NBA star sought dark retreat advice from NY Jets’ Aaron Rodgers

New York Jets’ Aaron Rodgers helped an NBA star find a valuable darkness retreat experience

According to a report from ESPN, after being eliminated from the 2023 NBA playoffs, Minnesota Timberwolves star Rudy Gobert went to seek advice from New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. However, the advice he was seeking had nothing to do with sports. On the contrary, Gobert sought Rodgers’ opinion on his experience at the Sky Cave Dark Retreats in Oregon.

The Sky Cave Dark Retreats is exactly what you think it is – the location of Rodgers’ “darkness retreat” that occurred prior to him joining the Jets in 2023. The retreat is meant to be an escape from humanity in many ways, and it’s something Gobert mentioned when speaking to ESPN.

“We are so distracted by everything that’s been thrown at us,” Gobert told ESPN. “Everything that we hear, we watch, we see on the phone, we listen to. So we don’t get to sometimes really be alone with ourselves.”

These sentiments echo what the Jets quarterback said during a segment on The Pat McAfee Show last year.

As it turns out, after talking to Rodgers, the Timberwolves’ star scheduled a reservation in May 2023. Gobert spent 64 hours in complete darkness and isolation. While he had an idea of where everything in his room was, he had to find them by touch for those three days. Meals were slid through the front door of his room.

Gobert said it was an incredible opportunity for reflection.

“It was a very powerful experience,” Gobert said. “It felt like a huge reset and also a powerful checkpoint. I had a lot of gratitude. I went back into all the things that I’ve experienced up to this point. … All the things that I’ve been through and all the great people that I have around me. I realized that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”

By his description, Gobert’s experience sounds quite similar to that of the Jets’ quarterback. Prior to entering his own darkness retreat, the then 39-year old was contemplating retirement from the NFL and his desire to play.

Luckily for the Jets, Rodgers decided that he would continue his NFL career. And even after suffering an injury that could have ended his career, Rodgers is preparing for another offseason with New York.

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