Thanks to the emerging and imposing presence of Rudy Gobert, the Utah Jazz have been one of the better defensive teams in the league this season.
The transformation of the Jazz’s defense (5th in defensive rating) began last season when Enes Kanter was traded, allowing the second-year center Gobert to take over the starting spot. From there, the center showed that he was mature well beyond his years in his ability to contest at the rim with the longest wingspan in the NBA. It’s not just the shot blocking, which is he is alarmingly good at doing with 3.2 blocks per game (second best in the league). As an anchor, he simply knows where to be to discourage the opposition from attacking the paint area and instilling fear in the slashers knowing what’s waiting for them at the basket.
Count DeMar DeRozan among those who aren’t afraid to see Gobert at the rim, though. During Wednesday’s contest between the Jazz and Toronto Raptors, the shooting guard easily drove past Gordon Hayward and saw the green light to go at the rim. Gobert met him a little too late and the result was an immediate trend on twitter and a highlight dunk-of-the-year candidate:
Yes, this is one of those dunks that fans will remind Gobert about for years to come. More importantly for him, though, is that he won the overall battle. DeRozan struggled to convert around the basket time after time in the contest and shot just 6-of-15 from the field for 14 points. More importantly, the Jazz came up with the 93-89 victory.
Gobert was excited for the win, but he did take the time to acknowledge DeRozan’s trampoline act on him with the following tweet:
Great win tonight. Way to grind and get stops down the stretch. Except one…???? #thatboyusedthatcallofdutydoublejump
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) November 19, 2015
Not surprisingly, the fans went at the center hard on twitter. Unfortunately for one heckler, Gobert came back at him much harder than anyone could have imagined:
And you got murdered by Goku, Majin buu. https://t.co/SsmMFcg4oV
— Rudy Gobert (@rudygobert27) November 19, 2015
In case you don’t understand the reference:
Simply put, this is a legendary comeback.
You can make the case that it’s not the nicest thing to do by Gobert to call someone out for their looks, but hey, the heckler did kind of ask for it. No one feels sympathy for a bully when he gets bullied back. For what it’s worth, the victim of Gobert’s roast is happy to take a hit for his team and doesn’t seem to mind the new-found publicity.
As for the actual context of the diss, the fat version of Majin Buu doesn’t actually get murdered by Goku, but that’s just the Dragon Ball Z nerd in me being an unnecessary purist.
Jim Park is a blogger and Tweet of the Night author of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.