Rudy Gobert he was having one of the most spectacular performances of any NBA Player in this post -station, but it was not enough to stop criticism.
While Shaquille O’Neal gave a compliment to the center of 7 feet-1, simulated the vomiting during the TNT show halfway throughout Wednesday. “I would never have thought of saying these words that are coming out of my mouth: Rudy Gobert is dominating.”
Gobert continued to end with 27 points and 24 rebounds in Minnesota timberwolves‘Clos-Out wins on the Los Angeles Lakers in game 5 of their playoff series in the first round, ironically becoming the first player since O’Neal in the 2004 finals to end with at least 25 points, 20 rebounds and 75 % of the shooting in a playoff game.
Gobert was informed of O’Neal’s inverted compliment while sat down from his locker after the game. When he was asked why the current and former players apparently have fun making blows, he shook his shoulders.
“It’s a good question,” Gobert said to Fox Sports. “I guess everything I can do is continue to be the best Rudy Gobert that I can be and try to win a championship. Here is where my attention is. And in the end, one day, respect will be there.”
Despite being a four-time defensive player of the year, three times all-stars and four times all-nba selection, Gobert is a lightning rod for criticism. He is about to face one of his greatest detractors Draymond Green In the second round of the playoffs, with the Timberwolves hosting the Golden State Warriors In the game 1 Tuesday.
Gobert and Green Chippines can be traced back to 2019, when Gobert torn while talking to journalists that he hadn’t done the All-Star team. His reaction became viral and became a meme. Green, whose strip of three appearances of consecutive stars was taken that season, tweeted: “I guess I should cry too”.
Three years later, Gobert shot Green after giving a punch to the then teammate Jordan Poole during a Warriors practice in October 2022, tweeting: “Insecurity is always strong”.
Six months later, Green replied after Gobert gave a punch to the former teammate Kyle Anderson After Anderson called him an “B–H” in the final of the regular season of the Timberwolves. Green tweeted the same four words: “Insecurity is always strong”.
Things came to the head last season when a scaramuccia broke out between former warrior guard Klay Thompson and Timberwolves forward Jaden McDanielsWith Green who fits into the action by putting Gobert in a choker. Green has been expelled and suspended five games. Less than a month later, after Green hit the center of Phoenix Suns Jusuf Nurkic in his face, he weighs Gobert, telling, telling Espn“I empathize for him. See someone who is not good inside and suffering.”
Green got his revenge in the last post -station while acting from Panelist in “Inside the NBA” by TNT, repeatedly criticizing Gobert’s defensive effort against Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic During their series of the second round. Timberwolves fans responded by Heckling Green after the game 2 of the Western Conference finals at the Target Center, singing “Draymond sucks” while he was broadcast. Green replied: “Rudy sucks, not me.”
The Timberwolves therefore took a position against Green’s derisive comments on Gobert, as well as on City of Karl-Antonyrefusing to appear in a post -match interview on “Inside the NBA” after play 4, second Atletico.
Gobert, who has never won a championship, and Green, who won four titles, are two of the best defenders of the NBA in the last decade, having won a combined prizes of five defensive players of the year at that time. So perhaps their rocky relationship can be partially separated to the competition between two great defensive.
But Green is far from the only player who is not a Gobert fan, who has played for Utah since 2013-2022 before being exchanged with Minnesota in July 2022.
Gobert was voted for the most overrated player in the league by his colleagues last season in a survey of Atletico. This season, it was the second for that ignominious title, behind Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton.
But why is Gabert so not pleasant?
“In reality I had been asking myself this question for years,” The Clippers forward Nicolas Batum He told Fox Sports of his teammate in the French national team.
“He was part of a winning team practically the last six, seven years. Utah has been seed n. 1 [in 2021]Playoffs every year. Minnesota was a top [6] Seed in the West in the last two, three years, finals of the conference last year. I mean, what do you want? In the national team, we arrived at the finals, at the game of the gold medal. The man wins and playing defense. I don’t really know why people get angry for him. “
When it comes to Gobert, there are two moments that are easy to identify when they try to trace its history of the origin of the villain, starting with his outburst of emotions in 2019.
