The Olympics are designed to display all of the good in sports and humanity. The spirit of competition, international camaraderie, and goodwill toward all were probably original Olympic commandments back in the day, along with “good luck, you might die” and “please leave your pants at the door on your way in.” With Paris set to host the Olympics for the first time in 100 years, you would think all of this goodwill would transfer to the home athletes, and it mostly has to a degree.
Victor Wembanyama is already a national hero and is ready to burst onto the global scene with a breakout showing for the French National Men’s Basketball Team. Alexandre Lacazette and the French soccer team kicked off the Olympics by beating the hell out of Team USA 3-0 on Wednesday. Danis Civil is France’s number one B-Boy with a chance to win the first Breaking gold medal for the home team.
But that goodwill isn’t offered to every athlete at the 2024 Olympics. Just ask Rudy Gobert.
The 32-year-old new father from Northern France is one of the most disliked players in the NBA for one reason or another. Is it because he’s French? Is it because of the COVID/microphone situation he put himself in four years ago? Perhaps it’s because he’s a defensive player whose offensive play style isn’t aesthetically pleasing. Maybe it’s because he’s played for two smaller market teams in Utah and Minnesota his entire career, and most NBA fans have hardly watched him play. Is it that the lasting memory of the season in which he won his record-tying fourth DPOY trophy is the Luka Doncic game-winner over his outstretched hands?
Gobert is coming off arguably the best season of his Hall of Fame career, yet he still can’t seem to garner the respect around the league he deserves. He was voted the most overrated player in the league in The Athletic’s anonymous NBA player poll published in April of this year. The 7-footer being made fun of for being shorter than his French costar, Victor Wembanyama, can shut his haters up for good this year.
The first step was winning his fourth DPOY award, which tied him with Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace for the most all-time. Some in the NBA community decried the award as Gobert won over other generational defenders like Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis, and the rookie Wembanyama. However, it marked his reintroduction as a dominant force after his first year in Minnesota went awry.
With the Hakeem Olajuwon trophy in hand, Gobert’s next step towards vindication is finally winning a gold medal in men’s basketball for France in front of the home crowd. The French men’s basketball team has won three silver medals over the 88-year competition history. France first won silver in 1948 in London. Then broke a 52-year drought by winning silver in Sydney in 2000. Finally, France won the silver medal at the 2021 Tokyo Games. Gobert was a major contributor, averaging 12.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, including 16 points and eight rebounds in the gold medal game.
France currently has the third-shortest odds to win the gold medal. However, Team USA is rocking one of the deepest, most talented rosters ever seen in international competition. It will be a tough mountain to climb for Gobert to achieve step two in his plan for world domination.
Step 3 is easily the toughest obstacle that remains in his path. Win an NBA Championship (preferably with the Minnesota Timberwolves). The final stone in Gobert’s infinity gauntlet will be to raise the Larry O’Brien trophy high above his while yelling “tout est possible” before transitioning into the longest, most graphic D-X chop the world has ever seen. Last season’s 4-1 shellacking at the hands of Doncic and the Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals is the farthest Gobert has gotten in his 11-year career, and his detractors would say it’s because of him that his teams can’t summit the mountain and win an NBA Championship.
The Timberwolves have the sixth-best odds to take home the Larry OB in 2025 thanks to Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the guy trying to stop Gobert from winning a gold medal, Anthony Edwards. It might be a tall task in the loaded West, and with the Boston Celtics running back a team that won 64 games on its way to a title last year. However, if the Wolves win with Gobert patrolling the paint, the Frenchman will be canonized in the Twin Cities.
Gobert will never be a fan favorite across the league. Still, if he wins his fourth DPOY, an Olympic gold medal, and an NBA Championship in a single calendar year, there will be no denying his greatness, and the haters will be silenced once and for all.
