Rudy Gobert is quite literally the last player in the NBA who should feel comfortable making jokes about COVID-19.
It was March 2020 and the three-time Defensive Player of the Year (who played for the Jazz at the time) was discussing coronavirus during a press conference in Utah.
The big man then made a point to touch every single microphone from each reporter in attendance. It wasn’t a very good idea, and you likely remember what happened next. But it was (somehow) nearly three years ago already, and these were strange and uncertain times.
So here is a refresher: Days later, Gobert was ruled questionable with an illness. Right before tipoff on March 11, the Jazz-Thunder game was called off. We learned Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, and the NBA season was suspended indefinitely.
That is why it was particularly surprising to see that he “liked” a tweet from Twitter CEO Elon Musk critical of the chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
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To be fair, we don’t know exactly why Gobert chose to like this tweet.
Remember: Retweets do not equal endorsements (which is now officially the case, as decided by a judge) and perhaps the same can be said of liking a post on Twitter.
The big man, who lost his sense of taste and smell and didn’t fully recover it for months, said he wishes he would have taken warnings (many of which were directly from Fauci) more seriously.
The three-time All-Star has apologized for his careless behavior back in 2020 and he has donated more than $500,000 to support coronavirus relief. But if any NBA player should be careful of associating himself with any eyebrow-raising comments on COVID, it is Gobert.
