A history of the Draymond Green, Rudy Gobert beef

ESPN.com: If it’s fair, is it you? Gobert: [Laughs.] You have to study a lot of things. There’s a lot of factors. I think guys like Draymond Green have had a tremendous season. […] Draymond is great at guarding multiple positions and switching, but for myself, I impact people that I’m not guarding. You know? When I’m out there and one of the guards has the ball, I’m not the primary defender, but he knows that if he drives, I’m going to be there. So he’s not going to play the same way. That’s the way I think the rim protector impacts the game. Any great rim protector doesn’t only impact the game when he blocks shots; he impacts the game because he’s already in the mind of [opponents] before they even get a shot up or before they even drive. That’s what makes a good defensive team.

There’s another guy from Saginaw, Mich. that won last year’s Defensive Player of the Year. His name is Draymond Green. (Laughs) Now is that a goal of yours this year to try and get that award. Rudy Gobert: Of course. Every year, I think I’m the best defensive player in the league and I want to be the best. I think being the defensive player in the league is making your team better because, like I said, there’s a lot of things you don’t see on stats. When you make your team better, usually it means a lot.

“One thing I can assure you: If I didn’t make it this year, I wasn’t going to cry. I can 100 percent assure you that. I mean, the man cried on national television when he didn’t make the All-Star team. Thank God he’s made the next three. You can’t cry, Chuck. I said it then, I’m gonna say it now.”

After being compared defensively with the likes of Dikembe Mutombo and Rudy Gobert as former Defensive Players of the Year, Draymond Green fired back with what felt like a sudden rage from his heart. “You keep mentioning me in the same sentence with him. We are not alike,” asserted the Warriors star. Kenny Smith followed up by asking if he meant Dikembe Mutombo or Rudy Gobert. “Who you just mentioned me with and I ain’t say Mutombo,” Draymond replied. “We ain’t nothing alike.” … “I think what [Gobert] does on the defensive side of the ball is incredible. I think the way he protects the rim is incredible. But defense is more than just protecting the rim.”

Speaking with reporters on Friday, the Utah Jazz center was asked about all of the shots that Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has taken at him recently. “It’s just noise to me,” replied Gobert, per Dana Greene of KTVX in Utah. “If anything, when people keep talking about you, targeting you in some way, it means you’re doing something right. I’m just gonna keep trying to be the best Rudy I can be on and off the court and for my team.

The 7-foot-1 Utah Jazz center sat down with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks to give his take on his relationship with Green. “I’m not talking about him,” Gobert said. “When I see him in person, he’s always really nice and respectful. So as long as that stays the same. I think that what’s being said about me on podcasts, it’s not just Draymond, it’s a lot of guys that try to discredit what I do every night, who I am as a player. It’s part of it. But for me, I will always take it as respect. If I was an average defensive player, an average player, they wouldn’t talk about me. I will always take it as respect.” …. “Once again, when I talk about Draymond, or anyone else, I show respect. If these guys want to disrespect me, it’s their choice. I’m a quiet person and some guys are different, and they’re going to express their mind and it’s fine. People love beef. Beef generates more interaction. I get it. But I’m chilling. I don’t have beef with anyone.”

Rudy Gobert on Draymond Green: There’s no beef on my side. I mean, as long as you keep your respect. You know, you stay in line, and respect my family and stuff like that. You know, he just competitiveness and he just, you know, I’ve, once again every time I talked about Draymond, anybody else, I show respect/ So these guys want to disrespect me, it’s their choice, you know, and I take that as respect because I know that’s, you know, its competitiveness and knowing I’m a quiet person, but some guys are different personalities. And, you know, they’re gonna, they’re gonna express their mind. And it’s fine.

Taylor Rooks: This whole situation, I think, is very fascinating to me this whole Rudy Gobert-Draymond Green thing. So I want for you, why do you feel like that relationship is where it is right now? Or, I guess, lack of relationship? Rudy Gobert: Yeah, I mean, when you say where the relationship is, it’s because of what he’s saying about me, because I’m not talking about him. You’re right. So when I see him in person, he is always really nice and respectful. Rudy Gobert: It’s either right or wrong? Once again, there’s data, there’s numbers, there’s, you know, a lot of people that know this game, that watch the game, and that are kind of neutral, you know, that don’t have anything to gain, and they can make their own opinion. So for me, it’s like, I’m never going to talk down on anyone. You know, I respect all these guys know that. Once again, like I respect every guy in the league, I think everyone for sort of being in this league is already something. So the great ambition, and it’s hard to also be in this league and sustain this league and be consistent, you know, and they will tell you the same. So I show respect, you know, and if you disrespect me in persons different story, but we can say whatever you want.