Despite hinting he would sit out this year’s FIBA World Cup, Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert has decided to join Team France at this summer’s tournament.
Gobert posted a picture of the World Cup trophy, tagging France Basketball, to his Instagram story Monday morning, seemingly announcing his intention to play this summer.
France will be without phenom Victor Wembanyama as the Spurs big man told L’Équipe that playing for his country at FIBA “would not be realistic in terms of development and not prudent in terms of health.”
That last part is what’s irking Wolves fans because Gobert’s struggles in his first season with Minnesota were in part due to getting banged up while playing for France in last summer’s European Championship.
Rudy Gobert is in for the World Cup. Playing for the French national team has always been hugely important to him. It is an injury risk, like Eurobasket was last season. https://t.co/qwCbngT7iR
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) June 26, 2023
When asked at his exit press conference in April what his summer plans are and if he intends to play in the World Cup, Gobert said, “I think I’m going to take a couple days to reflect, clear my mind in order to really make those decisions.”
“For now, I have to stay here and see the right people because I think it’s important,” Gobert explained. “Then I’ll take a couple days to reflect on how I’m going to plan this summer. But I’m excited about his summer, because I think it will be my best summer. Last year I was hurt at the end of the playoffs. So it took a while for me to get my knee better. Now I’m pretty healthy, just got a little back issue but that will go away easily. I really plan on having the best summer I’ve ever had. I want to have the best year of my career next season. This summer I’m going to put myself in a position I’ve never put myself in before.”
Gobert isn’t the only Timberwolf playing in the FIBA World Cup. Anthony Edwards is playing for Team USA and there’s speculation that Kyle Anderson, who is apparently close to being naturalized as a Chinese citizen, will play for the Chinese national team.
France, by the way, played eight games en route to a third place finish at the 2019 FIBA World Cup. That means there are up to eight games where Wolves fans need to hope Gobert, Edwards and possibly Anderson avoid injury.
The FIBA World Cup takes place Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
