NBA: Gobert: This is not the first time Ive been disrespected!

Rudy Gobert finished only 4th in the Best Defender of the Year award, which Victor Wembanyama won for the first time and has now won four times. This is a bitter pill for Gobert to swallow, especially after shutting down Nikola Jokic.

Rudy Gobert (33 years old, 2.16m) will surely be part of the All-Defensive Team of the season. However, if the league and its commissioner, Adam Silver, think this will console the French center for the Wolves, they are mistaken.

It will likely take a long time for the St. Quentin native to recover from the Best Defender of the Year ranking, awarded Monday night during the 2nd game between New York and Minnesota in the Madison Square Garden, part of the 1st round of the playoffs.

The former Jazz player does not even appear on the podium of the award he had already won four times since joining the NBA in 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2024.

Without mentioning the victory of his compatriot and teammate in the French national team, Victor Wembanyama, who became the first player in history to be unanimously awarded but also the youngest to have his name on the list, Gobert, visibly very upset, did not hide his bitterness after failing to make it to the Top 3 (4th) despite knowing since the day before that he would not be among the three finalists.

Gobert: “How did I manage to block Jokic? I was really lucky…”

“This is not the first time I have been disrespected and it probably won’t be the last. If you want to disrespect greatness, take it for granted, whatever. They will eventually realize the impact,” lamented the Frenchman in the locker room after his team’s victory over the Nuggets (119-114).

The four-time winner, named 2nd four times by the voters and 3rd 29 times without any votes for first place, found it even harder to digest having been left out after neutralizing Nikola Jokic (1 for 7 shooting against the Wolves’ interior defense in the fourth quarter, 1 for 8 overall in the match), despite being considered one of the players it is impossible to defend against. This was also the first time the Serb struggled so much in the playoffs against opponents he had faced.

“Gobzilla” did not hold back with his commentary on his performance that night, using a lot of sarcasm and irony, not without a smile that revealed his true feelings. “How did I manage to block him when he tried to take me one-on-one? I can’t do that, so I was lucky. Because I’m not in the Top 3 defenders of the year. So I was lucky. I was really lucky.”

This 4th place will surely leave a mark on the silver medalist from the Paris Games with the French team, visibly more annoyed than ever.