Minnesota Timberwolves towering center Rudy Gobert, AKA “The Stifle Tower,” captured a major career milestone on Friday night in the Timberwolves 127-102 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. The Frenchman notched a season-high 15 rebounds following the previous game, in which he scored 21 points, another season-high. His stats on Friday, though, brought on a significant career achievement. An achievement that also crowned him as the 9th international player to accomplish.
Timberwolves “Stifle Tower” Center Hits Major Career Milestone
Timberwolves Center Rudy Gobert Hits 9,000 Rebounds Mark
It’s not about whether you like or dislike Gobert as a basketball player. You may believe him to be overrated or underserving. Put all that aside and acknowledge the fact that 9,000 rebounds is a lot. Now, he has a long way to go to crack the NBA’s top 20 in rebounding. However, given that Gobert averages 11.8 rebounds for his career, and it’s rare that he misses large chunks of time or gets significantly injured, he certainly has the time and the chance to reach the top 20.
Gobert hit 9,009 career rebounds on Friday, to which he reflected on, “Nine thousand rebounds, it’s cool,” Gobert said. “It makes me just sit back and realize the journey. … I’m still on the way. I’m still working every day. We’ll see how many I get when it’s all over.”
His career is several seasons away from being over. Although it seems like much longer, Gobert is just in his 12th season and second in Minnesota. In those twelve years, he’s accumulated a respectable bag of accolades that preceded his new rebounding achievement. He’s a 3x All-Star, 4x All-NBA, 4x Defensive Player of the Year, and a 7x All-Defensive Team member. Additionally, he led the league in blocks in the 2017-18 season and, in 2022, led the league in rebounds. On the international court, Gobert is one of the most decorated and respected French basketball Olympians. He has two silver Olympic medals to his name—Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
The Controversy
Shaquille O’Neal is on record appointing Gobert as the worst player of all time. Now, this is, of course, asinine. Shaq just doesn’t like him, personally, so that explains it. Now, taking into consideration Gobert’s flaws offensively, yes, that part of his game leaves much to be desired at times. He’s not an efficient scorer, even though he’s a career 65.5% field goal shooter, but has only a 12.7 PPG average. Additionally, his jump shot is less than consistent. Given his size, Gobert should be averaging close to 20 each night. Sometimes, even his shooting inside the paint looks funny and awkward. Having said all that, his defensive prowess speaks volumes in his game and throughout his career; hence, he’s tied with Dikembe Mutombo and Ben Wallace as the only three players to capture four DPOY awards.
The conversation around Gobert is sometimes baffling, but at the same time, understandable when his coach pulls him from the last two minutes of playoff games. Regardless, he is still one of the best defensive players in the game. If Gobert wasn’t deserving of his most recent DPOY honor, as many around the league and the NBA media insisted, he wouldn’t have been voted for it. I guess that’s just logic; I don’t know. In any case, it’s likely he won’t win another, but as for rebounds, he has lots of time to keep piling them up.
