Qualified for the NBA play-offs with the third best record in the Western Conference for his Minnesota Timberwolves team, Rudy Gobert (31 years old, 2.16 m) completed his eleventh season in the North American League. The French pivot, who averaged 14 points and 12.9 rebounds, is part of the discussion for the title of best defender of the season, a distinction he has already received three times (2018, 2019, 2021) . Before facing the Phoenix Suns in the first round, he spoke at length to the American site The Players’ Tribune.
The pivot details in particular the racism that he and his mother were victims of in their own family, due to Gobert’s skin color: “It’s a painful memory but one that I must share. Every year, the maternal branch of the family would host this big Christmas dinner at a certain someone’s house. My mother is white. My father is black. He is originally from Guadeloupe and was a professional basketball player in France when they met. My mother already had two white children, born from her previous relationship, and then I came into the world. And for some people, that was a problem. After my birth, some relatives made it clear to her that she was no longer welcome on Christmas Eve if she brought me. »
“I wish everyone on this planet had something in their life that they give their all to in the same way that I devote my whole soul to basketball”
The international (100 caps) also talks at length about his relationship with his mother – “What would I be without her? From day one, before I could protect myself, my mother protected me. The things she has done for me and my brothers and sisters… it’s incredible” -, and her passion for gaming: “I wish everyone on this planet had something in their life that they give their all to – all his passion, his heart and his emotions – in the same way that I devote my whole soul to basketball. »
Gobert also discusses his background and his character at length. “I’m always a little reluctant to talk about my personal journey. I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing or just my personal nature. But I think it may have made me a misunderstood person, he explained, indicating that he attended a spiritual retreat last summer in Oregon. More than anything, you realize to what extent your life, your dreams, your fears and everything that matters to you are masked by the daily grind. The darkness shows you everything. Even the things you thought you had buried. »
Among the defining moments of his US career, Gobert remembers the day when he learned that he was not selected for the All-Star Game, in 2019, and burst into tears, this “moment, more than anything, defines the way people see me in America and who I really am”: “I wasn’t emotional because I missed an All-Star Game. It was much deeper than that. I cried because of the deeper meaning. How much my mother means to me. How much this basketball game means to me. Everything we have experienced together. »
