Draymond Green’s stranglehold on Rudy Gobert is the latest chapter in a dispute that has been simmering for several years: The defensive aces from Golden State and Minnesota simply can’t get along. SPOX traces the chronology of the feud: It’s about awards, tears – and punches against teammates.
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert: How did the feud start?
How and when exactly the mutual animosity really started could only be determined by a lie detector test. They weren’t real competitors in the regular season and playoffs; the Warriors were too dominant in the 2014/15 to 2018/19 seasons. But there was also the award for Defensive Player of the Year – and they were both keen on that.
Accordingly, both were compared in terms of their defensive impact and also asked about the competitor. “Draymond is great at defending and switching positions, but I also influence opponents that I don’t directly defend,” Gobert told ESPN in 2017. “A great rim protector not only has an impact with blocks, but he is in the opponents’ minds before the throw or drive.”
In the same year they went against each other in the playoffs. What did Green have to say about Gobert? “I can’t play defense against his defense. So it doesn’t matter.” The Warriors swept the Utah Jazz out of the playoffs despite a flagrant foul by Gobert against Green, and later won the title. Green would win his only DPOY award to date.
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert: titles and awards in comparison
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert: tears and first verbal attacks
Despite the award, Gobert didn’t want to accept the Warrior as the best defender. “Every year I think that I am the best defender in the league,” emphasized the Frenchman at the start of the 2017/18 season. “As I said, I think that the best defensive player makes his team better, because a lot of things can’t be seen in the statistics.” The Warriors won the title again with Kevin Durant – but this time Gobert was supposed to win the DPOY award.
Clips from the 2018/19 season can be found on social media, in which things sometimes get heated between the two, but still nothing extraordinary. Until Green brought the dispute to a personal level before the 2019 All-Star Game at the latest: Neither had received a nomination for the spectacle, which Gobert couldn’t easily cope with – he cried in an interview.
The reaction from Golden State followed promptly via Twitter: “I guess I should cry too…” Green scoffed at his missed All-Star berth.
This tweet did not go unnoticed by Gobert. When a user Green said, “The way you cried in the parking lot for KD?” countered – a reference to the 2016 NBA Finals, when the Warriors lost to Cleveland and Green immediately recruited Kevin Durant – Gobert gave this replica a “like”.
By now the fronts could no longer be reconciled. “Did he tweet? As long as he doesn’t post anything on Snapchat, everything is fine,” Gobert joked in an interview a little later. Green, in turn, continued to make fun of Gobert’s tears in 2022: “Thank God he was chosen for the next three All-Star teams,” he told “Inside the NBA” and said: “You can’t cry there! “Come on. Then at least cry in the car.”
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert: The poison arrows keep flying
The 2022 All-Star Game had just begun when Draymond Green was interviewed live – and forbade comparisons to Gobert. “You mention us both in the same sentence. But we have nothing in common.” Afterwards he brought it back at least a little to the factual level: “What [Gobert] defensively, it’s incredible how he protects the ring. But defense is more than just rim protection.”
Gobert, in turn, was asked diligently about Green in interviews. “For me it’s just noise,” he said a few days later. “When people talk about you and target you, it shows that you’re doing something right.” And: “The more noise, the harder it is to take someone like that seriously.”
And again a month later: “When we see each other, he is always very nice and respectful. […] What is said about me in podcasts, not just by Draymond, is intended to discredit me and my daily work. But I see that as respect. If I were just average, no one would talk about me.”
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert: Jordan Poole and the aftermath
The feud was supposed to escalate again in October 2022: Before the start of the new season, Draymond Green hit his teammate Jordan Poole in the face – a huge scandal that would haunt the Warriors for a long time and ultimately lead to Poole being traded to the Wizards a year later. Gobert, now wearing the Minnesota Timberwolves jersey, wasn’t entirely clear about his opponent, but his tweet “Uncertainty is always loud” clearly read as a tip against the Warrior. A response to the fact that he had laughed at the new Wolves’ chances of winning the title?
When Gobert hit his teammate Kyle Anderson in April 2023, hit him in the chest and was then sent home, Draymond promptly had the same wording ready – and also talked about the incident in his podcast: “I personally think Rudy Gobert is a slightly softer guy”, he revealed. The Frenchman gained respect in this way: “I’ve never seen him defend himself – I didn’t even know if he even had that in him.”
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert: The chokehold and the lock
The ceasefire lasted for nine months – until Green escalated again on Thursday. A scuffle between Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels brought Gobert onto the scene, but he had barely put his hands around Thompson when his archenemy stormed up and put him in a headlock. Although this is still expressed positively: Who can see the facial expression with which he applies the chokehold against the Frenchman and drags him with him – even when several players and coaches rush up and try to separate the two, it will be difficult to convince them that it is not something personal.
The freakout cost the Warriors’ big men a five-game suspension, and he also received a public scolding from head coach Steve Kerr: “He went too far and made a mistake, he knows that too. That didn’t look good, the five Games suspension is deserved.” Green held Gobert by the neck for “six, seven seconds.” “It was a terrible picture for the league, for Draymond and for everyone involved.”
Draymond Green vs. Rudy Gobert: Who currently has the final say?
Green has not yet commented on his action and the subsequent suspension. Afterwards, however, there was no longer any sign of elegant restraint in Gobert. The campaign was a “laughing stock,” he emphasized. And he added to The Athletic: “The chokehold wasn’t good enough to let me step away. But he really tried.” If Green had known how to apply a proper chokehold, “it could have been a lot worse. He was targeting me.”
He also suggested that Green had already planned on getting kicked out in advance: “Before the game I said to myself: Steph [Curry] isn’t there, so Draymond will try to get himself kicked out of the game. Because every time Steph doesn’t play, he doesn’t want to play.”
Is there a grain of truth in this accusation? In fact, according to USA Today, seven of Green’s last 11 ejections – he’s not one for sadness – came in games without Steph Curry. At least a noticeable rate.
It’s hard to imagine that the hot-blooded warrior will let this taunt go on for too long. Sequel follows.
2023-11-18 08:04:00
#Draymond #Green #Rudy #Gobert #Chronology #Controversy
