NBA Players Can't Stop Shitting On Rudy Gobert, This Time It Comes From Dereck Lively Of All People

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

Give or take a few depending on what teams fill out their 15th roster spot, there are around 450 players in the NBA. Of those 450, there may not be a more polarizing player in the league than Rudy Gobert. It's honestly kind of crazy to watch the way he's talked about, not just by fans and media, but opposing players as well. Unless he plays for your favorite team, you'd think the way he's talked about he was the worst basketball player of all time. 

Now some of it you expect. Of course, you have guys like Draymond Green to revel in the opportunity to shit all over Gobert and his accomplishments. That's never going away. The man flew to Paris just to troll Gobert for the Gold Medal game. On the fan/media side, you have the classic debate of analytics vs "eye test" when it comes to discussing Gobert's impact. Whether it's current players or former players, I can't think of a player who is constantly shat on by his peers quite like Rudy Gobert

I mean, Dwight is knocking Gobert for the exact thing he succeeded at! Being an elite team defender is important! Is Gobert a perfect player? Hell no! His offensive limitations are real and they matter. But it all just seems very forced and very cringey to pretend a 4x DPOY winning is in fact bad or not impactful defensively. He seems like one of those players where both sides of the argument go WAY too far and the truth is actually somewhere in the middle.

At this point, it's starting to feel like shitting on Rudy Gobert has become some sort of right of passage for players nowadays. Take for example Dereck Lively II. A now 2nd year player who had a good season as a rookie but is flawed in his own right, became the latest active player to throw some shade Gobert's way

Mind you, Dereck Lively was virtually unplayable in the NBA Finals. Everything he's taking shots at Gobert for in their series was most definitely true of Lively's NBA Finals performance. He was completely removed from the equation by Jayson Tatum defensively, and once he could no longer feast off Luka lobs in the P&R, he was a non-factor. Couldn't guard defensively, and brought nothing offensively. It kind of sounds like what he's getting on Gobert for no? Granted he was a rookie so it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but maybe have some self-awareness here?

That's the thing. When it comes to Rudy Gobert, shitting on him as a player is the "cool" and "trendy" thing to do. It feels like a lot of this current discourse is coming as a result of Luka's game winner over Gobert

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which is something that I'd say happens against 99.9% of centers in that spot. Getting worked by a Luka stepback in space as a big is pretty common and is certainly not what determines whether or not someone is a good defender or shouldn't be on the floor. He's a generational scorer! I am certain that if Lively found himself on an island like that against Luka, we'd see the exact same result.

I can understand why some may not love Gobert as a player. He punched his own teammate on the sidelines, there was that whole Covid ordeal, it can be frustrating watching him have frying pans for hands offensively etc. That's all valid. But at this point when we have bench players who no-showed on the biggest stage suddenly talking crazy about a 4x DPOY and someone who could very well end up in the HOF, perhaps things have gotten a little out of hand.