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Rudy Gobert gets boos, lecture from Malik Beasley after ending Jazz return with garbage time lay-up

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Rudy Gobert’s return to Utah as a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves was bound to be emotional, and it was, just not entirely in a good way.

The former Utah Jazz center played his first game as an opponent at the Vivint Arena on Friday, five months after the mega-deal that sent him to the Twin Cities and seemingly started the Jazz’s rebuild in full force. The night had all the trappings of a longtime player return, from the tribute video to the reflections on a nine-season tenure in Salt Lake City.

Gobert opened the game with a dunk, but the controversy came when he closed it with a lay-up.

At that point, the Jazz were up 116-108 with fewer than 10 seconds left. Aggressive defense by Utah ended up leaving Gobert undefended with the ball under the basket. Rather than let time run out on a nice win for Minnesota, Gobert opted to drop in a simple lay-up.

Jazz fans didn’t appreciate the move, nor did Malik Beasley, one the many players traded from the Timberwolves in exchange for Gobert. After time expired, Beasley was seen giving Gobert a talking-to until the pair was separated.

Per Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune, Beasley criticized Gobert’s lay-up after the game:

“Just disrespectful. It’s one of the unwritten rules of basketball. I told him that.”

Meanwhile, Gobert said he was disappointed the hubbub prevented him from embracing former teammates and coaches, then implied Beasley was looking for attention, via the Tribune’s Eric Walden:

“I’ve been taught to play basketball to the last second. For me, there was never any intent to disrespect anybody. These guys who stepped in front of me, they weren’t going to do anything anyway. So, I didn’t get to shake hands with my guys. It kind of killed my moment a little bit, but it is what it is. Some guys just want attention.”

Gobert finished the game with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting with 13 rebounds, helping improve the Timberwolves to 13-12 after a disappointing, and alarming, start to his tenure. The Jazz fell to 15-13, their seventh loss in their last 10 games.

Rudy Gobert’s return to Utah had its ups and downs during Friday’s Timberwolve-Jazz game. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)



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Timberwolves’ Rudy Gobert ejected for tripping, tussling with Thunder’s Kenrich Williams

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Rudy Gobert got a bit frustrated during Saturday’s Thunder-Timberwolves game. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King)

Rudy Gobert’s tenure with the Minnesota Timberwolves is not going according to plan. He might have hit a low point on Saturday.

In the second quarter of the Timberwolves’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday, Gobert received a flagrant 2 foul after a run-in with Thunder wing Kenrich Williams.

The kerfuffle began when Gobert tripped over a fallen Williams while jumping for a rebound. Gobert fell to the ground himself, at which point Williams pushed his legs out of the way to get up and run down the court. Gobert responded by clearly sticking his legs out to trip Williams.

Williams reacted as you would expect, and soon a crowd was trying to break up an off-balance shoving match.

The result of the play: an ejection for Gobert and a technical foul for Williams. Williams made one of two free throws, while D’Angelo Russell made a lone free throw for the tech.

Gobert exited the game with six points on 3-of-3 shooting with four rebounds in nine minutes played. He entered Saturday averaging 13.6 points on 64.5% shooting from the field, 11.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game.

The Timberwolves bet big on Gobert this summer, trading four first-round picks, a pick swap and a bevy of players for the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. It was hoped that Gobert and Minnesota star Karl-Anthony Towns could be the rare big men to co-exist on the court, but the result so far has been an 11-11 record and ninth place in the Western Conference before this weekend.

Towns is currently out several weeks with a calf injury. That figured to give Gobert some more space to operate, but the Timberwolves ended up having to figure out how to navigate with neither on Saturday.

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Gobert calls joining Timberwolves ‘most exciting situation’ for career

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A few days before the Timberwolves and Jazz agreed to send Rudy Gobert to Minnesota for a cache of players and draft picks, Gobert told his agent, Bouna Ndiaye, that he wanted a little time to think over the move.

“I told him I needed one or two days to think about it,” Gobert said. “After one day, I told him it was probably the best, most exciting situation in terms of basketball for me.”

A day later, Gobert said, the trade was done, and on Wednesday, the 7-1 center was in Minnesota, posing for all the photographs and shaking all the hands he could at Target Center.

