Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert opens up about his leadership role

Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) reacts after being called for a foul. Gobert received a technical foul for his antics as the Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics played an NBA basketball game at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. Boston won 114-103.

Rudy Gobert sat down with The Athletic and Stadium’s Shams Charania for a wide-ranging interview, which looks like it was filmed during the All-Star break, touching on his leadership role, his offense and underdog mentality, among other topics.

Here are some highlights from the interview, which was tweeted out yesterday.

“I want to be Defensive Player of the Year again…I feel I’m as good as I’ve ever been.”

Jazz All-Star @rudygobert27 sits down on @Stadium: On leadership role with @spidadmitchell, his evolving offensive game, "underdog" mentality competing alongside LA teams. pic.twitter.com/DMnPTTcX3e
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 26, 2020

On being named an All-Star

“I was excited. It’s something that I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid, so it’s something that I wanted to accomplish at one point. It’s like when you won Defensive Player of the Year, All-NBA, all that. You want to be an All-Star and it’s great to finally be able to experience it.”

On his expectations for himself:

“I just keep striving every day. I just want to win. The goal is to win a championship. I know when we lost in the playoffs the last few years, every summer I was asking myself, ‘What can I do better to help the team take the next step?’ Offensively, defensively, I just want to keep striving. I want to be a better leader. I want to be able to lead this team to better results and I feel like I’m as good as I’ve ever been on the court and off the court and I’m excited to see what I’m going to accomplish this year and in the coming future.”

On what he’s improved offensively:

“I’ve been able to put more pressure on the defense, not just by rolling to the basket but by doing some other stuff. I think my passing got better, being able to attack off the dribble and draw fouls or finish off contact. It’s something that I work on. Obviously, the shot. All of the things I work on every day and that I think can help us take another step as a team.”