On Tuesday, Team France beat Team Canada in the quarterfinals of men’s basketball in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Both teams are littered with NBA talent, however, the French deployed an interesting strategy in their eventual 82-73 victory.
France coach Vincent Collet elected to remove NBA stars Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier from the starting lineup. Gobert ended up playing just three minutes in the contest.
Read more: Why Was Rudy Gobert Benched? French Star Says Surgery While Coach Says Otherwise
After the game, there was much controversy regarding Gobert’s potential benching. Gobert told reporters that he suffered an injury and had surgery on his finger on Monday. He said he was thankful to be able to play even three minutes in the quarterfinal contest.
Collet, however, said Gobert did not have surgery. He said Gobert underwent an exam that included an MRI due to a finger injury. However, he added that the move to have Gobert come off the bench and only play three minutes had to do with matchups.
“He was injured and there was also the issue of the matchups,” Collet said, via EuroHoops. “He was informed about the decision to have him play limited minutes.”
Gobert backed up his coach on the decision.
“Some of it was about matchups, things that happened in practice, injuries, things like that, but regardless, that was a really good decision,” Gobert said. “The communication was key. A lot of things happened. I have full trust in my teammates and coaches, and it worked. We see the way we started again tonight. Guys were already ready to play and they set the tone for the game.”
While the drama has all subsided from the benching, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green decided to speak about it on his podcast, The Draymond Green Show. The title of his video: “Draymond Green questions if Rudy Gobert LIED to cover up France benching.”
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Here’s a little of what he had to say:
“We don’t know what’s true. I don’t think we have any reason to believe Rudy was lying, except for the coach said it was for matchups,” Green said. “Quite frankly, their coach said the matchups was better. The proof’s in the pudding. But we don’t know who’s lying.”
Green continued, “In the three minutes Rudy checked in, Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) started getting off, like that’s when it started to turn the corner for Shai,” Green said.
Finally, he decided to call Gobert out for getting taken out of the lineup.
“To be taken out of the lineup on any other team in the Olympics as an NBA player not named Team USA is kinda crazy,” Green said.
Green and Gobert don’t like each other, and their issues date all the way back to 2019. They’ve gone back and forth on numerous occasions, and things escalated this season when Green put Gobert in a chokehold.
Green has used his platform to call out Gobert many times, including when he was a guest star on NBA on TNT this past season. Green clearly doesn’t like Gobert and seemed to take a little pleasure in his benching at the Olympics.