[The Check In] The 2006 Miami Heat sit together and brainstorm a modern-day comparison for Alonzo Mourning: “What about that boy on Minnesota?” “Rudy Gobert?” “Oh hell no!”
Fantastic roundtable by the team but god damn nobody likes Rudy lmao legends included.
Zo was not wrong though, Rudy doesn’t play anything like him.
Honestly Rudy was set up to take the L here. It was a stupid comparison.
Yea like, I don’t want to overanalyze this but almost feels like GP set him up to take the L here lol. No way he really thinks they are similar??
GP did it just to make a joke
Lol, I knew it was GP who brought it up before the video even loaded.
GP just wanted Shaq to take the bait lol. Professional instigator.
Rudy has almost no offensive skills. He can barely catch the ball. Of course he gets clowned on.
Ben Wallace was way worse offensively and everyone seems to respect him. Dikembe was just as bad as Gobert on that end and nobody really hates on him either
For whatever reason a lot of NBA dudes just do not fuck with Gobert. There has to be something with his personality or something that other folks don’t see because this isn’t an uncommon thing.
As a Lions fan it’s the same way people treat Goff. If you carry yourself a certain way, people just won’t respect you the same way even if your stats back it up. It’s just how people are.
Goff got labeled as stupid and that has never changed. That’s the most damaging for QBs because they’re supposed to be smart
I think it has to do with his salary. He got a near max at that time of his contract for being a defensive player. That was and is still uncommon especially considering his offensive shortcoming. It comes from a position of jealousy, Shaq alluded to it prior about players are lucky he set the stage for them to get the money they are making.
My only argument for those guys is they had a swagger to their game. Wallace with the hair and accessories and dikembe with the personality and finger wave
Integral part of a ring. Ben Wallace earned it and was a defensive beast on the pistons
It’s also because he’s not intimidating or seen as cool. Dikembe had the finger wag, Ben Wallace had the techs while being scary, and Tony Allen had the respect of his peers. The only people that rate Rudy are analysts and advanced stats watchers. If he never wins a ring his legacy will not be viewed positively.
Ben Wallace wasn’t infamous for Techs…I think you’re confusing him with fellow Piston Rasheed Wallace
Ball don’t lie
Sheed got more techs but Ben got one of the most impactful/memorable techs in NBA history so bro wasn’t wrong necessarily
Ehhh I’m sorry but have to disagree. In no way is Ben remembered or infamous for his techs. Just a poor take and probably confused with Rasheed
that’s … absolutely not it at all. tony allen was respected, sure, but most importantly he was paid commensurate to his strengths and shortcomings. 40M over 14 years. we would be hating on marcus smart and avery bradley the same way if they were paid max contracts like gobert. if gobert was paid 10-20M a year everyone would love him and call him underrated.
it’s just the money. that’s it. draymond never made the max. tons of amazing defensive players never made the max. the contract $$ makes players feel like it’s implied rudy is a better player as he gets paid more. rudy has made 300M in his career and the oldheads look at that & guffaw in disbelief at how that is possible given the skillset
This is absolutely the reason, guy has essentially no offensive game and is taking up almost a quarter of Minnesota’s cap space with his contract.
He is ofc an elite defensive player, but this league and most of the awards are based on offensive production. Most of the elite players (offensively or defensively) did not make as much as Gobert is and they are salty about it.
Gobert had MVP level impact for most of his prime though.
Okay? Just because you’re intimidating doesn’t mean you’re a better player. Who in history has said, “man James Johnson’s the most intimidating player right now, give him a DPOY”.
Gobert may not be viewed positively by average fans. That may in fact be true. Maybe it is mostly analysts and stat watchers who regard him highly. But you are absolutely missing another group who hold Gobert in high regard. And that is Timberwolves fans.
Gobert has brought more playoff wins to the Timberwolves in the four years he’s been in Minnesota than the franchise has put together in the previous thirty odd years combined. So yeah. We’re glad he’s here.
