Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has been fined $40,000 for publicly criticizing officials, the NBA announced on Wednesday. Edwards made multiple comments after his team's win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday, both on the floor and during his post-game media sessions.
As Edwards was celebrating the narrow win with his teammates, the broadcast caught him yelling about "cheating ass refs." A few minutes later, during his on-court interview with local TV, he said he would take a fine as he continued to complain.
"I don't know [how we got it done]," Edwards said. "And I'm gonna take the fine, because the refs did not give us no calls tonight. We had to play through every bump, every grab. I don't know. I don't know how we won tonight. Big shoutout to my team, big shoutout to my coaches, for sure."
He wasn't done there. Later in the evening, he added more fuel to the fire in comments to ESPN:
"The refs was bad tonight. Yeah, they was terrible. We was playing 8-on-5. "The cat got their tongue tonight, so it's all good. It's not fair, but it's all good."
The Timberwolves shot 15 free throws in the game, fewer than Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (16) had by himself. Post-game, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch made passing comments about the discrepancy.
"We had a lot of guys to throw at Shai, he's a tough cover," Finch said. "Every night you look he goes to the line 15, 16 times, it's kinda tough to guard him if that's the case. But we did a pretty good job of just mixing it up."
The league's Last Two Minute report from the game came back clean, signaling that the refs got all 16 calls correct in the final two minutes of that game. Notably, that included a non-call on Gilgeous-Alexander when he hit Edwards on the arm during a dunk with 1:57 to play.
"Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) brings his hand towards Edwards' (MIN) arm, and the contact during the shot near the rim is marginal," the league stated.
Below is a photo of the contact in question:
🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜 pic.twitter.com/aZV8d2pSCl
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) January 30, 2024
And here is the video, including Edwards' reaction:
Edwards finished the game with 27 points, four rebounds and four assists, as the Timberwolves picked up a crucial victory in the race for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Now 33-14, the Wolves are all alone in first with a half-game lead over the Denver Nuggets and a one-game advantage on the Thunder.
