Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz reacts after he turned the ball over in the final minute of their loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on April 2, 2022, in San Francisco.
Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesTimberwolves center Rudy Gobert has accused NBA officials of trying to help opponents beat his team, specifically mentioning the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns.
This complaint came after Minnesota lost to Phoenix on Wednesday in a game where the free throw disparity was a bit of an issue. The Suns got 27 attempts at the line in their 107-100 win, while the Wolves got 12. Even tougher is that Devin Booker alone had 15.
"It's not fair. It's really not fair," Gobert said after the game. "Every night. I have been in this league for 10 years, and I try to always give the benefit of the doubt, but it is hard for me to think that they are not trying to help them win tonight.
"It is hard for me to think that they didn't try to have the Warriors win the other night or the Sacramento Kings the other night. It is just so obvious as a basketball player. I have been in this league for so long, and it is disrespectful."
The frustration might not be coming only from those aforementioned games. Minnesota currently has the fifth-worst free throw differential in the league. It’s the specific teams he mentioned that’s the questionable part.
If the NBA wants the Warriors and Suns to win so badly that they’re asking officials to rig games in favor of those teams, then they’re doing a bad job. In the game against the Dubs on Sunday, the Timberwolves finished with more free throws. There’s also the fact that both Golden State and Phoenix are ranked 30th and 29th respectively in free throw differential throughout this season. Specifically, Warriors opponents have shot 402 more free throws, and Suns opponents have shot 317 more.
This makes sense in the context of their playing style. The Warriors shoot more threes than any team in the league while the Suns are among the top in the league in shots from 10 to 19 feet, and are last in the league in shots around the rim.
The Kings is where the point might make more sense, but only as far as this season is concerned.
Sacramento has the second highest free throw differential in the league, shooting 205 more free throws than opponents this season. Sure, that’s a wild stat, but there are a couple things to note here. First, it’s curious that Gobert didn’t mention the Lakers in his rant, who lead the league with a whopping +428 free throw differential and have historically been the team fans blame for being the NBA’s favorite.
Second, the idea that the league is helping the Kings is laughable given that it’s a small market team with minimal history to celebrate — propping it up would absolutely not benefit the league financially. Sacramento just earned its first playoff berth in 17 years, and the team itself was once the victim of the worst officiated game of all time in Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals against the Lakers.
Of course, this is Gobert we’re talking about. Common sense isn’t the strong suit of the guy who rubbed a bunch of microphones to make fun of early coronavirus panic, only for the league to shut down the next day because of COVID-19, which he tested positive for immediately after.