The trade represents a massive shift for both Gobert and the Wolves organization. Out the door went some of the players who helped turn the Wolves into a playoff team last season — along with four future first-round picks and another pick swap.

Gobert now joins only the second team he has ever played for in his 10-year career.

“So it’s just a very unique core of young guys and a really good coach [Chris Finch] that complained about my screens all the time,” Gobert said to laughter. “So now we’re on the same side. I’m excited.”

Gobert was also excited about the potential pairing he and Karl-Anthony Towns will form. Two of the biggest questions about this trade are just how much they will fit together, and can the Wolves play two big men on the floor in an NBA that has gone smaller and quicker over the past decade.

Gobert said he took some time to think about his fit with Towns.

“When I was going to bed, I was thinking about it more and more,” Gobert said. “And actually that was probably the best, most exciting challenge for me, to pair with a guy like KAT.”

Towns’ ability to shoot, handle the ball and pass should complement Gobert on offense — and make teams decide which player they want to double in the post — while Gobert’s ability to protect the rim will allow Towns more freedom defensively and potentially keep him out of foul trouble.

“If you would’ve told me that a year ago, I would’ve told you I didn’t think it could happen,” Gobert said. “But now that it came to life, I’m super excited and just allow him to be himself even more, be even more dominant.”

The Wolves paid a premium, and maybe even more than a premium, to get Gobert to Minnesota. National analysts and reporters largely panned the trade and what the Wolves gave up for the 30-year-old Gobert, who has four years left on a $205 million deal. President Tim Connelly initially said, “I don’t know,” when asked what he might say to people who felt the Wolves paid too steep a price.

“In this industry it’s very public and I think we deserve all the praise and criticism, it’s the fun part about being a fan,” Connelly said. “Time will tell. When you make a trade, you hope it’s a win-win. You’re not trying to get over on teams. … We gave up a lot to get a lot and ideally it’s the trade that will work well for the Jazz and the T-Wolves.”

“So it’s just a very unique core of young guys and a really good coach [Chris Finch] that complained about my screens all the time. So now we’re on the same side. I’m excited.”

Rudy Gobert

But the opportunity to get Gobert was too good to pass up.

“It’s an inexact science,” Connelly said. “But when you look at players of Rudy’s abilities, they don’t become available very often.”

The timing worked well for where the Wolves are as an organization and with the Jazz looking to turn the page after not getting out of the second round with a Gobert-Donovan Mitchell core.

“It seemed more of a dream than a reality,” Connelly said of acquiring Gobert. “As the discussions ramped up and we thought there was a chance we could add Rudy, the excitement level collectively for Chris and the front office was, ‘Wow, we got to get this done.'”

There’s a lot more yet to do. Gobert said he noticed the Wolves were beginning to build a winning foundation last season. That was one reason he felt comfortable with the trade. The pieces are in place for a winning team to take off.

“Their will to win was different, their culture and the way they were approaching the games, I felt like something had changed,” Gobert said.

The Wolves are changing again, and Gobert is hoping everybody will get to a place neither he nor his teammates have reached in their careers.

“The goal is to win a championship and I came here for that,” Gobert said. “I didn’t come here just to be a good team. I came to try and take this team to the finals and accomplish that.”

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Rudy Gobert explains why he thinks the Jazz traded him away

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Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert arrives for Game 3 of the team’s NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks on April 21, 2022, in Salt Lake City. Gobert has been traded by the Jazz to the Minnesota Timberwolves. (Rick Bowmer, Associated Press)

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Rudy Gobert stood in front of a backdrop covered with Timberwolves logos as he lifted a No. 27 Minnesota jersey. Yep, it’s going to take longer than five days to get used to that.

Minnesota held its introductory press conference for Gobert on Tuesday, officially beginning the former Jazz center’s new NBA life.

To the Timberwolves, the trade that sent four players and several draft picks back to the Jazz was an easy decision. The Wolves are a small-market team; opportunities to add an All-Star in the prime of their careers with multiple years still left on their contract don’t come around often. Sure, the price was steep — and you could argue they overpaid — but to them, the risk was worth it.

So after the Minnesota brass lauded Gobert and his game — calling him a game-changing player and a future Hall of Famer — the question was addressed to Gobert: Why would Utah, another small-market franchise, trade you away?

