The Whiteboard: Can Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell fix things?

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Something is rotten in the state of Utah. At least that’s the implication from a variety of reports and rumblings that fomented over the past few days. On Friday, The Athletic released a piece, featuring reporting from Tony Jones, Sam Amick and Shams Charania, exploring what happened with the Jazz around Rudy Gobert‘s positive COVID-19 test and the subsequent shut down of the NBA season.

The story was a fascinating look behind the scenes of a handful of tense hours that reshaped the league but, from a forward-looking perspective, the most important nugget was the state of the rift between Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, who also tested positive: “’It doesn’t appear salvageable,’ one source with knowledge of the situation said.”

It’s not clear (and may never be) how the virus first reached the Jazz roster but Gobert became symptomatic after spending time with family who were visiting from France. And even if Gobert didn’t pass the virus to Mitchell, his casual attitude (both publicly and privately) towards precautions at a time when the Jazz organization was encouraging players to prepare is a reasonable point of frustration for Mitchell.

In a Good Morning America appearance soon after testing positive, Mitchell alluded to frustrations with Gobert. After The Atheltic report broke, Gobert appeared on an Instagram Live this weekend and said it was true that he and Mitchell had not talked for a while after their positive tests.

“It’s true that we didn’t speak for a while after this, but we spoke a few days ago. We’re both ready to go out there and try to win a championship for this team. It’s not about being unprofessional. You know, everyone has got different relationships — it’s never perfect. People that are married, it’s never perfect. So you know, me and my teammates, it’s far from perfect. But at the end of the day, we both want the same thing — and it’s winning. We’re both grown men, and we both are going to do what it takes to win.”

As outsiders, it’s easy to make bold statements about who is at fault for what and how tenuous things really are. But personal relationships are complex, even for those people directly involved, and it’s tough to make reasonable assessments using just social media statements as data points.

Is it possible this has fractured something essential in the friendship between Gobert and Mitchell? Absolutely. But that doesn’t necessarily mean a trade has to be made or that the Jazz’s ceiling would be lowered. Teams have certainly won championships with key players privately hating each other’s guts. Is it possible that this is being overblown by basketball media and fans, all outsiders, with nothing else to distract them right now? Sure.

How you, personally, would react to a co-worker in this same situation and what you’d be willing to sacrifice in terms of a shared goal doesn’t really matter here at all. What matters is what Gobert and Mitchell are holding onto and willing to let go of. We just don’t know and we probably won’t really know for a while.

#OtherContent

ESPN and the NBA had plenty of goofy games going to entertain you this weekend. Teammates Deandre Ayton and Devin Booker faced off in the finals of the NBA2K Players Tournament. No word yet on whether their friendship is “salvageable” after this grudge match. Then, on Sunday, we were treated to a delightfully low-fi HORSE Tournament with NBA and WNBA players shooting from home. There were definitely some highlights but, honestly, the Twitter reactions were at least as good as the basketball.

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