You really have to watch the Wolves defense with him on the court vs off consistently to know his impact. Wolves defense was absolute shit when he was off.
I concur
Also just normal watchers, people who watch the games and stuff
I think it’s because he’s so unpolished offensively yet makes 200m.
And while an all time great defensive player, it probably rubs them the wrong way he’s gotten played off the floor when it matters most multiple times in the past.
It’s also because he is just so, so French
Who is sitting in between Haslem and Wade?
For someone who’s gonna be in the HOF
Rudy gets treated like a punching bag, it’s super weird
Because he’s the only multiple DPOY that gets benched in the fourth quarter of important games.
plus prime zo was averaging 23 ppg. i mean, cmon.
Prime Zo almost won MVP alongside DPOY in 1999.
I’d say people forget but at this point most people don’t know. They’d be very surprised to find out he scored 50 in 1996 when average PPG was in the 90s.
Trust me man, Hornets fan will always remember Prime Zo and the idiocy that was George Shinn *cries*
He averaged 18 a game on 48% 2pt% in his only ECF run in his prime.
Hardly an inspiring offensive player. That efficiency is terrible for his own time.
are you talking about when they got whooped by the dynasty bulls and the entire team scored 79 ppg for the series? lol. i watched these games. zo has 10x the offensive game that rudy has.
Ben Wallace was benched fairly frequently down the stretch because he was a horrific free throw shooter. How is that any different
Also worth noting Mutombo was also benched quite a bit for the same offensive shortcomings lol. All 3 4x DPOYs got benched down the stretch on occasion like what are we even doing here
They weren’t french
No, it’s because they weren’t getting paid max money. Gobert is, which really rubs old heads the wrong way.
And the crazy part is he isn’t even close to max money
It’s a mix of defense being one of the most underrated aspects in the league, his game only being good at defense, and lastly getting HOF accolades and making that much money.
He’ll be shit on much less if he were just an 18ppg player or if he wasn’t making max contract money.
Also have to account for the fact that Gobert is playing in an era where spacing and switching are huge. End of games teams hunt mismatches like they didn’t do 20 years ago, so Rudy gets iso’d on guards in a way that Shaq/Wallace/Howard never did.
There’s no way we’re still doing this in 2026
The Jazz throw out 4 dudes who can’t defend a roomba and it’s Gobert’s fault that he can’t cover for all their mistakes and cover the rim
Literally factually untrue but keep repeating this sub’s favorite lie
This was proven false this years playoffs.
It’s bad coaching more than he’s somehow unplayable.
Shai constantly gets benched on defense in crunch time. Is he a fake MVP?
Shai gets taken out for a possession when they know the clock will stop. Gobert actually gets played off the floor. Bit different
Steph and Jokic also get benched for being unplayable on the other side of the court. They don’t get the same kind of hate.
Comparing gobert to curry and jokic is a bold strategy
Yea it is weird, I guess it’s because he got paid so much and has such a limited offensive bag. But to be fair to Alonzo, he is wayyyyy better than Rudy on offense while also being an amazing defender, so the comparison isn’t a good one.
Zo also played against betger big men
Zo was much more skilled and coordinated but as far as averages go, it isn’t drastic. Zo got him by 5 PPG regular season, 2 PPG playoffs. Rush obviously “shoots” a much higher % than Zo
To be fair, Gobert as a comp is VERY disrespectful to Zo. Zo had an offensive game. Gobert can’t even catch the ball and lay it up consistently
If only Gobert played the Lakers 82 games a season
He would put up Wilt numbers
it would go Rudy/Wilt/Bam, in that order lol
He was ass vs the Lakers except one game and they had no center
2ppg difference in the playoffs is really not that big of a difference and Gobert has higher efficiency.
No offense and his personality is annoying as fuck. That simple
Most of the star players are annoying as well.