“That’s a good question. I mean, obviously losing (former Jazz coach Quin Snyder),” Gobert began. “Quin was there for eight years; he was a big part of what we were doing. The window for winning is not always big. And for us, in Utah, that’s kind of what happened. I think the organization felt like we had maybe passed that window that we had over the last few years. I think they’re still obviously going to be a very competitive team, but they just felt like with all the assets that they could get with me, it was better for them to go that way.”

Gobert said that in the end, though, both sides could see it as a victory. The Timberwolves hope to compete for a title right now, and Gobert will certainly help them do that. The Jazz, meanwhile, gained more options for their future.

“I think it could potentially be a win-win situation,” Gobert said. “They also put me in a great situation to win. And for me, that’s why I’m really grateful for that. They put me on a team where I can keep flourishing and hopefully win a championship. And then for them, I really hope that they’re going to be able to get better and better and hopefully get to that stage that we were a few years ago. Even though we didn’t get past the second round, we were first in the West — that doesn’t happen often.”

The three time Defensive Player of the Year realizes that all these major moves come with risk, but he’s thankful that he’s on a team that has a chance to compete at a high level.

“It’s never easy. It’s always speculative. You never know what’s right, what’s wrong, and sometimes you gotta make decisions, and that’s what they did. … I’m grateful they put me in a position to win,” he said.

Gobert admitted he wanted to spend his whole career with the same team; he embraced Utah — regularly giving back to the community through his charitable foundation and also his time. He built a home in the Salt Lake Valley and took immense pride in what the Jazz had built as a team. But, he admitted on Tuesday, there is excitement in something new.

“I’m the type of guy that was thinking early on that it would be cool to spend my whole career in the same place,” he said. “But also, I always wonder how cool it would be to get to a new place and in a new system and a new environment. So it’s kind of like whatever happens, it’s positive.

“I spent nine amazing years in Utah, we built something that was very unique and that is never going to go away,” he continued. “Even though we didn’t win a championship, I think those years were great years in terms of winning. We won the most games in the last four years in the NBA — even though there’s no ring at the end, it’s still a pretty cool accomplishment. All those years and all that grind have made me a better player, and a better person, and now I’m in a situation where hopefully I can take this team to where we want to be. And that’s very, very exciting.”

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Ryan Miller has covered the Utah Jazz for KSL.com since 2018.

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Jazz Notes: Mitchell, Gobert Trade, Juzang, Bradds

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Despite recently agreeing to trade All-Star center Rudy Gobert for a collection of veteran contracts and first-round draft picks in a deal sure to reduce their ceiling in the short term, the Jazz have indicated to inquiring teams that All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell isn’t available as a trade target, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link via ClutchPoints).

“They want to continue to build a roster around Donovan Mitchell,” Wojnarowski said of Utah’s front office. “They have shut down any team who has called about trying to trade for Donovan Mitchell. The Jazz are committed to moving forward with him as their cornerstone player.”

How much of this stance is merely a negotiating tactic remains to be seen. Marc Stein adds in a new Substack piece that, while he echoes Woj’s reporting that the Jazz are currently suggesting a disinterest in dealing away the 25-year-old All-NBA shooting guard, he expects that team CEO Danny Ainge would have the blessing of ownership to move Mitchell in the future.

Around rival executives, however, teams remain optimistic that Mitchell could be had for the right price.

There’s more out of Utah:

  • As a result of the aforementioned Rudy Gobert deal, the Jazz have added several promising young current and future players, writes Ryan McDonald of the Deseret News. Auburn big man Walker Kessler, the No. 22 in the 2022 NBA draft, will arrive in Utah with potentially a more outsized role than had been anticipated for him with the Timberwolves.
  • Jazz Summer League wing Johnny Juzang is being held out of a team practice today following a car accident on Saturday, according to Eric Walden of the Salt Laker Tribune (Twitter link). Juzang, a former UCLA swingman who went undrafted in 2022, is set to join Jazz on a two-way deal.
  • NBA veteran Tacko Fall, currently playing on the Jazz’s Summer League team, informs Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link) that Evan Bradds, formerly a Player Enhancement Staff member with the Celtics, has been hired as an assistant coach under new Jazz head coach Will Hardy.



