Sylvester Stalom
“It’s shit and it’s not fair”: the French pivot of the Timberwolves Rudy Gobert denounced an alleged favoritism on the part of the referees, towards the major teams of the NBA where the stars play.
“It’s shit. It’s shit. It’s not fair. It’s really not fair,” hammered Gobert, very upset Thursday night after Minnesota’s loss to Phoenix (107-100 ), marked by a disparity in free throws allowed (27 for the Suns against 12).
“It’s like that every night. I’ve been in this league for ten years and I always try to give the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard for me to think that they haven’t tried to help them out. win tonight. I find it hard to believe they didn’t try to help the Warriors (outgoing champions) win the other night or the Kings,” he lamented.
“It’s so obvious. As a basketball player who has been in this league for so long, it’s a lack of respect,” insisted the man who was named best defender in the championship three times (2018, 2019, 2021 ), when he played in Utah.
“We work so hard to be able to compete with the best and you get sucked into these situations which impact the other team’s game too much. They know how to do it. They do it in different ways. This evening, it was another way of doing it”, advanced Gobert, sanctioned with five faults against the Suns, including two offensives on screens deemed illicit, at the very end of the game, which annihilated as many possessions of his team for pick up the score.
– “It’s also a business” –
For the Frenchman, silver medalist at the Tokyo Games with the Blues in 2021, Minnesota, where he signed up last summer, is one of these supposedly small teams, penalized against the big ones, such as LeBron James’ Lakers, Stephen Curry’s Warriors or Kevin Durant’s Suns.
“We understand that it is also a business. We are aware that we are not one of the biggest markets in the NBA, and that we want to see “KD” in the playoffs, Steph, LeBron… The Wolves are not there yet. We have to keep moving forward, to play despite that, and it’s frustrating, especially for me,” he said.
Currently the Wolves are 7th in the Western Conference, not far behind Golden State which occupies 6th place, the last directly qualifying for the play-offs. They are therefore roadblockers, just like the Lakers, whom they are just ahead of.
“Gobzilla” is far from the first to harshly criticize the referees, since Toronto point guard Fred VanVleet and Phoenix coach Monty Williams have not hesitated to do so in recent days. And like them, he should reap a nice fine, because the North American basketball league sanctions any criticism publicly leveled at officials.
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