Apparently, Michael Malone isn't very fond of Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert. The former Denver Nuggets head coach certainly has seen a lot of the 4-time Defensive Player of the Year during his head coaching career.
Recently, Rudy Gobert made comments about the defensive effort from the team and how there has been no accountability.
"There's just no effort. We've seen that many, many times this year, last few years since I've been here. We always know it's coming, and when it comes there's no sense of urgency. No accountability. So I think at some point, if the players don't have accountability, someone else gotta have accountability for the players. I'm just talking straight effort," Gobert said.
On the most recent episode of the podcast The Hoops Collective, ESPN NBA reporter Brian Windhorst said this, "When we ran these comments today on NBA Countdown...Michael Malone said, 'Well nobody cares about what Rudy Gobert thinks anyways."
Malone and Gobert has crossed paths often
Many believe that Gobert was calling out the team's top two offensive players, Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle, with his postgame comments after last Friday's disappointing loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. The team didn't seem to take his comments to heart in a dispiriting loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, but Minnesota bounced back nicely with an easy win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
The Timberwolves and Nuggets have had their fair share of battles in recent seasons, part of the reason that the two teams were matched up on this season's Christmas Day schedule. Malone was the head man with Denver for many of them. His tenure with the team went from 2015-16 until he was fired with just three games remaining last season. Malone's Nuggets won the 2023 NBA Finals over the Miami Heat.
Denver and Minnesota met up in the postseason in back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024. The heavily-favored Nuggets beat the Wolves in five games in 2023 in the opening round en route to winning the championship.
During the 2024 Western Conference Semifinals, the series was a hard-fought, 7-game grind that went back and forth. Minnesota won the first two games, with the Nuggets winning the next three putting the Timberwolves at the brink of elimination. Minnesota won Game 6, but were trailing by 20 in the second quarter of Game 7. The comeback was on from them, and the Wolves advanced with a 98-90 victory.
Gobert and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic have become one of the best center matchups in the league. Also in 2024, there was a moment when Christian Braun skyed through the air to slam one over Gobert. After the dunk, Braun gave him a bump which led to Gobert putting his arm around his neck area and shoving him away. Perhaps Malone still remembers that moment and just doesn't like The Stifle Tower.