Getty Image
Earlier this week, The Athletic published their wide-ranging anonymous NBA players poll that asks, among other things, who the most overrated player in the league is. And for the second consecutive season, the answer was three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert.
Gobert’s stunningly low popularity in NBA circles is certainly nothing new, as The Washington Post published an article last year titled “The Timberwolves plain don’t like Rudy Gobert”.
Earlier this week, ESPN published a post asking “Why do so many players have beef with Rudy Gobert?”
If there’s one athlete in today’s American sports culture landscape who knows a thing or two about being widely disliked, it’s New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, which is perhaps why Gobert felt comfortable enough to ask him for advice about going on a darkness retreat.
“Gobert reached out to NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, seeking insight from one of sports’ most polarizing players after being connected by a mutual acquaintance,” reported ESPN.
“But he didn’t want to discuss professional challenges with Rodgers, who had just been traded to the New York Jets after a legendary 18-year run with the Green Bay Packers. Gobert wanted to inquire about Rodgers’ experience at the Sky Cave Dark Retreats in southern Oregon.”
Gobert called the experience — in which he was alone in a pitch-black cabin for 64 hours without any means of distraction or entertainment — “very powerful” as it allowed him the rare opportunity to “be alone” with himself.
“He viewed the interior of the cabin before the lights were turned off, so Gobert knew where the bed, the sink and the toilet were, but he had to find them by feel for the three days.”
“He did some push-ups and squats for exercise, but Gobert spent most of the time sinking deep into his innermost thoughts, describing the retreat as “meditation times a thousand.” Meals were slid through a slot in the door.”
After a difficult 2022-23 season that saw them limp to the Western Conference’s #8 seed, Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves entered the 2023-24 playoffs as the #1 overall seed in the conference and currently have a 2-0 game lead over the Phoenix Suns in the first round.