Rudy Gobert gambled and lost.
The Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner lambasted the officiating in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 113-104 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday evening, indicating that he believes sports betting is a motivator in how games are called in the modern NBA.
Chris Finch
The league announced Sunday that Gobert has been fined $100,000 for making the gesture.
Joe Dumars, a former player turned NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations, announced in a statement that “the fine takes into account Gobert’s past instances of conduct detrimental to the NBA with regard to publicly criticizing the officiating.
“I’ll bite the bullet again,” Gobert said after the game Friday, doubling down. “I’ll be the bad guy. I’ll take the fine, but I think it’s hurting our game. I know the betting and all that is becoming bigger and bigger, but it shouldn’t feel that way.”
Ironically, Foster had been linked to infamous official Tim Donaghy, who had been banned for betting on games he officiated and has been out of the league since 2007.
Foster was reportedly a recipient of 134 phone calls from Donaghy between October 2006 and April 2007, which is basically the entire 2006-07 NBA regular season.
Minnesota assistant Micah Nori, acting as head coach for the night with the under-the-weather Chris Finch, was not on board with Gobert’s gesture.
“A technical foul with 27 seconds in the game, to be honest, is unacceptable,” he said of Gobert. “That’s who Rudy is, but you’ve got to be smart. He made a visual that was automatic. He was obviously frustrated — both teams were — but we have to be smarter.”
Gobert maintained that he’s the truth-teller in this ordeal.
“My reaction, which I think was the truth, but it wasn’t the time to react that way,” he insisted. “It cost my team the game. It was an immature reaction.”
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