No one likes to admit it, but let’s face the facts; the world of sport is not for everybody. It takes more than just inert abilities to domicile in in it. The 7 feet 1 inch tall French professional basketball player Rudy Gobert is regarded as one of the best rim protectors in NBA history. In addition, Rudy is the player of the Utah Jazz of the NBA.
Without mincing words, Rudy Gobert is the best defender in the world. Isn’t that amazing? Rudy Gobert as a sport superstar is known for his agility, intense tackles, defensive blocks and tactical shots.
These are well complemented by his physical features such as body size and height. Nevertheless, the superstar also has essential factors that favor his career as the best basketball players, aside from hard work, talent, and zeal for the game. What are these factors? Let’s find out.
Quick Fact about Rudy Gobert
Before we uncover more details about Rudy Gobert, let’s know about him in brief.
Early Life of Rudy Gobert
Birth and Upbringing
Gobert was born in Saint-Quentin, Aisne, in the north of France. In 1992, The NBA star was born to his parents Corinne Gobert and Rudy Bourgarel. His father was also a basketball prayer and played in Paris and Saint-Quentin where he met Corinne. Quite unfortunate, When Rudy was just three years old, his parents had a divorce. After his father moved to Guadalupe, he was raised by his single mother in his native town of Saint-Quentin, France.
Education
After Rudy’s parent got their divorce papers, they went separate ways. Although they went apart, Rudy made up his mind to fulfill the dream his father couldn’t. With his aim to play for the NBA in future, Rudy played for JSC St-Quentin.
He went further to play for Saint-Quentin. Rudy Gobert also attended Cholet training centre, exactly where most of his basketball skills were developed. Being raised alongside with his brother by his mother, who was just a hairdresser, Rudy couldn’t proceed for higher degrees instead decided to follow his dream regardless of the situation.
Early Career of Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert featured primarily for Cholet Junior side during his times at Cholet. Furthermore, in the 2010/11 season, Rudy featured in just a game for Cholet senior side. After that, he became a regular player and featured many times in about 29 games. This gave him the privilege to explore as he registered 4.2 and 3.6 in points and rebounds per game. Subsequently, getting to the 2012/13 final season with Cholet, Rudy increased his average to 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game respectively.
Rudy began the journey into his dream life in the 2013/14 season and entered the 2013 NBA draft. He set a record for wingspan, extending 7 feet, 8.5 inches, and standing reach, measuring 9 feet 7 inches at NBA draft combined. Rudy’s outstanding performance precipitated his nickname “The stifle Tower”.
In the same year, he was selected as the Denver Nuggets and became the 27th overall and was sold to Utah Jazz on the night he was picked, however, this brought him to his first striking deal with Utah Jazz.
Rudy’s Journey to Greatness
Going forward, Rudy featured in 42 games the Utah Jazz played in the 2013 NBA session leaving 40 games that he couldn’t partake. Moving into 2014, Rudy featured in Utah Jazz summer league and went on extending the contracts till 2015/16 season. This season marked another tremendous success for Rudy when he registered a career-high of 24 rebounds.
By the end of the session, Rudy Gobert had registered 25 double-doubles and became the third most improved player of the year. However, when 2015 was folding up, the superstar sustained a sprained left injury that led to his indefinite withdrawal from the action.
Nevertheless, by early 2016 Rudy got back into the game playing against the Houston Rockets. He got his team leverage when in just 15 minutes into the game, registered six points and three rebounds. This success paved the way to a four-year contract deal worth millions of dollars of which he signs with Utah Jazz. This contract got Rudy’s name into the list of highest-paid French basketball star per year salary.
The superstar made even more waves when he recorded his 31st double-doubles in a game against Indiana Pacers. Rudy singlehandedly helped Utah progressed to payoff when he registered 19points and 11 rebounds, which made it his 30th consecutive game with nothing less than 10 rebounds.
Awards won by Rudy Gobert
Rudy Gobert defeated the Loss Angeles Clippers to set a payoff second-round battle with the Golden warriors. He was later named to the All-NBA second-team honors and NBA All-Defensive first team.
