Rudy Gobert just cannot stop owing the NBA money because of his dislike of Scott Foster. During the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Game 4 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night, Gobert indicated that someone might be lining the longtime official’s pockets with instructions to make calls against his team, as he did a subtle but noticeable money sign after a call in the fourth quarter.
As it turns out, the league does not like when people do this, and Gobert was hit with a $75,000 fine for this on Tuesday afternoon.
The following was released by the NBA: pic.twitter.com/KAGG2iIaSr
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 14, 2024
The crazy thing is this is not the first time that Gobert has gotten a financial punishment for doing this exact thing with this exact ref. Back in March, Gobert and the Wolves took on the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the big man got assessed a technical foul. After it was over, Gobert made this exact sign directly at the referees, then questioned their integrity after the game and brought up the way sports betting is influencing decisions made by officials.
Funny enough, Gobert actually got hit with a bigger fine that time around, as the league took $100,000 for the incident in March. So if there’s a silver lining for Rudy on this one, it’s that the league decided not to take more money from him despite saying his “history of improper conduct towards game officials” played a role in the fine, largely because this time he didn’t also suggest after the game the refs were in on the take in his postgame presser.
