A rift reportedly occurred between Utah Jazz players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell after the suspension of the 2019-20 season in March. This was in large part due to Gobert's reckless behavior during a press conference where he blatantly touched everything in sight, not aware that he might have been carrying the coronavirus already. Months after the incident, the two players have patched things up. And the Jazz general manager is impressed by Gobert's maturity.
Per Ryan Miller of KSL, Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey expressed his admiration for Gobert. Particularly the Frenchman's response to the tons of criticisms hurled at him.
“I was very impressed at how open Rudy was; how he owned certain points,” Lindsey said. “There was a real vulnerability and some self-reflection. I've just seen some real maturity. You know there are some things that we all have to look at ourselves when we get critiqued and I'm not sure I'm good at that at 51 years old. But I was quite impressed that Rudy at 28 could reflect and share how he's felt about a number of things.”
After Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, Mitchell yielded a positive test result as well days later. Given Gobert's reckless behavior before, Mitchell reportedly didn't see him eye to eye. But as they say, time heals all wounds. And the two have patched things up. In a recent interview, Mitchell admitted that he and Gobert are all good.
“Right now, we're good,” Mitchell said in a virtual news conference with reporters, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN. (He declined requests to comment for this story through his agent.) “We're going out there ready to hoop.”
For their first game back, the Jazz will face the New Orleans Pelicans, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets.