Hassan Whiteside and new Utah Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert have never been the best of friends. They've been involved in a handful of rather heated exchanges on Twitter over the past few years which has led some to believe that these two guys just don't like each other.

Whiteside, who recently signed with the Jazz, now faces the prospect of playing alongside someone who is considered to be his “rival.” He's also going to be seeing Gobert every single day in practice so, at this point, Whiteside has made an effort to clear the air. According to the 32-year-old center, there really is no beef between himself and Gobert:

“There’s no rivalry or anything,” Whiteside said, via Ryan McDonald of DeseretNews. “We’re just competing. At the end of the day, I’m always happy to see a big man succeed in this league, especially somebody that blocks shots the same as I do.

“There’s never been any rivalry. It’s been always just competing against each other, and we’re going to talk.”

Of course this was what Whiteside was going to say about this issue. Gobert is one of the pillars of this Utah Jazz team, and Whiteside is the new kid on the block. It's not as if he could have admitted that he's not fond of the three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner, right?

Then again, maybe there really is no beef between these two new Jazz teammates. It's just funny how things work out in the NBA. The lesson here is that you should never burn any bridges.