The Minnesota Timberwolves saw their season come to an end on Thursday night when the Dallas Mavericks blew them out in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. It came on the heels of the Wolves putting up a spirited effort in Game 4, where they saved their season by knocking Dallas off on its home court to avoid a sweep.
After the game, something curious happened: No Timberwolves players joined the Inside the NBA crew for the customary postgame interview. It’s usual for players on the winning team to chop it up with TNT’s postgame show, but instead, Ernie Johnson and co. just discussed the game on their own. And apparently, this was not a coincidence, as Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the locker room decided to push back against the show’s frequent criticisms of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert by passing on the opportunity.
Edwards was surrounded by a tight-knit team, one with such strong chemistry that it decided as a group that no player would appear on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” postgame show after their victory in Game 4 in Dallas, team sources told The Athletic. The decision was a sign of support for Gobert and Towns, who were the subject of derisive and seemingly personal criticism from panelist and Golden State forward Draymond Green.
Green, of course, is not a full-time member of the panel, but he joins the guys during the postseason. Still, the entire crew’s conversations around those two players specifically drew the ire of basketball fans, as it did seem like they were going over the top in their critiques of them — plus it’s worth mentioning that Green was suspended this season for putting Gobert in a sleeper hold during a kerfuffle between the Wolves and the Golden State Warriors.