“I think that moment, more than anything else, defines how people see me in America against who they really are,” wrote Gobert in a first -person essay for The Players’ Tribune Last April, adding that he was not crying because he felt snubbed, but rather because his mother gave him the news while crying, which reminded him of all the sacrifices he had made when he was a child.
So, in March 2020, Gobert jokingly touched microphones and ribbon recorders during his first socially distance medium availability. Days later, he became the first NBA player with positive results for Covid-19, pushing the championship to temporarily suspend his season. At the time, his former jazz teammate, Donovan Mitchell, who also proved positive for the virus, recognized that he was frustrated by Gobert’s behavior.
In court, O’Neal felt as if Gobert had not justified the five -year contract of 205 million dollars who signed in December 2020, which made it the most paid center in the history of the NBA at that moment.
Last summer, O’Neal called Gobert the worst NBA player of all time on “Complex”Goat’s speech“Podcast with his son, Myles O’Neal.
“If a contract for $ 250 million, show me $ 250 million,” said O’Neal Di Gobert, who scored 14 points and 12.9 rebounds on average last season, before putting 12 points and 10.9 rebounds in his most recent campaign. “There is a reason why I walk in a fun way, because I can’t turn my neck and because I can’t do it. Because I played for about $ 120 million. You have guys like him who is the system. They are doing all this money and cannot play the king’s game. So, not respecting guys like this.”
For Gobert, Game 5 was an opportunity to help silence his critics.
Two of the largest superstars in the championship in Lebron James AND Luka Doncic They were fighting to keep their season alive, but Gobert was the best player in the field.
He helped the Timberwolves to overcome the Lakers, 54-37, including more offensive rebounds (nine) than the entire team of combined Lakers (eight). Gobert also made 12 of his 15 shots – including an incredible eight -crushed eight – in a night in which the Timberwolves were turning a painful 7 of 47 from beyond the arch.
For Gobert, that performance was a redemptive moment after his slow start of the series. (He only had 14 points in the first four games.)
Not to mention, he also requested revenge against Doncic, whose passage-back 3 on Gobert in the last moments of the game 2 of the finals of the 2024 conference had persecuted him throughout the season. Doncic’s Mavericks He continued to eliminate the Timberwolves in five games, before the guard was exchanged in Los Angeles in February.
Gobert did not hesitate when he was asked what his mentality was in an elimination match against the Lakers.
“I’m just trying to go dominate,” Gobert said to Fox Sports. “At the beginning of the series, the first four games, I was putting a lot of energy out there, but it did not translate into points or rebounds. I tried to continue doing what I was doing, continue to be incessant.
For Gobert, playing the antiero against the loved ones of the League was a sigh of relief for the great very distinct man.
“Tonight was a dragon,” Anthony Edwards said after game 5.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called him “a winner at the highest levels”, adding that the criticisms he receives is obscured by the respect he earns from his teammates.
“He doesn’t listen to the external noise,” said Finch. “We don’t listen to the external noise. And nobody is happier for Rudy than his teammates right now, in particular Anthony, [who] Let everyone know on the floor that it was Rudy’s night and nobody was around to stop him. “
Gobert is not sure enough why he rubs players in the wrong way.
Initially, he wondered if he was a stranger because he was French. He recognized that he made mistakes for his 12 -seasons career, but he understood that he cannot control how others see him.
“That’s why it’s so big,” Batum said to Fox Sports. “I am very impressed because he found a way to overcome him. He doesn’t listen to people and do his job. Not many people can do it, in reality.”
Gobert knows that there is only way to get the respect for him.
He has to win a championship.
So, he is pouring into reaching that goal, knowing that he could change his narrative.
“I was a loser for my whole life,” Gobert said to Fox Sports. “Since I started playing basketball, I’ve always beaten expectations. So, I will continue to do it.”
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for Fox Sports. Previously covered the championship for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the news group of the Bay Area and the San Antonio New Express. Follow it on Twitter @Melissarohlin.
Get more from the National Basketball Association Follow your favorites to get information on games, news and more