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Wolves Notes: Gobert, Towns, Durant, Murray

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Although the Timberwolves were encouraged by last season’s success, there was an “overwhelming feeling internally” that the team would hit a wall before becoming a legitimate title contender if it didn’t make at least one more major upgrade, writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

That line of thought was the motivation behind the team’s blockbuster trade agreement for three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert. As Krawczynski explains, the front office had a hard time identifying another player around the NBA who could address so many of the club’s weaknesses and would be available for the package Minnesota was willing to offer.

The Timberwolves anticipate Gobert will make life easier for his new teammates, allowing them to take more gambles on defense and giving D’Angelo Russell a pick-and-roll partner who sets good screens and can be a lob threat.

The Wolves also believe they can make Gobert’s life easier — Minnesota has stronger perimeter defenders (Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Kyle Anderson, Taurean Prince) than Utah did, and Karl-Anthony Towns‘ ability to make outside shots will complement Gobert’s inside game, Krawczynski notes.

Here’s more on the Wolves and their roster shake-up:

  • Sources tell Krawczynski that Gobert has expressed excitement about playing with the Timberwolves and that Towns was especially supportive of the move.
  • According to Krawczynski, Wolves sources were pessimistic throughout the process that an agreement would actually be reached, and a deal looked to be “in peril” as of Friday morning. Minnesota was prepared to shift its focus to other targets like Myles Turner or Clint Capela before the Gobert talks gained traction again later on Friday when Utah agreed to do a deal without McDaniels included.
  • Before striking a deal for Gobert, the Wolves made “several calls” to the Nets about Kevin Durant, sources tell Krawczynski. However, Minnesota was unwilling to give up Edwards or Towns for Durant, so those talks didn’t go far.
  • The Timberwolves were also in the mix for Dejounte Murray and could have outbid the Hawks for him, but the fact that they didn’t shows that they valued Gobert more, observes Krawczynski.
  • Chris Hine of The Star Tribune takes a closer look at the impact the acquisition of Gobert will have on the Wolves both offensively and defensively, as well as from a salary cap perspective.

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Utah Jazz trade Rudy Gobert to Timberwolves

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Intrigue had been building all of Friday that the Utah Jazz had a big move coming, that league executives had begun to believe that the team might be trending toward a teardown and rebuild.

When the move finally came it was not merely big. It was seismic.

The Jazz are trading one of their foundational pieces, All-NBA center and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, to the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

In return, Utah will get two-way wing Malik Beasley, defensive-oriented guard Patrick Beverley, forwards Jarred Vanderbilt and Leandro Bolmaro, rookie center Walker Kessler (the No. 22 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft), and four future first-round picks.

Those picks will be unprotected selections from the Wolves in 2023, ’25, and ’27, plus a top-five protected pick in 2029. The Jazz can also elect to exercise a pick swap in 2026, should Minnesota finish with a worse record.

Gobert and star guard Donovan Mitchell have been Utah’s centerpieces for the past half-decade. However, although the Jazz have qualified for the NBA playoffs the past six seasons, the team has never made it past the second round.

The team blowing a 2-0 series lead in the 2021 Western Conference semifinals to a Clippers team playing without injured superstar Kawhi Leonard, and then this year’s first-round ouster to a Dallas Mavericks team that went without All-NBA guard Luka Doncic for three games had the effect of making Utah’s future uncertain.

Would the team try to swap out the pieces around Gobert and Mitchell? Or opt for a more drastic change?

The moves of the past month now spell out the latter option.

In the beginning of June, head coach Quin Snyder opted to resign after eight years at the helm, saying he felt it was time for the team to have a new voice.

Earlier this week, the Jazz agreed to a five-year contract with Celtics assistant Will Hardy — a deal considered unusually long for a first-time head coach, and having the effect of generating speculation that the team was showing to commitment to him with big change about to arrive.

On Thursday, with the opening of free agency, Utah’s front office sent starting forward Royce O’Neale — a strong 3-point shooter and the team’s best perimeter defender — to the Brooklyn Nets for a 2023 first-round pick. CEO Danny Ainge and general manager Justin Zanik also opted against retaining Juancho Hernangomez, and declined to make qualifying offers to Eric Paschall and Trent Forrest.

On Friday morning, ESPN personality and NBA insider Brian Windhorst went on a lengthy and mysterious televised tangent indicating that league executives were wondering, “Why would the Jazz do that?”

Hours later, the answer came.

