporarily suspend his season. At that time, his former Jazz teammate, Donovan Mitchell, who also tested for the virus, acknowledged that he was frustrated by Gobert’s behavior.
On the court, O’Neal has felt as he thought that Gobert did not justify the five -year contract and $ 205 million that he signed in December 2020, which made him the best paid center in the history of the NBA at that time.
Last summer, O’Neal called Gobert the worst NBA player of all time in complex “Goat talk“Podcast with your son, Myles O’Neal.
“If signing a contract for $ 250 million, show me $ 250 million,” O’Neal said about Gobert, who averaged 14 points and 12.9 rebounds last season, before putting 12 points and 10.9 rebounds in his more campaign. “There is a reason why funny path, why I can’t put my neck and why I can’t do it. Because I played for about $ 120 million. You have guys like him who have done the system. They are money like, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don, Don Thy’t’t.
For Gobert, game 5 was an opportunity to help silence their critics.
Two of the largest superstars in the league in LeBron James and Luka Doncic were fighting to keep their season alive, but Gobert was the best player on the court.
He helped the Timberwolves overcome the Lakers, 54-37, including having more offensive rebounds (nine) than the entire team of the combined Lakers (eight). Gobert also made 12 or its 15 shots, including the impressive eight overtions, on a night when the Timberwolves fired an unfortunate 7 of 47 from beyond the arch.
For Gobert, that performance was a redeeming moment after its slow beginning of the series. (He had only 14 points in the first four games).
Not to mention that Hey also took revenge against Doncic, whose step 3 on Gobert in the final moments of game 2 of the 2024 conference finals had been persecuted throughout the season. Doncic Mavericks eliminated the Timberwolves in five games, before the guard was changed to Los Angeles in February.
Gobert did not hesitate when he was asked what his mentality was addressed to an elimination game against the Lakers.
“Just try to go and dominate,” Gobert told Fox Sports. “At the beginning of the series, the first four games, I was putting a lot of energy, but it did not translate into points or rebounds. I tried to continue doing what I was doing, to remain relentless. I knew they were they doey doe doe doe. Point.”
For Gobert, playing antihero against the beloved league was a sigh of relief for the great man very defamed.
“It was a dragon tonight,” said Anthony Edwards after game 5.
The Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called him “a winner at the highest level,” and added that the criticisms they recover is eclipsed by the respect he gives to his teammates.
“He doesn’t listen to exterior noise,” said Finch. “We are not going to the outside noise. And no one is happier for Rudy than his teammates at this time, partly Anthony, [who] Let everyone know that it was Rudy’s night and that no one was close to stop him. “
Gobert is not very sure why he rubs the players in the wrong way.
Initially, the miraculous if it was a stranger because it is French. He has recognized that he has made mistakes about his 12 -seasons career, but he has realized that he cannot control how Ethers see him.
“That’s why it’s so good,” Batum told Fox Sports. “I am very impressed because he found a way to overcome that. He is not cited with people and does his job. Not many people can do that, real.”
Gobert knows that there is a single way that he obtains the respect he yearns for.
You need to win a championship.
Then, it is launching to achieve that goal, knowing that the change narrative could change.
“I have a helpless all my life,” Gobert told Fox Sports. “Since I started playing basketball, I have always exceeded expectations. So I will continue with that.”
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for Fox Sports. She previously covered the Sports Illustrated League, the Los Angeles Times, the news group from the Bay area and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @Melissarohlin.
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