Rudy Gobert Has Pet Ducks Rusky And Dusky At Jazz Practice Facility
Apr 15, 2021, 11:50 AM | Updated: 12:01 pm
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert talks to members of the media at the Zions Bank Basketball Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 25, 2019. The Utah Jazz season ended with Wednesday's loss to Houston in the playoffs. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Rudy Gobert is one of the NBA’s most ferocious defenders. But at the Utah Jazz practice facility, Gobert has a softer side, including a casual relationship with a pair of ducks he’s named “Rusky and Dusky.”
In a video from the Jazz following a day in the life of forward Royce O’Neale, Gobert’s relationship with his feathered is explained in detail.
“Can you tell the people about your friends?” O’Neale asks Gobert as he struts into the team’s locker room, “Rusky and Dusky.”
Yes, Rudy named the ducks 🦆
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the life of an NBA player as we follow @BucketsONeale00 on a game day.
📺 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚃𝙾𝙼𝙾𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚆 📺#JazzAllAccess | @VivintHome pic.twitter.com/9neKsTUhhj
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“Who the ducks?” Gobert asks through a grin. “Are they back? I need to see them, I miss them.”
The ducks are apparently infrequent visitors to the Zions Bank Basketball Campus where the Jazz practice. In addition to the team’s practice court, the campus features business offices that surround natural space for some of Utah’s wildlife.
In the video, Gobert shares the origin story of how he claimed ownership of his duck friends.
“It was summertime and I came back from France, and there was a duck, the mom, and all the kids and I fed them,” Gobert remembered. “A few weeks later, they grew up and they all went to their own life, they flew away.”
One a drake and one a female, the two mallards that remain at the ZBBC make an appearance in the video swimming in a small pond. The ducks have made occasional appearances in Gobert’s Instagram stories where he’s acted as their caretaker.
“They’re Rudy’s pet ducks,” guard Joe Ingles explained.
Though Rusky and Dusky haven’t been seen on Gobert’s social media pages for a while, he had a logical and relatable explanation for where they’ve been.
“There was staying in quarantine,” Gobert said. “They were staying in quarantine for almost a year.”
In addition to Gobert and his ducks, the video highlights O’Neale’s rise to becoming one of the premier role players in the NBA, his morning routine, and how he prepares for gameday. You can catch the entire video in the video above, or at the link here.
