Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert will not compete in this summer’s EuroBasket tournament, according to Yann Ohnona of French outlet L’Equipe.
A longtime member of France’s national team, Gobert suggested in February that he was likely to sit out the event, per RealGM.
“After the Euro, it’s always harder, that’s when you feel the backlash. And you don’t recover the same at 33 years old than at 23,” said Gobert, who turns 33 next week.
The four-time Defensive Player of the Year has not missed an international competition with France since 2017, Ohnona writes. That was also a EuroBasket tournament.
Gobert, who was named to the All-Defensive Second Team this season with Minnesota, has won a total of six medals with France, including a pair of silvers at the 2021 and 2024 Olympics. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is also considered unlikely to play for France this summer after being diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis — a blood clot — in his right shoulder in February, Ohnona notes.
EuroBasket 2025 begins August 27 and runs through September 14.
The French are always fairly deep with bigs & this is true now more than ever. Not having Rudy there will be weird but Alex Sarr & their other bigs should be just fine. The level of guard play they get from guys like Maledon, Okobo, Hifi, etc will be the key to them winning gold imo… link to m.youtube.com
I gotta give Rudy credit for being one of the best basketball players in FIBA history tho. Pretty sure he’s the only guy to lead 2 teams to Ws over a Team USA senior team in FIBA competition & he might have even done it 3x, I’m not sure. Hasn’t gotten himself an Olympic gold yet but that could be a real possibility at LA28 in a few yrs. 1st ballot HOFer, easily 1 of the most disrespected players in recent history (which is saying a lot bc yall really really love to hate these guys), top2 defender of his era & most importantly he’s l’homme trois cent million… link to m.youtube.com
Pretty incredible that France will be moving on from Rudy (only temporarily) & Nic Batum going into this yrs Eurobasket yet they prob won’t miss a step at all. Goes to show how strong that program is. Argentina took a big step back after losing Manu, then Scola. Spain took a step back after losing Pau & that generation. France is just steadily coming up tho.
Rudy was completely dominant vs Myles Turner & Team USA in this game. Myles may well be a huge key in his team winning their first NBA title but he had a really rough time trying to handle prime Rudy Gobert in this game… link to m.youtube.com
Plenty of athletic young men play basketball and other sports in France. The French basketball school is not as refined as the Spanish or German ones, for example. But basketball is very much about nature-given physicality, and there are many excellent young athletes in France, so they will keep coming.
As for Rudy, he’s at his best in a team where 4 other players can’t defend and can’t rebound. Put him in a group like that, and even by himself, he will transform a team with very poor defensive resistance to an average one, maybe even somewhat above average. He’s that good.
But as soon as you start adding competent rebounders, good physical wing and guard defenders, his value diminishes. He was mostly a non-factor for France at the Olympics. In the playoffs with Minnesota, his functions were substituted by Randle’s and Ant’s rebounding, Jaden’s defending, and he didn’t have much impact, apart from that one memorable game in Los Angeles and maybe a couple more decent games against GSW.
I think he would fit Phoenix quite well. He could positively transform that team.
Gobert’s fragile ego will have him sit out only if wemby plays. Dude faked an injury last tourny after learning he lost his spot in the starting lineup.
This is exactly how all of ^^y’all^^ sound/look when you hate on these guys so much & choose negativity so consistently/enthusiastically whenever y’all talk about guys like Rudy, KD, Russ, Embiid, etc, looks like Ace is next up lol. I promise this is how y’all look. Jealous, weird, ignorant, desperate, pathetic . Just being honest.
Joel Embiid take note…difference between the pros and the joeLs