Rudy Gobert’s return to Utah began sweetly, with a tribute video, and ended sourly, with an apparent unwritten-rules breach.

Gobert, who played for nine seasons with the Jazz before the offseason trade to the Timberwolves, returned to Vivint Arena for the first time as an opposing player mostly receiving cheers — until the boos in the last seconds.

The Minnesota center dropped in an uncontested layup with 2.4 seconds left in a game that was already decided, drawing jeers from Jazz fans and prompting a showdown with Utah’s Malik Beasley after the 118-108 Timberwolves victory on Friday night.

Beasley, who was part of the Gobert trade, called the meaningless bucket “disrespectful.”

“It’s the unwritten rule of basketball, and I told him that,” the guard told reporters.

Beasley confronted Gobert, and the two — as well as Utah’s Jarred Vanderbilt — jawed for several moments. No shoves or punches were exchanged, but Gobert expressed annoyance that the incident prevented him from catching up with former teammates.

“I’ve been taught to play basketball to the last second. For me, there was never any intent to disrespect anybody,” Gobert told reporters after scoring 22 points on his former team. “These guys who stepped in front of me, they weren’t going to do anything anyway. I didn’t get to shake hands with my guys, it kind of killed my moment a little bit.

“It is what it is. Some guys just want attention.”

It is possible Gobert remembered the teams’ first matchup of the season on Oct. 21, when Vanderbilt dunked in the last seconds of a game the Jazz had wrapped up.

Regardless, several believed a line had been crossed.

“There’s unwritten rules in everything,” Mike Conley Jr., who played with Gobert in Utah, told reporters. “Obviously, we didn’t like what happened at the end of the game, but it happens. It happened. We’d rather win the game and not have to worry about it. It is what it is, but, obviously, we don’t like it.”