Why Rudy Gobert bought crystals for Joe Ingles' kids

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Joe Ingles joined the Minnesota Timberwolves in the offseason to give the team another perimeter threat, but he’s also reuniting with one of his closest friends, Rudy Gobert.

Ingles and Gobert were teammates for eight seasons with the Utah Jazz, from 2014-2021. Ingles went to the Milwaukee Bucks, and Gobert was traded to Minnesota. The two have a bond, but it has little to do with basketball.

Ingles opened up about that at Timberwolves Media Day on Monday, when asked about Gobert being the recipient of unnecessary criticism about his defense during last year’s NBA Playoffs.

"I don’t really give a sh*t about what people say to be honest. I don’t have social media so I don’t see any of it unless you guys tell me," Ingles said with a smirk.

Why Gobert bought crystals for Ingles’ kids

Ingles has 8-year-old twins, Jacob and Milla. His family was going through a rough time when Jacob was diagnosed with autism. Gobert has a fascination with crystals, and was shopping a few days later. He bought a crystal that had writing about autism on it, so he bought it for Ingles’ son. But Gobert wasn’t done, he got another one for twin sister Milla.

"I don’t think a lot of people know Rudy, like personally know him. There was this one massive thing that had some type of writing about autism on it, he bought it and gave it to us as a gift at a time that was pretty rough," Ingles said. "I’ve also got twins, so he bought one for his sister because he didn’t want to give one to Jacob and not to Milla. The care and the thought, he’s a caring guy. He wants to win, he’s a professional, but to me those things are more important than what people want to say on the outside."

Gobert gives back to Wolves employees

Gobert has also been known to give back to Timberwolves’ employees during his short time so far in Minnesota. Around Christmas time, he gives gift cards to team staff and Target Center workers as a thank you for what they do.

Ingles and the Timberwolves open training camp on Tuesday.