Timberwolves' Rudy Gobert apologizes for liking transphobic tweet from Elon Musk mocking personal pronouns, Dr. Anthony Fauci

PORTLAND, ORE. – Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert apologized Monday and said his intent "was never to hurt anyone" after he "liked" a tweet from Twitter CEO Elon Musk that contained transphobic language and said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the outgoing chief medical adviser to President Biden, should be prosecuted.

"Regardless of the different opinions that people have, my intent is never to direct any type of hate towards any group," Gobert said. "I've always moved with love, and people that know me know that I might be a bit goofy sometimes, and my intent always comes from a good place. Sorry if I hurt anyone."

On Sunday, Musk tweeted: "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci," and the tweet garnered over 1.2 million "likes," which tend to indicate approval of a given tweet. One of those was originally from Gobert. Fans on social media noticed and began criticizing Gobert for his stance on COVID-19 and for liking a tweet that included transphobic language.

With the tweet, Musk was appearing to mock the transgender and nonbinary communities who identify with different or multiple pronouns from cisgender people.

Gobert, who spoke to the Star Tribune after Monday night's 133-112 loss to Portland, removed his "like" of the tweet Monday afternoon. He said he did so after learning more about the impact of Musk's words toward the trans community and how people perceived his action of seeming to support the tweet.

"My intent was never to hurt anyone," Gobert said. "I think Elon tweets about stuff like that and sometimes you like a tweet, but you don't understand the full meaning of it. … I just think I got to learn a little bit more about the pronoun thing."

Gobert's comments come after another Wolves player, Anthony Edwards, dealt with criticism from a homophobic Instagram video he posted in September that directed derogatory language toward a group of men on a sidewalk.

Edwards apologized and vowed to work to repair his relationship with LGBTQ community after he and the team received backlash from its LGBTQ fans over the video. The Wolves will host their Pride Night on Jan. 4 against Portland, which held its own Pride Night with the Wolves in town Saturday.

Gobert spoke carefully and in a measured tone Monday, often thinking about how he was going to phrase his answers to questions in a nearly 10-minute interview before the Wolves left for Los Angeles.

"You never want to cause hurt to people, you know? That's it. That's the bottom line," he said. "I don't want to cause people to — I know once again it's really hard in today's society because everyone — I mean, I'm a tall kid from France. Skinny guy. I'm goofy. Can't shoot, whatever. I get really awful things tweeted at me every day and that goes beyond basketball, and it's really tough on social media sometimes to not get hurt or be offended. But yeah, my intent is never to hurt anybody."

Gobert said he has people in his family and that he is close with who are LGBTQ. He said he believes people should be able to be who they are in every aspect.

"I think anyone should be able to do whatever they want to do in life," he said. "Love whoever they want to love, dress however they want to dress. I respect freedom of being who you want to be and that comes with the freedom also of people expressing what they want to express."

Gobert hasn't been shy about expressing his views related to COVID-19 response in his Twitter likes previously. For instance, he has liked multiple tweets and writings critical of vaccine mandates in New York City. He has also liked multiple tweets from Musk, the polarizing CEO of Tesla who recently took over Twitter for $44 billion.

Fans on social media were also concerned that Gobert was being insensitive toward one of his Wolves teammates, Karl-Anthony Towns, who lost his mother, Jacqueline, and other family members to the virus in 2020.

"I love Karl. That's my brother, and I know he's been through a lot with COVID," Gobert said. "I've also been through a lot with COVID. I think we've all been through a lot, so once again, it's never my intent to hurt anyone and Karl knows me. We got to know each other really well and I know he's been through a lot."

With the Utah Jazz in March 2020, Gobert was the first NBA player to test positive for COVID-19, and his positive test was a major turning point in the United States' response to the virus. The NBA season shut down soon afterward — as did virtually all other professional and amateur sports — and Gobert became a punching bag during what he said was "probably the toughest time of my life."

That time affected his outlook on COVID-19, and he also said humor is one way he tries to cope with what he went through.

"Sometimes when you go through something, some people like to joke about things that they've been through," Gobert said. "I'm not saying that excuses anything, but yeah, it's tough. It's a tricky situation. Everyone's got different opinions."

Gobert reiterated many times his intent was never to hurt any individual or group with his liking of Musk's tweet, and even if viewpoints disagree, he hoped people would see he is compassionate toward all people.

"You got to keep moving regardless of the difference of opinions," Gobert said. "I think we got to move with empathy, move with love and regardless of what each other thinks. Just keep supporting each other."