Gobert: When the "best defensive player" can t help but love collapses, the NBA playoffs are in full swing, but the Minnesota Timberwolves French Timberwolves

NBA playoffs are in full swing, but the Minnesota Timberwolves' French Title Rudy Gobert encountered the most difficult "defensive round" in his life outside the court - while he locked down superstars such as James and Curry, his love life was exposed to "three-second violation of defense". The seven-year relationship between the three-time best defensive player and his girlfriend Julia Bonellia suddenly made a sharp turn of 180 degrees during her second child pregnancy, and staged a "family defense battle" that was more ups and downs than the Western Conference Finals.

From the court hug to the court confrontation: the timeline of fairy tale collapse

The Timberwolves' regular season finale on April 13, Gobert's warm hug with Bornilla, who was holding his son Romeo, in the target center are also regarded as a model family. At that time, the scene of the French center kissing his girlfriend's pregnant belly was even made into a "Love and Basketball" theme poster by local media. Unexpectedly, just two months later, the couple staged a horse-catching plot comparable to the American drama "Gossip Girl".

According to people familiar with the matter, the fuse of the conflict was the "trans-ocean tug-of-war" triggered by the expected delivery date of the second child. Bornilla insists on returning to France with his 2-year-old son to be born, claiming that he "want his child to grow up at the foot of Notre Dame"; Gobert moved out of the legal team and demanded that the mother and son must stay in Minnesota - after all, the star with an annual salary of $41 million does not want to chase Concorde to discuss custody during the offseason.

What's more dramatic is that Gobert posted an ultrasound photo on social media in March this year, with the caption "The Miracle Given by God." At that time, Bornilla also liked and forwarded it, leaving a string of love expressions in the comment area. Now it seems that this wave of operations is comparable to the NBA's "trash time data swiping". The more ruthless the show of love, the more painful the reality slaps in the face.

Love offensive and defensive battle: When the "forbidden zone overlord" meets "French Rose"

The collapse of this relationship has caused heated discussions because the two of them have had their past "dog abuse history" too high-profile. When Gobert was selected as the All-Star in 2022, Bornilla's photo of waiting in the player channel holding his son made it to ESPN headlines; last year Gobert was voted as "the most overrated player" by fans, and she directly opened a small account and angrily retorted: "You don't understand his value at all!"

Insiders revealed that the seeds of conflict may have been planted long ago. As a French supermodel and fashion blogger, Bornilla has always been unable to adapt to the snow and ice of Minnesota. Last Christmas Eve, she complained on Ins story: "It's minus 20 degrees below the Paris subway strike, which is more desperate than the Paris subway strike." Gobert's "basketball brain" often struck - on a date, he actually took his girlfriend to watch his defensive highlights, and also paused the screen to explain the positioning skills.

Now it seems that this combination of "Straight Steel vs Romantic Paris" is more difficult than Gobert's defense of Jokic. When the French media "People" dug out that Bornilla had cleared all photos of Ins, fans finally realized that the best defensive player could not defend his girlfriend's "fast attack counterattack".

"Double-line battle" in the playoffs: Can the rebounding king win back love?

At present, Gobert is facing the most magical "two-line battle" of his career: on the Western Decisive battlefield, he will fight against the Mavericks' Doncic-Irving King Blasting Group; on the court battlefield, the lawyer team will fight against Bornilla's French lawyers "International Children's Abduction Law". What’s even more difficult is that according to Minnesota law, if a child lives in the United States for more than six months, courts usually tend to award custody to local parents—which explains why Gobert would rather be called a "control freak" and prevent his girlfriend from returning home.

Ironically, Gobert on the court is playing his peak performance. The picture of Curry's key layup in the Western Conference semi-finals G6 blocking the block was made into a "Gobert protects not just the basket" emoji spread. But the off-court data declined across the board: He averaged 12+10 per game in the regular season, and his playoff score fell below the 10-point mark. The chain reaction caused by this breakup storm is spreading on Gobert's business territory. The French mineral water brand he endorsed has suspended new advertising shooting, and a sports brand originally scheduled to release the "family series" sneakers this summer have been forced to be rebuilt. What's even more fatal is that the "good dad" character that has been painstakingly managed is facing collapse - you should know that he just won the French version of "GQ" "Father of the Year Award" last year, and the reason for winning is "finding a perfect balance between the NBA and the childcare."

However, crisis public relations experts pointed out that Gobert's team is obviously copying James' "fatherly strategy" back then: to fight for joint custody through legal means, and then cooperate with public welfare visits to shape the image of responsibility. After all, in the North American sports circle, the label of "scumbag" is much more terrifying than "playing ball" - referring to the lessons of Irving's endorsement of hundreds of millions of dollars due to family disputes.

The final whistle has not sounded yet

When the TMZ reporter surrounded Gobert's McLaren Supercar with a long gun, the 31-year-old center left only the sentence "My private life has nothing to do with basketball." But anyone with a discerning eye knows that in the era of social media, how can there be a real "clear distinction between public and private"? He graduated from six fouls in G1 in the Western Conference Finals and was teased by the savage commentator as "taking the referee as his ex-girlfriend."

Perhaps as ESPN famous mouthpiece A. Smith said: "What Gobert needs now is not just pick-and-roll tactics, but also learns to set up a human wall in his emotional life." After all, in 2K games, the player attributes do not have the "emotional stability value" column - this giant with a contract of 205 million is undergoing a more severe test than a smaller defender who switches defense.

(part of the data in this article comes from Tencent)