Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert speaks, criticizes, Covid and Donovan Mitchell

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MINNEAPOLIS Minnesota Timberwolves center and French basketball star Rudy Gobert rode the same wave of emotions as many of his fellow Frenchmen in the men’s World Cup final this month. Anguish. Hope. Agony.

In the end, as France lost to Argentina on penalties, he reached out to his friend, 24-year-old French star Kylian Mbappé, who had scored three goals in the league game.

I was really proud of him, said Gobert. He showed the world who he is. It only gets better. That’s what I told him.

Gobert thought Mbappé must have felt like him after losing to Spain in the EuroBasket final with the France team three months ago.

Obviously it’s not as watched as the FIFA World Cup, but it’s the same feeling when you’re losing, when you’re so close to being on top and losing in the final, Gobert said. So I just have to use this pain to keep getting better.

Gobert, three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, has been through a tough time himself.

This summer, the Utah Jazz traded him to Minnesota, which bet its future on Gobert’s ability to help the franchise win its first championship. The Timberwolves gave the Jazz four draft picks, four players and the right to trade picks in 2026.

The average fan might not understand what I bring to the table, Gobert said, but league GMs do.

In Minnesota, Gobert joined compatriot Karl-Anthony Towns, and the team struggled to adjust to his new roster. The Timberwolves enjoyed a five-game winning streak in November, but Towns has been out since suffering a calf injury on Nov. 28 and Gobert has missed a few games. Minnesota was 16-18 heading into Wednesday’s game against New Orleans.

Gobert recently sat down with The New York Times to discuss his move to Minnesota; how it handles criticism; racism in Utah; and his relationship with former Jazz teammate Donovan Mitchell, who was traded to Cleveland in September.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How was it adjusting to playing with another center like Karl-Anthony Towns?

I don’t really like to call him a center because I don’t think he’s a center. I think it’s more of a wing in a central body. But yeah, it’s been a fun process so far. Obviously, we knew there would be ups and downs, and there are ups and downs. But KAT was a great teammate. He was a great human.

People like to emphasize that it’s two great men playing together, but there’s always an adjustment process when a player like me joins another team. Building chemistry takes time.

Is it difficult when you’re going through this process and there are so many eyes on it?

It’s not difficult for me. I want to win, I’m a competitor, so it’s hard to lose. But at the same time, I am able to understand the big picture and understand that you have to go through pain in order to grow. I said whenever people ask me, it’s going to be adversity. And when adversity hits, obviously everyone will have something to say. People will always have opinions.

Many people celebrate my failures. It’s kind of like a mark of respect for me to have people waiting for me to do something wrong or for my teams to start losing. Then they get really loud. And when my teams do well, it’s calm again. You know, I kind of accept that it’s part of the outside noise that accompanies all the success we’ve had in Utah and the last few years of my career.

When did you first feel that people were celebrating your failures?

One time I started having success, when I started winning All-NBA Defensive Player of the Year, being an All-Star. When my team, when we started winning like 50 games and everything. People on social media are always the loudest. When I go out, all interactions are generally positive.

Social media is a different place, and people with a lot of frustration can tell. Fans are going to have opinions. I’m talking more about the media.

A lot of people talk about Utah being a tough place for black players, for black people in general. Have you ever had such experiences as a black player when you were there?

My family and I have never had bad experiences. I always had a lot of love there. But I can understand, for me being an NBA player and for a young black guy who may be the only black guy in his school, the treatment may be different. People talk about Utah, but it’s the same everywhere when there’s not a lot of diversity. It’s part of every society in the world that people can be marginalized for having a different skin color, a different religion. There will always be kids in school who bully people for being different.

You had a very strange experience a few years ago in Utah as the first NBA player known to test positive for coronavirus. You were blamed for spreading it within the league, although no one really knew how it happened. How has this experience affected you?

It was a really difficult experience for me, dealing with all of that, obviously, Covid, but also all that came with it. Thanks to yes, it was a difficult experience, but I think it made me grow.

Did you say thank you to the media?

No, I stopped saying what I was going to say. But I remember a lot of things that happened. I won’t forget, you know. There was a lot of fear. There were a lot of stories there. I have been a victim of it. But at the same time, a lot of people were going through really tough times. I had to distance myself from what people say about me. They were people who didn’t even know me. And I know when something like that happens people get really stressed and it was hard on everyone.

There were a lot of conversations about your relationship with Donovan Mitchell, then and after. How do you see how this relationship was?

I think it was a difficult situation for me, just like it was a difficult situation for him. After that, we came back very successfully as a team. Starting today, Donovan is someone I want to see happy. I want to see him succeed. I want him and his family to be great. Things happen, and sometimes people can do things to you that can hurt you. A lot of times it’s out of fear, you know. So you just have to grow through that and see beyond that.

You mentioned that people would do things that would hurt you. You mean Mitchell?

I mean in general. That’s life.

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