Rudy Gobert explains why he’s viewed in the NBA as ‘the odd guy from France’

Rudy Gobert has always felt misunderstood in the NBA, and he’s pondered over the many potential reasons throughout the years. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year believes it mostly has to do with his unique personality, style of play, envy and of course, cultural differences. He was recently chosen by his peers as the most overrated player in the league. 

When asked by the press recently, he explained why it has become common for fans and NBA players to ridicule him. “In their eyes, I’m more like the odd guy from France that’s winning a lot of awards, and it can bother people,” the Timberwolves center said.

“I impact the games in a very unique way. It’s maybe not as cool or not as flashy as some other guys, so it’s sometimes harder for them to respect that,” he shared. “I just think I’m just mostly misunderstood. I think I trigger a lot of these guys.”

NBA players have voted Rudy Gobert as the most overrated player

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The Minnesota big man expressed why it’s easy to become distracted by criticism. “We are so distracted by everything that’s been thrown at us,” he told ESPN. “Everything that we hear, we watch, we see on the phone, we listen to. So we don’t get to sometimes really be alone with ourselves.”

However, the French star has dedicated a lot of time to himself to help him grow in confidence. One of his most recent retreats came last summer, when he spent 64 hours alone in a small cabin. “It was a very powerful experience,” Gobert said.

“It felt like a huge reset and also a powerful checkpoint. I had a lot of gratitude. I went back into all the things that I’ve experienced up to this point, and all the things that I’ve been through and all the great people that I have around me. I realized that I was exactly where I was supposed to be in my journey.

“When you’re in the dark, it shows the things that are inside of you. If you’re negative, you see negative things. And if you’re positive, you see positive things. So you realize that at the end of the day, you create your own reality,” he recalled of the experience.

Gobert went deep into the reasons why he’s felt like an outsider ever since he was a young boy

According to the French center, he’s always felt this feeling of being misunderstood. Rudy comes from a biracial couple, and revealed that he’s always heard racial epithets while being raised by his white, single mother in France.

“It was harder for my mom, because it was hard for some people in our family to accept that she had a kid with a Black person,” Gobert recalled in a recent interview. After his parent divorced, his father, who is a former French basketball player, returned to his hometown on Saint-Quentin, in his native Guadaloupe.

Once their parent separated, Rudy acknowledged that his mother always took extra care of him and made sure he received a strong education. According to the veteran star, he owes great part of his career to his mom.

“So she cut ties with some of her family at that point to protect me. She always protected me, gave me the great education that I had, and she always supported me while I chased my dream. I’ll always be really grateful for that,” he shared.