One thing you can always count on in the NBA Playoffs is for the losing team to be mad at the referees. We’ve seen it constantly throughout this year’s postseason, particularly as the officials have allowed more contact and players are trying to find where the new line is regarding physicality (which seems a bit different inside and on the perimeter).
However, Rudy Gobert being frustrated with Scott Foster is nothing new to the postseason, as the Defensive Player of the Year got tagged with a $100,000 fine for making a money sign at Foster during the regular season and then suggesting after the game betting had something to do with the calls. Foster was assigned to Game 4 in Minnesota between the Nuggets and Timberwolves, and Gobert had grown frustrated with the veteran official to the point where he tempted the fates once again by making the money gesture in the fourth quarter after Foster called him for a pretty obvious push going for an offensive rebound.
Rudy Gobert did the “money signs” to the referees after a push off call on him that he didn’t like.
Last time he did this, he was fined $100,000 by the NBA 😳 pic.twitter.com/R5h4gyvBi7
— Courtside Buzz (@CourtsideBuzzX) May 13, 2024
There were certainly some missed and questionable calls in the game, but that’s also every game ever (and went both ways). It’s particularly funny for Gobert to do this after this particular play because, yeah, you pushed Murray in the back. The league won’t care when you make this motion, as they’ll fine you either way, but you’d get a lot more sympathy from the general public if you were calling out unfair officiating on an actual bad call. They showed the clip on Inside the NBA after the game, and even Charles Barkley let out an exasperated “again.”