The Gobert affair is the reverse masterpiece of the Minnesota Timberwolves

In Minneapolis they will long remember one Tim Connelly. Since last May he has been the general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves, chasing the leap in quality after years of NBA anonymity. Well, it so happens that in the summer Connolly is the architect of one trade gigantic: the Utah Jazz go Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Leandro Bolmaro, Walker Kessler, Jarred Vanderbilt and above all four first picks in the drafts of 2023, 2025, 2027, 2029 plus a preemption to that of 2026 – in fact, the future of their deductible; instead, the 30-year-old arrives at the T’Wolves Rudy Gobert. Which is sprinkled with dollars (four-year 170 million, until 2024 will be the team’s first salary) and tasked with dragging him to the top of the Western Conference. Today it happens that Gobert was suspended from the squad. And the Timberwolves are one step away from being out of it all. Again.

The key night, which toured all over America, was that of April 9th. Last regular season game: Minnesota-New Orleans is a playoff for eighth in the West and the hosts are off to a bad start. During a time-out Kyle Anderson gets angry with Gobert for the poor presence in defense. And in response, Gobert punches his partner. At the end of the first half Jaden McDaniels, big forward for the T’Wolves, also shoots one, to the wall of the tunnel leading to the changing rooms. Neither of them will return to the field: the Frenchman due to a technical choice, the other because he broke his hand – and the season is over. With no further sources of stupidity, the second-half team comeback and win. And it came close, very close to repeating itself on Wednesday night: in Los Angeles, the Lakers of James and Davis bullied the first play-in act in overtime. But without Gobert (sanctioned for disciplinary reasons), coach Chris Finch’s boys played splendid team basketball, even leading by 15 points in the third quarter and then physically crashing: “We deserved to win”, comments the coach. “Throughout the year we damned ourselves to find ourselves: now we are”.

And Minnesota has another straight game ahead of it for the last playoff position. According to ESPN, Gobert should have served his punishment. Also because relegating him to the margins smacks of admission of guilt that the wealthy ownership of the Timberwolves would gladly avoid. Winning Friday might save face. Hardly the rest: the series against the Denver Nuggets of Jokic promises to be prohibitive in any case. It’s a season born wrong and wrong it will end, for the T’Wolves, who for four months had to do without the injured Karl-Anthony Towns, the other star of the team. The real problem, however, will be the future, atrophied by the Gobert operation.

Was that to be expected? Yes. By sheer talent, Rudy is undoubtedly the French basketball player of the decade, a dominant center and a formidable defender. But in the NBA he is a superstar among many, he alone does not shift the balance. And above all he has a head problem: the punch to Anderson is a simple recurrence. Scattered reminders.

In March 2020 Gobert rose to prominence for having touched all the surrounding microphones, making fun of Covid: he thus became the first positive player in the league. Not happy, months later he appreciated a transphobic tweet from Elon Musk against Anthony Fauci, White House medical adviser during the pandemic. On the court, however, we Italians know well about Rudy at the Olympics, when after the game he went to dunk against no one and all the principles of basketball etiquette – to then repeat himself this year, in garbage time in Utah against his former team. At the 2022 European Championships, Gobert and Evan Fournier were also the only Frenchmen to take the silver medal off their necks. Contemptuous among comrades and opponents. He says Jessica Rabbit’s dilemma: “I’m not bad, it’s that they draw me like this”. Gobert instead did it all by himself. Only Tim Connelly hadn’t noticed.