I’ve been watching him for years and don’t see what’s wrong with his personality. He’s a nice guy and genuinely supports his teammates
The guy touching all the mics and saying downplaying covid and believes in governmental conspiracies and is kinda condescending about it? That guy?
He touched the mics as a joke and had no idea Mitchell had given him COVID. You wanna blast him for the other stuff fine, but the mics thing is ridiculous.
At the time one of the beat writers for the Jazz said that Gobert seemed to be doing it to poke fun at the NBAs approach which seemed to be about protecting the players from the reporters, not even downplaying the seriousness of COVID. But that was in the brief window between the microphones and the OKC game, so nuance is lost
Yes few people receive this fact but choose to hold the meme. A Jazz reporter who was sin the room came out and said he felt Rudy was showing support for the reporters.
I remember everyone saying Rudy had finally earned everyone’s respect when he locked down Jokic and I said it wouldn’t last. Here we are less than 2 months later lol.
Players will whine about defensive players getting no spotlight and then do shit like this
Nah did his dumbass covid denial stuff and completely disappears in playoffs series because of how bad he is on offense
Imagine a lineup of ben Simmons, Marcus smart, wemby, Mitch Robinson and Rudy
Because a lot of basketball is about style. Rudy has 0
Because his offensive game is zero. Zo wasn’t as good of a defender as Rudy, but he was miles better offensively, thus took offense to the comparison.
Dirty and lame
Zo ain’t wrong, Rudy doesn’t play at all like him on the offensive end.
Zo averaged over 20 ppg for the first 8 years of his career and finished in the top 3 for MVP voting twice. Gobert is a fine defensive comp but Zo was a very solid offensive player with a decent jumper. Bam is nowhere near the rim protector Zo was, but as far as two-way centers go he might be the best comp today.
20 ppg back then was more than solid
Seriously I wanna start seeing per game stats with like a “percentage of team total” alongside it since we need to adjust these numbers for inflation.
There are pace adjusted stats like per 100 possessions
That was also at a time when the post players got a lot of touches
Because there were a lot better post players. We don’t really have that today.
I don’t really think there’s been a real comparison to guys like Zo in over a decade. We don’t really have big centers who play out of the post anymore. Someone like Andrew Bynum is the last center I can think of who kinda followed that archetype with some success.
Could’ve been Ayton but alas
I miss watching agile big men working from the post.
Same. I grew up in the early 2000s and I’ll admit that basketball players and teams are better today. But I miss post play.
Dwight Howard?
Both great rim protectors with solid but unspectacular offense. Both lacked a polished go-to move on offense that separates them from Shaq/Robinson/Hakeem tier.
Dwight was probably the closest, although Zo had a much better jumper but wasn’t nearly as athletically gifted.
I think the big issue is that bigs who have any decent shooting ability now are generally gonna try to stretch it farther than just working out the post. Zo in the modern day wouldn’t likely be playing nearly as much in the post.
I mean jokic plays out of the post a lot. He can just also leave the post and shoot. Brook Lopez when he was younger. But yeah definitely rare breed now
Brook Lopez is a good example. I didn’t think of him. He’s interesting because he was a weak defender when he was a good post player. But he became a strong defender when he became more of a perimeter player.
Jokic I would argue with. But I think that’s because I’m thinking of post players who are also rim defenders (which I know I didn’t say in my original post. But I was thinking of guys like Zo and shaq). But even on offense, Jokic operates out of the high post 90% of the time.
that’s fair on jokic but does go in the low post and does have good low post footwork and moves, I was going to say horford on the hawks as well but I assume as a hawks fan you know more than me and assume he also mostly operated on the high post. the only other person i’m thinking of is tim duncan? ohhh maybe DeMarcus cousins.
Al Jefferson is the last of that dead breed.
Maybe closer to Anthony Davis
AD is definitely a better one. I think him being injured so much recently made him slip my mind
Valid haha
Anthony “Fingernail” Davis
AD is on a completely different level to Zo on both ends.
