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"Africans, ain't no way y'all getting covid": Rudy Gobert's teammate shares what someone told him after duo got Covid-19

Back in the 2019–20 NBA season, the entire league had to be shut down, and many people blamed Rudy Gobert for it. At the time, the COVID-19 virus was slowly spreading globally, and it penetrated the US, resulting in several sports leagues being shut down.

During that time, Gobert was still with the Utah Jazz alongside Emmanuel Mudiay. The French big man became the first player in the league to test positive for the virus, and reports came out about him being careless in the locker room.

Mudiay was also tested for COVID-19 at the same time, and luckily for him, the results came back negative. However, he still received a ton of messages from those around him.

The Congolese-American point guard told a story on the Tidal League podcast about the messages he received while waiting for his results:

"Rudy was feeling better than I was." Mudiay said. "Like, he ain't have symptoms. I was the one like, 'Dang.'
"So people, 'There's two Jazz players are sick, blah blah blah.' So people are finding out that I was the other one that I was sick. My phone was blowing up. I had people hitting me up like, 'Saying prayers for you, if you die -- blah blah blah' They were like, 'I'm sorry for everything we've been through, we gotta fix the beef.'

While trying to hold his laughter back, Mudiay revealed one specifically funny message he received:

"I'm over here laughing like, 'Dawg, I'm good bro' People were literally hitting me up -- somebody was like, 'Man, Africans, ain't no way y'all getting COVID.' ...people really think really think I'm dying dawg."

It is a hilarious story now, but back then, many were resentful of Gobert's carelessness. The Good thing is that people have moved on and forgotten this.

You might also be interested in reading this: "Thinks he’s Rudy Gobert" - Knicks' trade demands for Mitchell Robinson have fans trolling 7-foot center


Rudy Gobert was only trying to "liven the mood" when he acted carelessly

Many were furious with Rudy Gobert for his actions back in 2020, touching the microphones, which led to more people contracting the virus. However, according to him, he was solely trying to "liven the mood" as the league was about to get shut down at that time.

"It came from a good intention," Gobert said. "It was the first day that we found out that the media was not going to be able to interview us, right next to us, and, you know, we obviously didn't know as much as we know now, and I only did that to try to liven the mood a little bit. It was, of course, if I could go back in time, I wouldn't do it."

Also read: “It’s still harder to score” – Rudy Gobert weighs scoring struggles in FIBA over NBA

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