{"id":152196,"date":"2025-07-26T08:30:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T12:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=152196"},"modified":"2025-07-26T05:11:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T09:11:33","slug":"rudy-gobert-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/26\/rudy-gobert-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"If He Doesn\u2019t Backtrack, Shaq Will Be Wearing A Dress"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Shaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a> stated that he would wear a dress to the ceremony if Rudy Gobert<\/a> ever gets enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame<\/a>, many people debated whether the Frenchman should eventually get in. His career certainly isn\u2019t over yet. Now 33 years old, Gobert has three years remaining on his deal, the third being a player option. If Rudy Gobert retired today though, he\u2019s already done enough to be a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\"\"
May 24, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jalen Williams (8) shoots the ball past Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) during the second half in game three of the western conference finals for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If He Doesn\u2019t Backtrack, Shaq Will Be Wearing A Dress<\/h2>\n

Won 4 Defensive Player of the Year Awards<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s start with the accolade that has become synonymous with Gobert\u2019s name. The 7-foot-1 center has won the award four times in his career. That is tied for the most in NBA history along with Ben Wallace<\/a> and Dikembe Mutombo<\/a>, both of whom are enshrined in Springfield.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Stifle Tower\u2019 also has nine finishes in the top-seven of Defensive Player of the Year voting. That is the same amount as Mutombo and two more than Wallace. Gobert has a career scoring average (12.6) that is higher than both. While that number could go down later in his career, it should remain above Mutombo\u2019s 9.8.<\/p>\n

League Leader In A Few Categories In His Career<\/h3>\n

Look at the back of Gobert\u2019s basketball card, and you\u2019ll see a bunch of bold ink. The 2013 first round pick has led the league in field goal percentage three times, rebounding once, and blocks once. His 67.3% true shooting is actually the highest in NBA history.<\/p>\n

The 12-year veteran has also been a double-double machine. He has averaged one in points and rebounds in each of the last nine seasons. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s barely reached double-digits in both categories either. Last season\u2019s 12.0 points per game was his lowest during that stretch, and he\u2019s averaged at least 10.7 boards each year.<\/p>\n

Gobert will continue to move up career leaderboards as well. His 9,700 rebounds are the 45th-most in NBA history, while his 1,718 blocks are the 30th-most.<\/p>\n

Annually A Playoff Participant<\/h3>\n

No, Gobert does not have a ring (yet). It\u2019s not like he\u2019s been sitting home during the playoffs though. With the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves, he has experienced postseason basketball in each of the last nine years. In five of them, Gobert\u2019s team has advanced through at least one round. The last two has seen his Minnesota team reach the Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s also mention Gobert\u2019s eight All-Defensive<\/a> nods, the first seven of which saw him put on the first team. Sports fans often state how the Basketball Hall of Fame is the easiest of the major sports halls to get into. With Rudy Gobert likely still having a few more productive seasons left in him, he\u2019s a surefire future member.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Shaquille O\u2019Neal stated that he would wear a dress to the ceremony if Rudy Gobert ever gets enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame, many people debated whether the Frenchman should eventually get in. His career certainly isn\u2019t over yet. Now 33 years old, Gobert has three years remaining on his deal, the third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":152211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,21,62,3],"tags":[4300,3694,394,261],"class_list":["post-152196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-timberwolves","category-nba","category-news","tag-basketball-hall-of-fame","tag-naismith-memorial-basketball-hall-of-fame","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-shaquille-oneal"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152196"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152213,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152196\/revisions\/152213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}