NBA: Covid, anger, alcohol … These incredible revelations about Gobert
Published on October 22, 2022 at 6:35 p.m.
While they are both no longer at the Utah Jazz, Donovan Mitchell returned to the history related to the Covid-19, involving Rudy Gobert at the very beginning of the pandemic in 2020. At that time, the pivot French had amused himself with the risks of spreading the virus at a press conference, touching several microphones before leaving the room. An episode that had definitely created a fracture between the two teammates.
At the beginning of March 2020, we then knew almost nothing about Covid-19. Present at a press conference, Rudy Gobert had made a bad joke about it. Indeed, before leaving the room, the French pivot had taken care to touch several microphones. Two days later, he had tested positive for Covid-19, leading to the end of the season of NBA. This behavior had earned him the wrath of many players in the league, including his teammate Donovan Mitchell. The relationship between the two men has never been good and these events had not helped.
Some pretty crazy details from the night the NBA shutdown in March 2020. @spidadmitchell @CP3 pic.twitter.com/qvHzIbWqVi
— JJ Redick (@jj_redick) October 20, 2022
” I was angry “
In the show of JJ Redick, The Old Man and The Threethe 26-year-old now playing for the Cavaliers, returned at length to this episode. ” When I tested positive, I was angry. Of all the rumors that came out about Rudy and me at that time, this is probably the most accurate. I was angry because at the time we didn’t know anything and I thought that it was because he had walked around and done whatever that I had caught him too. In truth, it could very well have been me who had given it to him. […] He probably wasn’t the first NBA player to have it and I probably wasn’t the second. “, he confided.
“Chris Paul, thanks to him, sent us 15 bottles of wine”
While the Jazz had to play against Thunder, Rudy Gobert therefore tested positive for Covid-19. Donovan Mitchell gave a rather incredible account of the events that followed: Quin Snyder finally told us that Rudy had the Covid. We didn’t know anything about Covid at the time. We stayed 9 hours in the locker room… The people of Oklahoma absolutely did not want us to go anywhere. So we stayed 9 hours in there. We got tested, with the first tests, the ones that go to your head. It was hard. I wouldn’t say it was panic in the locker room, but we didn’t know what to do. Chris Paul, thanks to him, sent us 15 bottles of wine. We got drunk, I’m not going to lie (laughs). We knew there would be no match and everyone was calling us to find out what was going on. We drank to forget that we were afraid. »
“It was the craziest thing that had ever happened to us”
Donovan Mitchell has followed : ” Eventually we were let off on the bus. Everyone outside the team was in hazmat suits. We arrived at the hotel, there were the cops and all the residents had been evacuated. We were given no food, nothing. I called all the people in my repertoire who had a private jet to ask them to get us out of there. Nobody wanted. We sat there on the sidewalk drinking Bud Lights and talking because this was the craziest thing that had ever happened to us. We thought none of us had Covid. Then Ed Davis, who had a cold, started coughing and we didn’t want him near us anymore (laughs). It was crazy, like in a movie. I’ll never forget. »