Not only solid offense, decent midrange and massive anchor on D. Could deal with most but Shaq
“your offensive bag was bigger than Rudy’s” DWade sneaking in the funniest part
Zo came very close to winning an MVP, lockout season, but regardless something people prob dont realize.
“u gotta ask me that??!?!?”
nah Zo’s actually so offended lmao
I know he’s an objectively better player, but still annoys me Malone managed to beat Zo.
Yeah malone is a whole tier above Zo
EZ when you have John Stockton hand feeding you buckets
I hate Karl Malone with all of my heart but this is a wild take. Karl wasn’t some rim running big man reliant on his PG to get him open looks, he was an all time scorer.
Zo had Tim Hardaway
Stockton is the ALL-TIME leader in assists. The Malone/Stockton PnR fed generations.
Timmy was nice, but he was no Stockton. By the time he was in Miami he was more of a 3pt shooter.
You see the teams Zo had in Miami?
those teams were made up of players other teams no longer wanted.
offensively speaking a rudy gobert comparison is definitely a hell no
Though the offensive styles aren’t comparable. Zo has Rudy beat by 5 PPG. In the playoffs, only a difference of 2 PPG
People still being confused about why most centers don’t like Gobert is crazy. If you can’t do shit on offense at 7’2 people are gonna clown you regardless of what you do defensively
Was trying to think of a counterexample and couldn’t lol. Even Yao had a great post-game compared to Rudy despite his lack of athleticism.
Figure Dikembe is the best comp but he is also just such a more likeable person than Rudy that it’s impossible to hate on him, not to mention he has that one Denver run in the playoffs that is absolutely more impressive than anything Rudy’s done in the playoffs, so that helps too
Rest in Peace to a Legend
Still sad whenever I’m reminded Dikembe’s gone. He was a beloved figure, no one had anything bad to say about him. Plus his charity work in Congo has helped so many kids. Just a great ambassador for the game.
“Who wants to sex Mutombo!”
Mark Eaton?
I haven’t seen any film of Eaton, but seems like a good comp
Eaton was actually quite a bit worse than Rudy offensively. He offered nothing but screen setting. Rudy is a lob threat at least.
Ben Wallace.
Granted, he wasn’t a 7 footer, but he played center, was a defensive powerhouse (4x DPOY, IIRC), and had zero offensive game. I think he had several seasons below 5 PPG.
Going back in time, the same could be said about Wes Unseld and Bill Russell. If memory serves, Unseld is the MVP with the lowest PPG the year he won MVP (I think it was 12 PPG, or something in that neighborhood… and Russell had MVP seasons under 15 PPG, if I’m remembering correctly).
Yeah, Ben would be good if the parameter wasn’t 7 ft. I don’t think Wes Unseld was a defensive powerhouse. Bill Russell actually had a good offensive game for the time.
People forget before Mourning got injured or was it a disease of some sort
He was averaging 22⁄11 with 2 blocks and amazing defense
Dude could’ve won MVP during the lockout
Focal glomerulosclerosis. Dude got a kidney transplant, then came back to play at a reduced but still very high level. In the 05-06 championship season he averaged 2.7 blocks in just 20 minutes. In the playoffs, his playing time was reduced even more, but he still averaged 1.1 blocks in 10.8 minutes. Dude was a warrior.
Never thought Alonzo got FSGS , that shit sucks
I’m positive all of the old players clown on him because of the money he’s making.
100%
94 free throws Miami Heat
Leave the crying to mavs fans pleas
How many did Dallas have
Miami had 207 FTA to Dallas’ 155
Yikes
Think Heat had like 50 more on the series man
The heat had one of the best driving guards ever, makes sense.
as we all know each team should have the exact same fts no matter wat kind of shots taken or the players playstyles lol
Im just answering that guys question yo
Body type Jalen Duren
Zo would break Duren in half
Pause
Zo and Grandmama Hornets team was so freaking fun.
