Rudy Gobert believes a lot in his duo with Victor Wembanyama • Basket USA

Four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert is preparing to play his ninth campaign with Les Bleus, and his third Olympic Games. But this year will necessarily be special because, not only is there an Olympic deadline, at home no less, but also the arrival in great fanfare of the new superstar of French basketball, Victor Wembanyama.

A few years ago, the young prodigy tested himself against Rudy Gobert and Vincent Poirier during a few training sessions. Now he is fully part of the sporting project. The Wolves pivot takes stock of this association which is making more than one French fan salivate…

Rudy, how does it inspire you to finally be able to play official matches with Victor Wembanyama in the paint alongside you?

I think Victor is already one of the best defenders in the world. He can already do things that no one else in the world can do. And obviously, added to what I can already bring into the game, plus the mentality we have as a team, it can be very strong.

We talk a lot about the importance of defense, do you also think that it must be the identity of this team if it wants to go far?

As a team, it’s important to know what our strengths are, what our identity is, rain, shine or snow. When you look at our roster, you see that we have to have a defensive identity. We also have a lot of talent to put the ball in the basket, but we know that the thing we have to rely on is defense.

More specifically, what will your new association with Victor change inside?

The goal is for us to be able to defend, or even stifle, all the teams. With Victor, it gives us even more options in defense. Of course, it allows the coaches to be more creative. We will perhaps be able to defend more on the outside knowing that we have this new bulwark behind me. [à l’intérieur] and vice versa. This can put a little more pressure on the outside players, knowing that we no longer have one but two insurance policies.

Can we say that it helped you to be able to play this year with Karl-Anthony Towns or Naz Reid, two other tall players, with Minnesota?

Of course. But in general, throughout my career, I have always tried to adapt to the players I play with, to know their strengths so that we can be as dominant as possible. Playing with guys like Karl, but also Kyle Anderson, Boris Diaw in the past, Derrick Favors at Utah. I always wanted to adapt to the players around me. With Victor, we will have almost unlimited possibilities. We will be able to have a lot of fun and try a lot of things. I like Vincent’s approach because he wants to be creative and that will allow us to have fun too.

“If there is ego, we will not be able to realize our potential”

There is new blood coming into the team, what are your thoughts on this new squad?

We have a mix of generations, with players for whom this will be their first campaign and others who have already seen all the colors. It is important that everyone is well aware of their role and above all that everyone is aware of our collective identity. Everyone simply gives themselves to the team. And it will start with training. It’s up to us, the leaders of the team, to convey this message too.

How does it work in practice?

It’s a lot of communication, between the players but also with the staff. They did a great job in this regard by holding meetings with each of the players so that everyone knows what awaits them and what their role will be. Let there be no ego. Because if there is ego, we will not be able to realize our potential.

What are your expectations for this preparation phase, after last year’s (very successful) which was ultimately quite misleading?

There are always things to watch out for [en prépa]. There will be errors, that’s normal. But what is important is that we find ways to be as effective as possible, and which will put our adversaries in difficulty. Even if a month is short, we will be able to experiment. Some will be failures, some will be successes. Gradually, we will find the actions where we are comfortable. It’s alchemy in the end.

What lessons do you personally learn from the failure of the last World Cup?

Last year, there were several things. The first is that we didn’t really have an identity. We wanted to be an offensive team when we should be more of a defensive team. It wasn’t clear to everyone. Our roles weren’t well defined enough. It was also a bit unclear in the leadership. There were a lot of things. There was also a little excess of confidence with our good results from previous years, we thought we could get to the quarterfinals because that’s what we had done before. It’s a disappointment that we maybe needed too, because we wouldn’t have the same mentality for this year. It shook everyone up a bit, individually. The approach was different all year after that.

Finally, what was your reaction to seeing Tidjane Salaün drafted into the NBA, you who followed him at the Cholet Basket Academy?

It is an incredible pride to see a young person that I saw grow and develop at the academy [de Cholet] drafted in 6th position in the NBA. He works very hard, he knows where he wants to go, he has a great mentality. He is very well surrounded. It’s a pleasure that the Cholet team is still one of the best in France.

Comments collected at INSEP

How to read stats? GM = Games Played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Shots Made / Shots Attempted; 3pts = 3-pointers / 3-pointers Attempted; LF = Free Throws Made / Free Throws Attempted; Off = Offensive Rebound; Def = Defensive Rebound; Tot = Total Rebounds; Pd = Assists; Fte: Personal Fouls; Int = Steals; Bp = Loose Balls; Ct: Blocks; Pts = Points.