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Rudy Gobert's 25th birthday gifts were the right mix of validation and motivation.
The Jazz center was a nearly unanimous choice for the NBA's All-Defensive Team, but he finished a distant second in the 100-member media panel's voting for Defensive Player of the Year, announced Monday night.
Gobert placed third in the balloting for Most Improved Player, another trophy presented during the NBA's inaugural awards show in New York. Golden State's Draymond Green took the top defensive honors and Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo received the improvement award in voting conducted at the end of the regular season in April.
That's fine. Everybody associated with the Jazz wanted Gobert to be recognized for his defensive work. Yet judging by Gobert's awareness of any and all slights, nothing is wrong with having him stew about Green's selection over him.
He'd probably even like to find out who were the two voters who didn't select him as the All-Defensive Team center — and especially the one person who didn't even list him on the second team.
So Gobert's not being the Defensive Player of the Year is actually a victory for the Jazz, even if a strong case could be made for him. Green was hardly an undeserving winner, though. And Anteokounmpo's one-year improvement was more significant than Gobert's, with no disrespect to the French center's growth.
Just having Gobert involved in Monday's conversation is remarkable enough. Think about this: After the Jazz drafted Tony Bradley at No. 28 last week, can you picture him becoming a finalist for two of the NBA's major individual awards in 2021? That's how far Gobert has come in four years, from a similar draft position.
His rise is a tribute to coach Quin Snyder and his staff, notably assistant coach Alex Jensen. Snyder should have been much higher than sixth in the Coach of the Year voting. In any case, the Jazz have made Gobert better, and he has rewarded their efforts by always wanting to improve.
Having moved into the starting lineup only after the trade of Enes Kanter, Gobert has done more than any other player in this century to alter the Jazz franchise's outlook. That's saying a lot, coming from someone who has always endorsed the work of Deron Williams and Gordon Hayward.
Gobert has given the Jazz an identity they lacked, turning them into one of the league's best defensive clubs and making them a unique team in today's NBA. This is much a different era than when the Jazz's Mark Eaton won the Defensive Player of the Year award twice in the 1980s. The DPOY is traditionally a center's award, but the game has changed and the versatility of Kawhi Leonard and Green has altered the way voters look at defense.
That's not to dismiss Gobert's impact. His 2016-17 season was a nice surprise to me. After attending all six of France's games in the Olympics last summer, I wondered about him. He couldn't avoid foul trouble and looked lost offensively. The Rudy of Rio was an aberration, as it turns out, and happily so for the Jazz.
Gobert may not have taken home any trophies Monday, but he enjoyed some recognition and star treatment in New York, and he'll remember watching Green receive the award he thought he deserved.
That's his game. Anything that motivates Gobert is good, because that drive to become great is a big part of what separates him from the average NBA player and will take him a long way in this league, for a long time to come.
Twitter: @tribkurt