2020-03-22T11:37:53+00:00

2020-03-22T11:37:53+00:00

2020-03-22T22:18:44+00:00.

Evan Fournier stood up for Rudy Gobert, stating that he was unfairly blamed publicly, and also noted that he doesn’t think the Olympics will be held this summer

By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net

Rudy Gobert was the first NBA player confirmed positive on coronavirus and that put a spotlight on him, in a negative way. His fellow countryman Evan Fournier didn’t find that kind of behavior appropriate:

“It hurt me. It became the face of the virus in the NBA. The behavior of people and journalists has been disgusting. I don’t understand taking out the names of the sick. It looks like the transfer window when it’s the scoop race. It was a coronavirus free agency. It was unbearable. You can say a guy is sick without naming him. Today, Philadelphia and the Lakers have cases, and we don’t know who it is. It’s more respectful,” he told L’Equipe.

It didn’t help Gobert’s case that he joked around by touching microphones and other items in his vicinity a few days before the positive coronavirus test.

Fournier noted that it was just that, a joke, and added that it was easier to blame him as a foreigner: “It’s typically the thing where we’re going to blame the stranger. He’s European so he brought the virus back? When we don’t know. Who says it was not Donovan Mitchell who infected him? The environment is unhealthy, not helped by what Donald Trump says. The joke with the microphones was a joke where no one had realized the magnitude of the thing. It’s easy to point the finger a posteriori. I could have made the same joke.”

Fournier also shared his thoughts on the near-future of basketball and he doesn’t think this outbreak will be over anytime soon. Especially not in time for the Olympics to be held: “In my opinion, the Olympic Games are dead.”

To read to the full interview click here

alm_page: 1alm_current: 1almitem: 1alm_found_posts: 1