Shaq has pushed back on the widespread praise of Rudy Gobert, going into detail about why he thinks the French international is "overrated". “I never thought he was a great defensive player. See what it is is there’s not a lot of centers that are making him play defense. He not doing that sh-t against Joker cause he’s got to be engaged, but when he goes against another guy – he’s 7’6! Of course if you lay it up he’s gonna block it, but defense to me is guard that motherf**ker and shut him down. You want to impress me? Hold Joker under 15 points. Now you’re playing defense. All that weakside, blocking shots, that’s cool, but it ain’t gonna work against guys like me, Joker, and Embiid. What he’s talking about with Bam is, Bam plays people. He plays the two, the three, the four, and the five. So, I would give it to him too," Shaq said.
Gobert, who is a key figure on a white-hot Timberwolves team, is in contention for Defensive Player of the Year this season. He currently leads the league in both defensive win shares and defensive rating. Furthermore, Gobert is second in rebounding this season, averaging 12.9 a game at the time of writing. However, he is not only a defensive asset. He currently boasts the fourth-highest field goal percentage in the league at 64.8%. However, due to his defensive focus, this translates to 13.7 points per game.
Rudy Gobert Has Bizzare, NSFW Reaction To Making First-Ever Three-Pointer
Gobert is a divisive figure in the league. He can also be just extremely weird at times. During a warm-up exhibition game for the FIBA World Cup last summer, Gobert scored his first-ever three-pointer. It was a fairly simple lob from the top of the arc but the crowd went wild and rightly so. After all, it's a big moment to see someone's first-ever competitive three-pointer. Then Gobert went and made it really weird.
When asked how he felt about scoring his first three-pointer, Gobert said "Ce soir, j'ai l'impression d'avoir perdu ma virginité." That translates to "Tonight, I feel like I lost my virginity" which is a really weird thing to say. Within hours, it had been turned into a quote meme that has since been used throughout the NBA season.
[via]