A bad night quickly got much worse for Anthony Edwards.
The Minnesota Timberwolves star Edwards was ejected in the third quarter of his team’s game on Thursday against the Los Angeles Lakers. Edwards was driving on Lakers guard Gabe Vincent and hit the deck as he was attempting to go into a stepback move.
An irate Edwards started yelling at the officials in the middle of the play, calling for a foul. No foul was given though, and Lakers big man Jarred Vanderbilt managed to tie up the ball for a jump. As Edwards continued to complain, official Brent Barnaky hit him with a technical foul.
Edwards had already picked up a technical foul earlier in the game for a separate shoving incident with Vanderbilt. As such, his second T of the night meant an automatic ejection for Edwards.
The 23-year-old Edwards continued to grip the ball in frustration after being ejected. Then as he was about to head for the locker room, Edwards threw the ball into the stands.
You can view the video here, courtesy of The Sporting Tribune’s Arash Markazi.
Things snowballed there very quickly for Edwards, whose Timberwolves ended up losing 111-102. The two technical fouls brought him to 16 total on the season, which means an automatic one-game suspension. Edwards will presumably serve the suspension during Minnesota’s next game against the Utah Jazz on Friday. He is also facing the possibility of additional suspensions beyond that as NBA rules stipulate that every two technical fouls after a player’s 16th will result in another one-game ban.
On top of it all, Edwards will likely be facing a fine from the league for throwing the ball into the stands, which the NBA has zero tolerance for due to fan safety reasons.