Gobert, a three-time All-Star, three-time DPOY, one-time All-NBA Second Team honoree, and three-time All-NBA Third Team selection, has been with the Jazz since 2013.

He was selected with the No. 27 pick in that year’s draft by the Denver Nuggets, who sold his draft rights to Utah. The Nuggets’ general manager that year was Tim Connelly — the man who just a short time ago took a new position as the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations.

For his career, Gobert has averaged 12.4 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game, on 65.3% field-goal shooting. However, he has developed into one of the league’s best players in recent years. In the 2021-22 season, he led the NBA in rebounds (14.7) and FG% (71.3%) while also averaging 15.6 points and 2.1 blocks.

While he became beloved among the team’s fans for almost single-handedly propping up a defense devoid of perimeter stoppers, for his year-over-year development and improvement, and for his feisty, underdog attitude, his time in Utah was not without its controversies.

He and Mitchell famously feuded in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The NBA went into a months-long hiatus after Gobert became the league’s so-called “Patient Zero” — the first player to test positive for COVID-19. Mitchell became irate when he became the second to test positive the next day, accusing his teammate of being flippant and careless.

Though the two eventually mended what The Athletic infamously called an “unsalvageable” relationship, the premise of tension between them never fully went away.

Indeed, this past season, as the Jazz struggled with injuries, a COVID outbreak that rendered most of the month of January a lost cause, and a series of blown double-digit leads which all combined to hang over the team like a black cloud, there became additional signs of strain.

As Gobert returned from his COVID-related absence, he blasted the team’s defense without him, taking a thinly-veiled shot at Mitchell by noting that Phoenix Suns counterpart Devin Booker was “playing his ass off” defensively. Less than two months later, Mitchell returned the favor following a loss in Dallas. With Gobert having missed the game due to a leg injury, the guard pointedly went on to praise the “guys that suited up.”

So, where do the Jazz go from here?

There may well be more moves to come soon. In the interim, the team now has a haul of future first-round picks, plus a moveable piece in Beverley, some young talent in Beasley and Vanderbilt, and fliers on young and unproven Kessler and Bolmaro.

Getting draft picks back as the primary return of such a trade is a risky move, considering that Gobert’s addition to a Minnesota squad already considered an ascending, young team (it features All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns, and electric former No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards) could perhaps ensure that none of those picks will wind up better than mid-20s selections.

And yet, Ainge’s history as GM and president of the Celtics has illustrated his preference for amassing such picks, in the hope that they can become valuable assets.

As for the players …

Beverley is a 33-year-old, 6-foot-1 defensive nuisance who formerly played at an All-Defensive Team level, but is perhaps below that now. He has career averages of 8.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.1 steals who has shot 37.8% from 3-point range.

Beasley is a 6-4 wing who averaged a career-high 19.9 points in 2020-21, but who dipped to 12.1 points per game this past season in going from a starting role to one off the bench. The 25-year-old is a career 38.6% shooter behind the arc.

Vanderbilt is a 6-9, 214-pound power forward who started 67 games for the Wolves this past season. The 23-year-old averaged 6.9 points and 8.4 rebounds on 58.7% shooting from the field.

Bolmaro was a first-round pick in the 2020 draft, going No. 23 overall. The Argentine wing (6-6, 200) did not come over to the NBA this past season, however, and played sparingly — 1.4 points and 1.1 rebounds per game in 35 mop-up appearances that averaged 6.9 minutes per.

Kessler, meanwhile, was regarded as the best defensive center in college basketball this past season. After playing a limited role as a freshman at North Carolina, he transferred to Auburn, where he had a breakout performance, averaging 11.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 4.6 blocks per game. While the 7-1, 245-pounder is considered an excellent drop-big rim protector, he is not thought to have much switching capability.

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Northwest Rumors: Wolves, Gobert, Murray, Beasley, Brown, Micic

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Thursday’s agreement with Kyle Anderson will give the Timberwolves 15 players under contract, but they’re not done with offseason moves, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Minnesota remains in the market for another big man and has talked to the Jazz about Rudy Gobert, sources tell Krawczynski.

Although the Wolves used a first-round pick on Auburn’s Walker Kessler, they want to add a veteran center so there’s not too much pressure on Kessler to produce right away. They were interested in free agents JaVale McGee and Isaiah Hartenstein, but they both reached deals with other teams Thursday night.

