My passion for gaming is well-known among both the Utah Jazz and my team in France.
Rudy Gobert
I have so many great memories of Christmas because we're always spending it with the family.
People watch the points, they watch the highlights. But the defense I think helps the offense.
Goaltending, sometimes it's tough because you're in the air and you say, 'No, no. Don't take the ball.'
My goal is to protect the basket. Most of the time, I won't block the shot but I'm going to affect the shot or I'm going to affect the way they think.
Once I got 13 or 14 years old, I started watching a lot of videos on YouTube and NBA.com and I started following the NBA ball.
I did some bad stuff. I don't remember what in particular, but I did some bad stuff. So the morning of Christmas, I wake up and my brother is there, my sister, my mom, everyone's got gifts and I can't find my gifts. No gifts. They acted like Santa didn't' bring me anything because I wasn't good.
I want to be an offensive player, too. Play low post, midrange, take jump shots, and just be the best I can be.
For years now, I've used gaming to unwind and relax during the season. It's also how I manage to keep up with my friends when I'm on the road.
It hurts to see other people calling Jazz fans racist.
It's about how you impact the game.
I've been away from my family even when I was in France.
I just wanted to keep getting better and better and better, and that's just my mindset.
When we get bad shots, it's hard to rebound and it's also harder to come back in transition defense.
When you know what you want, you know where you want to go.
I just try to do what I do by getting my teammates open and getting better at finishing and making plays when I can.
I like to play basketball. Sometimes if someone takes that away from you, you've got to get in your feelings for a reason.
I think I learned how it works in the league. When you are outside you don't understand everything, but when you are inside you can know how it works.
It's something I take a lot of pride in doing, in being the best defensive player in the world, in helping my teammates every night.
Defense is so important for helping your team win games and for the game in general.
I take a lot of pride in being healthy.
Even though I didn't have a lot of material things, I had the love and education and all together a lot of kids don't have the same chances, so the goal is to give some chances to the kids that don't have it.
My mom probably has a record player. I might need to get one.
I think I learned basketball. I learned a lot.
Some games I'm going to get more blocks or they're going to do more mistakes and give up more baskets but some games I get zero blocks and I affect 20 shots.
There's a lot of things you don't see on the stats.
Sometimes when you lose a game, you win a game, you get stuck in the bubble.
I want to stay with the Jazz.
Obviously, the basketball career doesn't last forever.
I was watching 'Space Jam' when I was a kid but that was pretty much the only thing I knew about the NBA.
When you know where you want to go, you're mentally tough.
At the end of my life, I just want to make sure I made a big difference in this world.
I'm working on my lower body, my explosiveness.
I don't watch college basketball.
You don't have to think, you just have to play hard on defense.
I think when you're a very good defensive team - it's very rare a team wins a championship when you're not a very good defensive team.
First, I'm just trying to set screens for my teammates and then just be aggressive, make the right play.
I trust my teammates and their ability to be there when they have to be there. I'm going to be there when I have to be there for them.
The Defensive Player of the Year is the guy that makes his team better. Not only gets stats - it's the guy that also has an impact on his teammates and leadership.
I'm able to impact people's lives by the way I play, but there's so much more things I can do so there is no limit to what I can do.
I think when you're a very good defensive team you give yourself a chance every night, on the road, at home, it's a big factor and something to build on.
I always love to help the community, to interact with the kids, with the fans. It doesn't matter who I am on the court, to me it's important.
I'd take the Defensive Player of the Year any day over an All-Star selection. There's only one of these in the whole league every year.
Obviously I think offensively, spacing for me as a guy that puts a lot of pressure on the rim is going to make it harder on a defense. They're going to have to make tougher decisions, and space is going to be way more open for all the guards, too.
I don't care about that All-Star bonus, to be honest. It's just about my legacy.
It's a tremendous amount of fans in France that love basketball, that follow it every day even though the games are at like two or three in the morning.
This is basketball. It's All-Star and all that stuff. That's not what it's really about. It's about making a difference and impacting the kids and helping people in need. That's what it's about.
In the playoffs, it's not going to be pretty. There's going to be some games where you don't score. But are you going to take a charge for a teammate?
There are a lot of people that never thought I was going to be the guy that I am now. Now when I see them, it's fun to see how people are. I don't think they're being fake. I think now they just see me from a different eye.
Usually, I heal very fast.