I didn’t watch the podcast but I feel like Bam is his best current player comparison
Are you kidding? Compare their highest scoring games in their career - Bam has 34 points more! /s
i dont particularly like gobert but there does seem to be a general disdain for him from players both past and present lol. its kind weird
Current players at least spend time with him and know him on some kind of personal level so maybe they would know better
I think it’s just simply because he’s a terrible offensive player. Zo was a pretty good offensive player.
4x DPOY not a lot of bigs have hardware to keep up with that all because Rudy has no bag offensively
That’s because Rudy has absolutely no bag offensively. Alonso was a defensive menace while also being a 20 ppg player.
And he deserved 2 more, but was robbed of 1 due to voter fatigue and the other because Draymonds makeup dpoy from the year before
ck
^ this guy markdowns
I’m so baffled at the criteria Reddit chooses when it comes to criticising a player based on their non-basketball activities
Rudy Gobert is a right winger Jordan Peterson stan who has expressed numerous delusional conspiracy theories including anti-COVID but Reddit larps him up. Isn’t that y’all’s #1 dealbreaker when it comes to downplaying a celebrity?
I didn’t know his explicit political positions but I’ve been anti Gobert since he rubbed his hands all over the mics right as COVID was kicking off in the United States.
This is fucking hilarious lmao
Gobert’s hate doesn’t make sense? I thought only Shaq had it out for him where it now seems like it’s every other legend 💀
For one Gobert started COVID in the usa
[deleted]
Any player who was a legit scoring threat like Zo is gonna be offended if you compare them to a player as bagless on offense as Rudy is.
Cuz he averaged 2 pts more than Jaxson Hayes this season
Where white chocolate?
I love and miss Gary Payton
I have no recollection of him being on the Heat.
I am speaking as a Sonics fan
Does anybody have a link to this full YouTube video?
It’s on Wade’s Podcast - The Why
Thanks. I didn’t know he had a podcast. I’m out of the loop.
Alonzo was 1000x more skilled than Rudy
What about legit comparisons for Rudy..
What about Motumbo? Ratlif?
Mark Eaton.
Dwade, Shaq,Zo, and GP….regardless of age that is a nasty SQUAD
More old teammates need to do this
Im sorry this is hilarious
Good ol days man lmaoo
Lmao. Ima save this one to watch fully in the office next time
Love how people clown Rudy. He’s literally a Hall of fame lock
Rudy more like Wallace, at least with the entire focus being on the defensive with an absent offense.
“The man name Ale-Wah-Candy, man. Candy Man.” 🤣
Zo was a bucket on the low block.
Boy?
If you’re Rudy… what do you think of this stuff?
You just know Shaq loved that
Them boys gone off that Gary Payton
🥹 don’t make me too nostalgic. Miss these dudes so much man.. We are lucky to have seen them play
Damn man this just made me realize HS was 20 years ago.
Rudy is 4 times DPoY.
The modern day equivalent? Who is the unsportsmanlike coward of today?
Fuck Alonzo.
Well one is a 4x dpoy so yeah
Raptors legend.
Hilarious! Rudy’s offensive bag lost at the airport and never recovered
The real hack is being gifted with generational height and doing absolutely nothing on either end of the floor so you’re not even relevant enough to be laughed at instead of collecting awards on just one side of the ball.
Has Rudy gobert tried being Hasheem Thabeet? Or Tako Fall? Is he stupid?
Lol interesting perspective that they view him and most players these days as boys and yn’s 🤣 I’m in my 20s and view Gobert as a grown man, not a boy
2006 Miami Heat AKA Propagandhi
EDIT: If anybody gets this joke lmk
Wolves fans be doing 360s on Gobert I don’t get it
These guys are gonna be so mad when Rudy gets inducted into the HoF and I’m gonna love it
Rudy has been better than Alonzo easy
7 time all star, 2x dpoy, nba champ, 2x all defensive first team, 1x all nba first team, 1x all nba 2nd team, 2x gold medals and a ton more college and high school awards