Minnesota’s talks with Utah about Gobert began before the draft, but the Jazz are asking a lot in return for their perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate. If the Wolves can’t work out a trade for Gobert, Krawczynski cites the Pacers‘ Myles Turner and the Hawks‘ Clint Capela as other options, although he adds that Minnesota’s talks with Atlanta haven’t gotten very far.

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

  • The Timberwolves talked to the Spurs about Dejounte Murray but weren’t willing to meet the asking price, Krawczynski confirms. There was also skepticism that Murray would re-sign with Minnesota once his contract expires in two years.
  • Teams have been making calls to gather background info on Timberwolves wing Malik Beasley, but no deal is imminent, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News. Beasley, who will make $15.45MM next season, carries a team option for his $16.52MM salary in 2023/24.
  • Bruce Brown possibly could have made more than the $13+ million he’ll receive from the Nuggets over the next two years, but he believes he’s entering a good situation in Denver, per Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link). A source tells Reynolds that “fit” was more important to Brown than money.
  • Vasilije Micic‘s representatives are pressing the Thunder to trade him, but Oklahoma City isn’t willing to give the European star up cheaply, according to Aris Barkas of EuroHoops. The Nuggets, Bucks, Bulls and Spurs have all expressed interest in Micic, Barkas hears.



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Marcus Smart, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert headline NBA’s All-Defensive teams

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8:38 PM ET

  • Andrew LopezESPN

Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo highlighted the 2021-22 NBA All-Defensive teams, which were announced on Friday night.

Smart, the league’s 2021-22 Defensive Player of the Year, earned his third first-team nod. He was joined at the guard spot by Mikal Bridges of the Phoenix Suns, who earned his first career All-Defensive team nod. Smart and Bridges were the top two vote-getters.

Antetokounmpo picked up his fifth All-Defensive team award and his fourth first-team selection. Since All-Defensive Teams were first announced in 1968-69, the only other players with four first-team selections and multiple MVPs are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Tim Duncan.

Antetokounmpo was joined at the forward spot by Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. who, like Bridges, earned his first selection.

Gobert, who had won three of the last four Defensive Player of the Year awards, earned his sixth consecutive selection. That breaks a tie with Hakeem Olajuwon and Abdul-Jabbar for the most consecutive first-team honors for a center.

The second team was Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia’s Matisse Thybulle, Miami’s Bam Adebayo, Golden State’s Draymond Green and Boston’s Robert Williams III.

With Smart and Williams making the team, it’s the first time Boston has had multiple players on the All-Defensive Team since Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett made the squad in 2011-12.

The Celtics had six players end up with a vote as Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford all picked up a first-team vote. Celtics reserve guard Derrick White, acquired at the trade deadline from the San Antonio Spurs, received three second-team votes.

Holiday’s selection, his fourth overall, earned him a $120,000 bonus.

It was Green’s seventh selection to the team, and he did so playing in just 46 games. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, only Andrei Kirilenko (41 in 2004-05) and Scottie Pippen (44 in 1997-98) made the All-Defensive team playing in fewer games.

Adebayo made his third career All-Defensive team (all second teams) while it was Thybulle’s second and Williams’ first.

Rookies Evan Mobley of Cleveland and Herb Jones of New Orleans were the fifth and sixth-place vote-getters for forwards. They missed out on becoming the first rookies to make the All-Defensive team since Tim Duncan did so in 1997-98.

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Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert fined $25K for profane language after Game 4 win

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Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert has been fined $25,000 for using profane language during a live television interview, the NBA announced Sunday.

“Man, f— the talk,” Gobert said during his on-court interview with TNT after the Jazz’s series-tying 100-99 win in Saturday’s Game 4.

Gobert, who capped his 17-point, 15-rebound performance with the game-winning dunk off a lob from teammate Donovan Mitchell, told ESPN that he’s tired of hearing discussions about the Jazz’s chemistry and speculation about whether the team’s core could break up this offseason.

“I mean, there’s a lot of noise,” Gobert said. “A lot of people are talking about our team, our guys, the future, what can happen, what might not happen, about a lot of different things that at the end of the day for us right now don’t matter. We have a team, we’re 2-2 in the series, and that’s our focus.”

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