Rudy Gobert has mentored Victor Wembanyama for years. Now they stand in each other’s way.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 55 minutes ago
- 6 min read
By JARED WEISS / THE ATHLETIC
After an NBA game in January, Rudy Gobert, the Minnesota Timberwolves center, racked his brain for a message to send to his protege, Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, in the opposing locker room.
“Ask him if he can beat me at chess without the timer bailing him out,” Gobert suggested to a reporter.
The relationship between Gobert, the face of French basketball for the past decade, and Wembanyama, the NBA’s new enfant terrible, has deep roots. The two players challenge each other on the basketball court, but they relish pushing each other off it.
Wembanyama laughed when he received Gobert’s message a few minutes later, replying by saying he looked forward to another meeting of the minds in the future.
Now, they have it, possibly seven games of it. Their chessboard has a 3-point line and 12-minute quarters. And it started Monday, when the Timberwolves beat the Spurs, 104-102, in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.
Wembanyama, 22, the NBA’s reigning winner of the Defensive Player of the Year Award, is going against Gobert, 33, who has won the most of them in NBA history. The 7-foot-4 prodigy who is reshaping the game is pitted against the 7-1 veteran who has mastered the skill of containing it. It’s a meeting of the player taking over the game and the big brother who prepared him for this moment.
“I love trying to give him everything he needs, to answer all his questions,” said Gobert, who had 7 points and 10 rebounds in Monday night’s game. “Try to be the best mentor I can be for him.”
Wembanyama, the Spurs’ Most Valuable Player Award candidate, had 11 points, 15 rebounds and 12 blocks in Game 1. Game 2 was slated for Wednesday night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.
Gobert has been the person most responsible for the Timberwolves’ evolution into a defensive-minded team. From the moment he was acquired in 2022, he has served as the backbone of a team that has advanced to the second round for the third consecutive season and is gunning for its third consecutive Western Conference finals appearance.
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets presented an immense test for Gobert in the first round, one he passed with flying colors. Now Gobert faces a different, but no less imposing, opponent he knows all too well.
“We faced a contender in the first round, now we face another contender,” Gobert told reporters. “As a competitor, what more can we ask for? That’s what we sacrifice for, we work for every single day. That’s what I’ve prepared myself for since I’m 12 years old.”
Wembanyama knew his first title pursuit in the NBA might go through the man who helped him get here. “It’s even more fun if we’re playing against Rudy,” he said before the series began. Gobert called it a moment that is “amazing for French basketball” and a dream come true as the young people of France watch the game from afar.
They now have to ruin each other’s current chapters in a story that is a decade in the making.
“He’s completely free on the court, and he’s really starting to master his craft, even though he still has a lot of growth upon him,” Gobert said of Wembanyama. He added: “Obviously, I think a lot of the growth that he had is going to be physical. Keep getting stronger, keep being more resistant.”
Gobert has a lot to do with that evolution. He remembered hosting a children’s basketball tournament in 2017 when their shared agent, Jérémy Medjana, introduced him to Victor and his mother, Elodie. At first, the Wolves center was not struck by Wembanyama’s size — he was 5-11 — but more captivated by Elodie, who is 6-3.
Then Gobert found out Wembanyama was only 13.
“You could tell he was a baby and would keep growing,” Gobert said.
From that point, Gobert kept tabs on Wembanyama. He wanted to get in the gym with him when he was ready and show him the nuances of guarding the paint in the NBA.
They reunited three years later for a two-on-two workout alongside French centers Vincent Poirier and Maxime Raynaud. By that point, Wembanyama, at 16, was taller than the 7-1 Gobert.
There are videos of them shooting hoops, but Wembanyama took away even more from Gobert when they hit the weight room afterward. He wanted to see how Gobert managed to fill out his frame while staying nimble. Wembanyama was getting a hands-on education in longevity.
“After that, we became friends, and I was paying very close attention to his development,” Gobert said. “I always thought he was a little different than the other guys. Not only because of his physical tools, but because of his mindset.”
Wembanyama has long known he would not be well served bulking up to look like David Robinson or Joel Embiid. Gobert represented a path toward a sustainable training program that could withstand the rigors of the NBA. Gobert could teach him everything about pick-and-roll angles, shot altering and defense.
But Wembanyama needed to learn how a veteran of playoff battles still played 70-plus games a season after all these years.
“As a role model, there’s lots of things that he’s inspired me and I think should inspire more people,” Wembanyama said. “In terms of taking care of your body, he should be a role model for all big men.”
Gobert is known for his daily focus on yoga and meditation. He once went on a 64-hour darkness retreat in 2023 to focus on his mind-body connection, a journey that parallels Wembanyama’s 10-day venture to a Shaolin temple last summer. Both seek different perspectives on training while yearning to understand the connection between their career pursuits and their sense of self.
“We have so many conversations about how to maximize your physical potential, but it’s much deeper than that,” Gobert said. “It’s how to maximize our spiritual and mental potential, and Victor is a very curious kid.”
To make bodies of their size move with so much efficiency and fluidity, players such as Gobert and Wembanyama need a deeper bond with their feet and core to help distribute effort more evenly throughout the body. Gobert helped Wembanyama embrace proprioception — the body’s sense of orientation — which helps spread the strain of forceful moves and even hyperextensions. It is part of why Wembanyama can maintain balance even when he is low to the ground and can change direction in a way nobody near his size has achieved.
Gobert often speaks to Wembanyama about how to sharpen what he calls their “superpowers.” They have a meticulous process of activation and recovery, doing various forms of meditation and stimulus training to make sure every element of the body is working in concert. Gobert praises Wembanyama’s thirst for knowledge, which turned out to be quite literal.
“A few weeks ago, he asked me what kind of filter I have in my house for water,” Gobert said recently. “It just tells you how his mind is. I try to talk to the young guys here about the food they eat and stuff like that. But I don’t get those kinds of questions.”
He said, perhaps facetiously, that he is praying for the day Anthony Edwards asks him those kinds of questions, saying how these types of inquiries show how Wembanyama’s desire to maximize his body is different.
“He has the extra discipline that the greats have, and he puts in the work,” Gobert said. “He understands that, obviously, his body is the key, and his mind. He’s really trying to master both.”
When Wembanyama was diagnosed with a blood clot in his shoulder in February 2025, Gobert reached out to offer support and guidance. He could feel the devastation coming from Wembanyama not to be able to play or train. The path of his protege’s life had been put on hold, creating a feeling of aimlessness in the immediate aftermath.
“I remember him being very frustrated, not being able to play,” Gobert said. “But he has grown so much from that experience because it made him realize that nothing is granted in life.”
Wembanyama emerged from that setback with a refreshed sense of purpose in his career and his role as a public persona. He has become outspoken on everything from gun violence to basketball ethics. He is open about his hopes and dreams and how he deals with his ups and downs. He stands on business when he sheds a tear and does not hide behind the tough athlete tropes.
As they prepare for the longest battle of their friendship, Gobert is proudest of the person his protege has become.
“It’s pretty amazing to see that he’s one of a kind — and not just physically,” Gobert said. “He’s a special soul, a special person.”
He added: “I really try to be there for him and, obviously, it’s way beyond basketball. I want him to be good, be well. It’s something that I truly care about.”