The journey continued when Rudy began his 2017/18 campaign on a powerful note with 8 double-doubles. However, he sustained yet another injury in his right knee which kept him out of action for about four weeks. Although he missed more than 10 games, the young star got his feet back on the field three weeks after his injury. This time, his performance rated best especially when he recorded the highest point of 26 and 16 rebounds against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
This performance didn’t only earn him more fame but also earned him a place in the 2018 NBA All-Defensive First Team as he became the third Utah Jazz player to earn such honors. Being the first Utah Jazz player to achieve such a high foot since Mark Eaton in 1989, he was nominated for the NBA Defensive Player of the year’s award. Again, at the end of the 2018/19 season, Rudy Gobert was named to the season’s NBA All-Defensive First Team.
Rudy has been ranked as the 46th best NBA player this year. At different point of Rudy career, he has won diverse honoring awards. In 2011, Rudy Gobert has featured in games for the French National side, winning bronze for his side at the 2011 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. He also won a silver at the 2012 FIBA Europe U-20 championship.
In addition, Rudy Gobert won bronze along with the French side the 2014 FIBA basketball world cup. He also played with the French National side achieving Bronze in 2015 and featured again in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics among others.
How Much Is Rudy Gobert’s Net Worth?
Being one of the best NBA players is not just for namesake. It comes with a fat pocket. Rudy Gobert has made deals that fostered a big increment in his salary as he jumped from 2 Million dollars as of 2015/16 to 21 Million dollars salary in 2017. The money keeps growing at every one of his tremendous wins. Recently, In October 2019 the superstar signed a contract with the Utah Jazz that accords him a massive salary upgrade of $24 Million per year.
The breakdown of his worth showed that Rudy earns $69,686 per day and $2,904 per hour. Gosh! That’s huge, almost like a lifetime savings of public officeholders. No wonder a speedy spike in his net worth from $6 million as of 2016/17 to a whopping sum of $40 million.
Is Rudy Gobert a Philanthropist?
Certainly, not every superstar can do what Rudy does as his own contribution to humanity. In October 2017, Gobert launched his Rudy’s Kids Foundation. Not only that, the foundation would donate $1,000 to humanitarian services for every blocked shot he makes during selected games. This is beyond his contracts with Utah Jazz.
The superstar was noble enough to choose such a unique approach instead of promoting the foundation with a standard press conference or media-friendly event. In addition, Many nonprofit foundations have been partakers of the huge contributions and donations by Rudy Gobert. An instance of this is the Sacramento Children’s Home and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston.
Furthermore, in 2020 during the phase two lockdown caused by coronavirus pandemic, Rudy Gobert was the first NBA player to be infected by the virus. When he recovered, he became instrumental to the Utah Jazz center donating a total of $500,000 to assist various groups affected in the United States and France.
Though other NBA players contributed to the donation, however, Rudy’s donation hyped the money to that sum. This is perhaps because he passed through isolation periods when he was infected and knew how difficult those periods were.
Who is Rudy Gobert Girlfriend?
Most time people attribute fame to frolicking around with women and concubines. This is totally not the case for Rudy Gobert. In fact, Rudy seems to be more on inclining his career to a new height of success than the love and emotional construct.
In addition, he is more interested in touching lives especially children and teens than touching women. As such he is never hinted at his love life and neither has he been rumored to have a girlfriend.
Thus our superstar Rudy Gobert is not married as of May 2021 and doesn’t have a concubine. Similarly, he doesn’t seem to be dating anyone right now.
Although not an athlete, Freddie Highmore is another young celebrity like Rudy who is well-loved by fans: Here is All You Need to Know About Freddie Highmore Sexuality
Conclusion
Rudy Gobert rose beyond the limitations that arose as the result of his parents’ divorce to become world prominent man that he is. Whether you believe it or not, you cannot talk about stars of basketball especially in the USA and France without mentioning Rudy’s name. He got is dreams going until he achieved what his father wished but couldn’t achieve. Today he is signing and making deals globally in the world of sports going home with a fat pocket.
