NBA officials handing out technicals and ejecting players as well as coaches from games is something the community have been complaining about for more than a year now. Fans, experts and players had already been complaining about bad officiating before and the sudden spike in the officials’ tendency to hand out technicals made it all the way worse. The most recent incident involved Rudy Gobert, who got into trouble over his hand gestures.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers took down the number one seed in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Timberwolves in their recent match-up. The Cavs defeated the Wolves, 113-104. The game went into overtime with an underhanded Timberwolves squad.
During the final minute of the fourth quarter, Gobert was called for his sixth and final foul of the game when he went over the back of the defenders to grab a rebound. After the French center fouled out, he started rubbing his fingers, insinuating that the officials were in it for the money.
One of the referees on the floor saw Gobert do that and ended up handing him a technical over it. The technical foul handed to the 3xDOPY will end up costing him $2000. However, that would be the least of Rudy’s concerns.
The 31-year-old had played a total of 37 minutes up until his ejection. He ended up having an off-night on the offensive end of the floor but more than made up for it with his rebounding as he finished the night with 7 points but 17 rebounds along with it, as per Statmuse.
With no Karl-Anthony Towns in the lineup, the Wolves were reliant on Gobert to protect the paint and grab rebounds on both ends of the floor. However, his ejection managed to cripple the Timberwolves going into the overtime period.
The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to dominate the Timberwolves in OT. With no Gobert to protect the paint, the Cavs scored 16 points in overtime as opposed to the Timberwolves’ 7-point performance during the extra period.
Minnesota Timberwolves players going against refrees
This wasn’t the first time someone from the Minnesota Timberwolves called out the referees for bad officiating. A month ago, Anthony Edwards was caught in the crosshairs after publicly scrutinizing the referees.
In a 107-101 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Edwards was livid when he called out the officials on how they called the entire game. While dapping up Rudy Gobert after the win, Edwards could be heard saying, “Cheating a** refs.”
Unfortunately for Edwards, he was fined a hefty $40,000 amount for his comments regarding the officials after the game. However, Ant-Man was absolutely untethered by the fine as he went on to say, “I don’t care about it. S—, it needed to be said. Like I said, I’ll take the fine. I’m OK with it.”
Let’s see what Rudy Gobert or anyone from the Timberwolves has to say about his hand gestures and the technicals handed out to him in the post-game press conference.
