The Minnesota Timberwolves are ready to face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Semifinals, in what promises to be a tough battle for a chance to compete for an NBA championship.
Superstar guard Anthony Edwards wants to send a clear message to the rest of the league that not only is he one of the best players in the NBA, but he also has the capacity to be a leader and take his team to new heights.
That is, to take the Twolves to the NBA finals for the first time in franchise history. Minnesota is only one of five teams that have never had the opportunity to fight for a title in the championship series, joining Los Angeles Clippers, the Charlotte Hornets, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the New Orleans Pelicans.
Rudy Gobert and Draymond Green have history
Among with the excitement of watching two of the best Western Conference teams going at it in the semifinals, there’s also another piece that makes this series full of drama: the bad blood between center Rudy Gobert and forward Draymond Green.
On November, 2023, the Golden State Warriors defender was suspended for five games after the former Michigan State Spartan choked the French giant from behind. The maneuver lasted 10 seconds before Green was pulled away. He ultimately paid the highest price, with a suspension that costed him $769,704 in salary.
After his actions, Draymond didn’t regret his violent action. “I don’t live my life with regrets,” he said after a Warriors’ practice. “I’ll come to a teammate’s defense any time that I’m in a position to come to a teammate’s defense.. What matters to me is how the people that I care about feel, first and foremost,” said the unapologetic defender.
Gobert gets ready to fight Green
With the upcoming series between the Timberwolves and the Warriors, fans resurfaced a video of Rudy Gobert sparring with former UFC interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane in France. The images are from September 2024, as we can see Rudy landing some punches and having an ok technique.
The UFC fighter is 6’5, 250 pounds, while Gobert is 7’1, 260 pounds, so the training session looked like a battle of the giants. And it’s also a message to Draymond Green that the French superstar can throw punches if he needs to during their next games.
Gobert did say that Green’s choke was a “clown behavior” and that the move wasn’t good enough for him to go to sleep. “But he tried. He tried really hard, but it wasn’t good enough to where I felt like I was really in danger of falling asleep or something like that,” Rudy told the media. Fans are hoping that things don’t escalate during the Western Conference Semifinals, but if they do, expect to see two soldiers going to war.
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