Rudy Gobert will be known in the NBA not only for his hardcourt skills but also for being the league's coronavirus Patient Zero. The Utah Jazz center tested positive in March and when other players were infected, league officials were forced to suspend the season. The notoriety is something that Gobert wants to put behind him.
To be clear, the Jazz's defensive specialist was not the first person who caught the virus in the United States. It's just unfortunate that he was first to test positive for the deadly bug in the NBA, and like it or not, the distinction will remain.
Gobert's teammate Donovan Mitchell tested positive the day after Utah has confirmed the big man's medical condition. And it did not come as a surprise that in the middle of the panic and confusion that ensued, the French native got the blame.
Reports said Mitchell felt bad about the COVID-19 spread reaching the Jazz locker room that he couldn't help but be mad at Gobert. A rift supposedly developed between the two stars that the Jazz front office was forced to consider separating them, meaning one has to leave.
The Utah big man said the situation bothered him - the flak that he got and the complications caused by the disease.
"I became the image of the coronavirus for the Americans, the domino that triggered the end of the season, but it was not me who brought the virus to the United States," Clutch Points reported Gobert as saying, picking on the player's interview with a media outlet in France.
More troubling, however, for the All-Star are the complications that the coronavirus had left behind. Doctors have assured that he is fully recovered but Gobert said traces of the symptoms he had while sick are present.
For example, the Jazz star lost his sense of smell while battling the virus and recovered some of that but not 100%. Gobert said he can smell again but from a distance, that natural ability has become a struggle.
He has been advised by medical experts that the problem is not going away anytime soon. Doctors said Gobert's sense of smell will fully recover after a year.
By that time, Gobert might not be wearing the same uniform as speculations are rife that the center could be ship out to Boston. According to NBA Analysis, Utah could agree to a swap deal that will see the Celtics sending Marcus Smart, Robert Williams III, Daniel Theis, and Romeo Langford to Salt Lake City.
The package will also include a 2020 first-round pick, the report added.
The trade scenario is seen to play out if Gobert and the Jazz will not find a common ground for an extension deal, which the big man will be weighing on in the offseason.
