Rudy Gobert

Obviously I think offensively, spacing for me as a guy that puts a lot of pressure on the rim is going to make it harder on a defense. They're going to have to make tougher decisions, and space is going to be way more open for all the guards, too.

When I started to do it with precision, I realized how much setting good screens made us better as a team offensively. It made things easy for me and my teammates.

First, I'm just trying to set screens for my teammates and then just be aggressive, make the right play.

I don't like to fall short. It's tough. Just make the right play when I'm open, and I'll thrust to the rim and be aggressive.

Some games I'm going to get more blocks or they're going to do more mistakes and give up more baskets but some games I get zero blocks and I affect 20 shots.

Sometimes, I see the guys driving and they don't even look at the rim, they just dribble out so it's as good as a block or even better because I'm kind of laughing when I see that. That's what it's about.

My goal is to protect the basket. Most of the time, I won't block the shot but I'm going to affect the shot or I'm going to affect the way they think.

You don't want your opponent to score. You don't want your guy to score and once you get better at it, you get used to it, it becomes a mindset. You just try to do it every game.

Even though I didn't have a lot of material things, I had the love and education and all together a lot of kids don't have the same chances, so the goal is to give some chances to the kids that don't have it.

I always love to help the community, to interact with the kids, with the fans. It doesn't matter who I am on the court, to me it's important.

When I was young, I didn't watch basketball, but I watched 'Space Jam' with Michael Jordan so he was my favorite player.

I'm prepared to guard anyone.

Defense doesn't sell as much as offense.

I'm just worried about winning and making my teammates better and getting better.

I play every year to try to win.

For years now, I've used gaming to unwind and relax during the season. It's also how I manage to keep up with my friends when I'm on the road.

My passion for gaming is well-known among both the Utah Jazz and my team in France.

When you know where you want to go, you're mentally tough.

I've been away from my family even when I was in France.

When you know what you want, you know where you want to go.

I just wanted to keep getting better and better and better, and that's just my mindset.

I'd take the Defensive Player of the Year any day over an All-Star selection. There's only one of these in the whole league every year.

I'm very proud of where I'm from.

I like 'Stifle Tower,' I like 'Gobzilla.' There's a lot of nicknames that are pretty cool.

I don't want to be the guy that gets inspired by one player. I like to watch every player.

The Defensive Player of the Year is the guy that makes his team better. Not only gets stats - it's the guy that also has an impact on his teammates and leadership.

When someone throws an alley-oop and you finish, everyone's happy, the one who makes the pass and the one with the dunks. It's a great play.

It's a tremendous amount of fans in France that love basketball, that follow it every day even though the games are at like two or three in the morning.

I was watching 'Space Jam' when I was a kid but that was pretty much the only thing I knew about the NBA.

Once I got 13 or 14 years old, I started watching a lot of videos on YouTube and NBA.com and I started following the NBA ball.

Obviously, the basketball career doesn't last forever.

I'm able to impact people's lives by the way I play, but there's so much more things I can do so there is no limit to what I can do.

Defense doesn't matter enough.

I think when you're a very good defensive team you give yourself a chance every night, on the road, at home, it's a big factor and something to build on.

I think when you're a very good defensive team - it's very rare a team wins a championship when you're not a very good defensive team.

People watch the points, they watch the highlights. But the defense I think helps the offense.

I mean, defense to me is something that when you watch a game you don't really pay attention to defense unless you're very - unless you're a specialist.

I do a lot of things to help my team winning - set screens, roll into the rim, finishing. I think I can be even more than that.

I trust my teammates and their ability to be there when they have to be there. I'm going to be there when I have to be there for them.

It's a team game.

There's a lot of things you don't see on the stats.

I want to stay with the Jazz.

It's great to communicate as a team.

I just try to do what I do by getting my teammates open and getting better at finishing and making plays when I can.

I just try to make the right play, stay aggressive and defensively just do what I do. I make sure I talk to everyone and control the paint.

Goaltending, sometimes it's tough because you're in the air and you say, 'No, no. Don't take the ball.'

I want to be an All-Star. That's my goal. And win a title.

You don't have to think, you just have to play hard on defense.

I think I learned how it works in the league. When you are outside you don't understand everything, but when you are inside you can know how it works.

I think I learned basketball. I learned a lot.