The 7-foot-2 Rudy Gobert polices the paint as well as any big man in the league. Gobert’s gaudy 7-foot-9 reach presents a deterrent for opposing players with lofty layup aspirations. When healthy, he is the backbone of a stout Utah Jazz defense.
Last year he finished fourth in blocks, but that number wasn’t good enough for Gobert; he wanted more. In a Sports Illustrated profile on the Frenchman, Ben Reiter revealed a story about Gobert sliding into the official NBA Twitter account’s DMs about a block they didn’t count:
Late on the night of Jan. 22, 2015, the NBA’s Twitter account received an unusual direct message. “I don’t like to complain about stats but my blocks are very important to me,” the message read. “I had 2 clean blocks in the first quarter. And they only counted me 1 please take a look one on ilyasova and one on zaza pachulia. Thanks!”
The sender was Rudy Gobert. His protest was in vain.“I was very mad,” he says. “To be honest, I was trying to pass Anthony Davis in blocks, but then he started blocking like nine shots a night and got too far away from me anyway.” Gobert would finish the season with 189 blocks — 11 shy of Davis — for an average of 2.30 per game.
This is an entirely new level of stat-chasing that would make Ricky Davis proud. The analytical age places a premium on collecting the right data, but this might be a step too far. Gobert will block hundreds of shots during his NBA career; he won’t lose any accolades for a simple clerical error. Sliding into the DMs can accomplish many things, but stat retrieval isn’t one of them.
(Via Sports Illustrated)
