Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who recently bagged his second Defensive Player of the Year Award, joked that he'll give his trophy to a young girl playing some intense defense in a viral video clip.
Via Twitter, Gobert retweeted the clip and offered her his Defensive Player of the Year trophy.
Allright @nba you can give her my trophy https://t.co/KAXs9BYLWT
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) June 26, 2019
Is he joking? Or is he mailing the trophy to the young girl as we speak? Either way, Gobert seems to like the young woman's tenacity on defense.
The Frenchman is now considered one of the best paint defenders in the league. His two DPOY trophies are proof of such as well as his three selections to the NBA All-Defensive First team. He has joined Sidney Moncrief, Mark Eaton, Dennis Rodman, Hakeem Olajuwon, Alonzo Mourning, and Kawhi Leonard as the two-time winners of the DPOY award.
Last season, Gobert averaged 15.9 points per game, 12.9 rebounds (4th in the league), 2.0 assists, and 2.3 blocks (3rd in the league). In his career so far, he has never averaged below 2.2 blocks per game except in his rookie year (0.9) where he played just 9.6 minutes in 45 games.
In his speech during the NBA Awards ceremony, it was evident that the award means so much to him. Via Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune:
“I’d take the Defensive Player of the Year any day over an All-Star selection,” Gobert said. “There’s only one of these in the whole league every year.”
Indeed, Gobert takes huge pride in playing defense — perhaps the underappreciated part of the game.
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