/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55450409/usa_today_10042900.0.jpg)
Tonight is the NBA Award’s show where they will be announcing the winners of their individual awards: MVP, MIP, ROY, COY, and of most importance, DPOY (or Defensive MVP). It’s also Rudy Gobert’s birthday today! The Utah Jazz starting center is 25 today, and on his birthday the NBA released the All-NBA Teams (All-Rookie, etc). The results of the All-Defensive team is as follows (thanks to ESPN), where we see Gobert making the 1st team:
All-Defensive Teams. pic.twitter.com/6nHEg8BpjR
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 26, 2017
Rudy received all but two 1st team votes, with DeAndre Jordan and Hassan Whiteside taking one each. Team mate George Hill also received one vote. Also of note, former Jazzmen (both picked after the first round) Paul Millsap and Wesley Matthews were also recognized here with votes. Congrats Rudy!
CONGRATULATIONS, @RudyGobert27 on being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team! ✋#TakeNote pic.twitter.com/nTdZKOInvr
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) June 26, 2017
Gobert deserves this with his 1000 / 1000 / 200 season (which we’ve been writing about for months and months before the Jazz even started to notice).
#NBA #History #TakeNote @UtahJazz C @RudyGobert27 ’s 2016-17 season is on the precipice of greatness #TakeFNNote https://t.co/tNT7kRCmKv
— SLC Dunk (@slcdunk) March 11, 2017
And for the season the Frenchman averaged 14.0 ppg, 12.8 rpg, 2.6 bpg, and added 1.2 apg and 0.6 spg to boot. He has an All-Around game that I don’t think we ever dreamed off. But defensively he is a nightmare for the other team.
The NBA owes him another gift tonight, though. His first DPOY award. If he wins he will join Mark Eaton as the only Jazzmen to win the award. Eaton has two. Rudy deserves at least one.
We’ll all be watching (actually, no one is going to be watching this except on social media) the award show and find out what other gifts are coming Gobzilla’s way.