‘It Was a Boss Move’: NBA Player Georges Niang Recalls Rudy Gobert Touching Mics at Presser While Sick With Covid
NBA player Georges Niang revealed his reaction to the viral moment former teammate Rudy Gobert touched all the microphones at a press conference while positive for Covid in the early days of the pandemic.
Gobert was the first NBA player to knowingly have Covid back in March 2020. Two days before his positive test was announced, a clip of the player intentionally touching microphones during a press conference went viral.
Former teammate on the Utah Jazz, Georges Niang, sat down with the Pardon My Take podcast to discuss the viral moment and the months of NBA shutdowns that followed.
“You also were in Utah when Rudy Gobert gave everyone Covid. Was that awkward?” host Big Cat asked the Philadelphia 76er. “Cause we all didn’t know what was coming. I think we defended the move. We’re like, ‘That’s fucking funny that he touched all the microphones.'”
“Now that I think about it, it was a boss move, but to say it back then was like, no, it was bad. You were like, ‘Bro, you did that. And you had Covid!'” Niang replied.
“That was funny cause I ended up going to have dinner at his house the night after we, or the night we played Toronto at home and I was eating dinner with him after the game. And when we were talking about him coming in, before we flew out to Oklahoma City and he freakin’, he comes in late and was like, ‘Yeah, I wasn’t really feeling that well,'” Niang recalled.
“Mind you, literally two days before we had someone from the CDC come and be like, “If you’re not feeling well, don’t come in. Like, call someone.’ So he comes in and he’s on the plane and he’s like sweating. I think like all of us thought, like you could have a common cold,” he added.
“Yeah. No one knew,” replied Big Cat.
Niang also discussed the moment Gobert tested positive for Covid and the entire NBA league was shut down right before a game started.
“We were getting ready to go to the game and he’s not there. And it was like Men in Black, we’re getting ready for tip off,” Niang said, “They do the starting lineups and like five guys in suits run on the court. And it’s like, ‘What the fuck?’ That was crazy.”
Gobert later said he regretted the joke.
“That it came from a good intention,” he said in an interview with ESPN. “It was the first day that we found out that the media was not going to be able to interview us, right next to us, and, you know, we obviously didn’t know as much as we know now, and I only did that to try to liven the mood a little bit. It was, of course, if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t do it.”
Listen above Pardon My Take.
