It is unclear if Rudy Gobert was lying or not.
Team France upset Team Canada to advance to the semifinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the win was not without some tension.
Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Detroit’s Evan Fournier, two of the NBA players on Team France’s roster, did not make the starting lineup for the quarterfinals matchup.
Fournier played a crucial role off the bench and was one of the leading scorers. Gobert, who was named 2024 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, played just three minutes during the victory.
After the game, the Timberwolves big man told reporters that his lack of playing time was due to a surgery he had on his left ring finger:
French big man Rudy Gobert, who played less than four minutes tonight, just told a few of us reporters that he had surgery on his left ring finger yesterday and was thankful he was able to play at all in this win over Canada. @JeffZillgitt @davidaldridgedc
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) August 6, 2024
According to France head coach Vincent Collet, however, Gobert did not have surgery on his finger.
Collet said that the lineup change was simply based on matchups.
France coach Vincent Collet said Rudy Gobert did not undergo surgery on injured finger before win over Canada and lineup changes were based on matchups
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) August 6, 2024
Collet added that Gobert’s while finger was examined and he got an MRI, the decision was made because he wanted to play “small ball” against Canada.
Gobert indeed had two fingers taped together following an injury that he said he suffered during a recent practice after group play.
But it is unclear if Gobert or Collet is telling the truth about whether or not the big man had surgery this week while at the Olympics.
