![]() He's a huge Game of Thrones fan and gets a thrill from being transported to worlds very different from our own. His Zelda love reflects an overall interest in fantasy stories. You can kinda personalize the way you play, find secrets." "I always liked the freedom in those games, the fact that you need to think," he says. It shouldn't be all that surprising that a young man in a city whose primary pastime is skiing (which he can't partake in, for obvious work-related reasons) has an abiding interest in non-athletic amusements. He's playing video games- Zelda, to be exact. Gobert doesn't spend his off-duty time daydreaming about superstardom and brand-extension opportunities. The kid from the small town of Saint-Quentin, France, isn't yet the transcendent cultural figure many of his peers can claim to be. The lunch isn't anything too fussy: steak, macaroni and cheese, and asparagus. Gobert's lunch attire is the basketball version of business casual: T-shirt, track pants and sneakers. That leadership, people listening to you, just comes." ![]() ![]() Making the playoffs, winning in the playoffs. "He can be a leader," Jensen says with a sort of wide-eyed conviction. He returned in Game 4 to help engineer a win behind his double-double performance. The most pressing issue in Gobert's life today is success in the postseason-already a tall task in the first round against a veteran Clippers team, but especially so with Gobert's knee injury that kept him out of nearly all of Game 1 and all of Games 2 and 3. Jensen recalls that he "spent probably the whole first year, year-and-a-half, maybe two years, telling him you don't need to dribble. "He wants to be able to do everything," Jensen says, specifically noting dribbling drills, which are pretty far down on the list of things the Jazz need the center to do but a testament to his desire to see a flaw and correct it. Jensen mentored Gobert through his first few seasons, tapping into his natural physical gifts to mold him into an elite NBA defender who is slowly learning how to play on the other end of the court.Īs far as Gobert has come, he's not satisfied. "I wish you'd made it, but I'm glad you didn't," the coach told Gobert after the All-Star snub, knowing the frustration would make him a better player. He's still sore about not making the All-Star team this year, something Jensen says they talk about. (Getty Images)Įven a loss in this year's playoffs won't deter a player who's fueled by those who don't believe in him. The Jazz and Clippers go into Game 5 with the series tied 2-2. Raymond Felton and Rudy Gobert go for the loose ball during Game 4 on April 23, 2017. Most of the time I show my teammates French rap, they think it sucks because they don't understand it." In France, we listen to a lot of American music. ![]() "Americans don't want to listen to something different than American," Gobert says. Like Parker, Gobert is friends with the legendary French rapper Booba, who he says has offered to give him tips on how to excel in music. I would do something more private," Gobert tells B/R Mag. "I was thinking about rapping, but I'd do it by myself before I put an album out. Gobert says audiences gave Parker "a lot of crap" for the record, but he sees nothing wrong with making the effort. (Parker's single, " Top of the Game ," did feature Fabolous, though). The album wasn't a critical or commercial success in the U.S. Tony Parker notoriously dropped the album TP in 2007. Gobert wouldn't be the first French basketball player to give hip-hop a shot. He has big plans for his home and even bigger ones for his budding passion: a rap career. A floor-to-ceiling window looks out onto a tennis court that Gobert says he's going to rip out in the offseason so he can erect a basketball hoop, but not before he can get in a few sets just to say he used it. A quick glance at Gobert's house reveals the standard bachelor-pad aesthetic: tasteful furniture, a kitchen appointed with all the modern amenities and little that signifies who lives there or what they do for a living. A few weeks prior to his dramatic comeback last Sunday, the 7'1" French center was playing host to his usual houseguests-his mom, Corinne, and his assistant- in his Salt Lake house. ![]()
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