Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert had never made a three-pointer in his basketball career. Wednesday, he finally got it in.
In nine NBA seasons, Gobert was 0-14 from behind the arc. He also hadn’t made one in international play for his native France, but in a friendly against Montenegro, the waiting was over: Gobert scored from deep.
He was thrilled about the achievement, telling reporters, “Ce soir, j’ai l’impression d’avoir perdu ma virginité.” Translated to English, that’s, “I feel like I have lost my virginity tonight.”
Gobert has been working on his game this summer, shooting his shot all over the court.
It’s been a long, lonely quest to finally sink one. He’s tried to do it at camp. He’s tried going to Europe. And like so many of us, he’s practiced by himself for hours. And his form doesn’t look that bad! Perhaps he just needed more confidence in himself.
Becoming even a minor threat from outside would help Gobert on both his NBA and his international team. In Minnesota, the two-big lineup with Karl-Anthony Towns can have spacing issues, even as Towns is a 39.5 percent career three-point shooter. For France, Gobert is about to pair with the 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama, though Wemby is sitting out this year’s FIBA World Cup to prepare for his rookie season.
If nothing else, it has to be a relief for Gobert to simply get it out of the way. Now he can join in the locker room talk when his teammates brag about how they scored from behind the line. Though he should know, it didn’t make him any less of a man that he hadn’t done it before.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t fall in love with the three-point shot.
