Anthony Edwards’ teammates are carrying on the mission for him.
The Minnesota Timberwolves star Edwards went viral this week for going scorched-earth on the officiating after a narrow win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. In his postgame interview, Edwards openly slammed the referees for not giving Minnesota any calls and said that he would take the fine (video here). The NBA obliged and gave Edwards a significant fine on Wednesday.
Edwards’ fellow star teammate Karl-Anthony Towns reacted to the fine with a petty post to his Instagram Story on Wednesday. He shared an image of their ex-Minnesota teammate Patrick Beverley famously showing a camera to the ref to point out a missed call. Towns also tagged Edwards in the post.
Karl-Anthony Towns has issued a statement on the Anthony Edwards fine. pic.twitter.com/9uh9InqX4F
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) January 31, 2024
The Beverley moment was from a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics in 2023. Beverley, with the Lakers at the time, went up to official Eric Lewis with the camera to point out a blown call at the end of regulation (watch the notorious clip here). While Beverley was no longer with the Timberwolves by then, Towns posted a Photoshopped image of Beverley still in a Minnesota jersey.
This time around, the Timberwolves clearly felt they had video evidence as well. One particular sore spot for them against the Thunder was a non-call on an Edwards dunk with just under two minutes left. Though the footage showed that OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander clearly fouled Edwards on the arm during the dunk, no whistle was blown, and the league even doubled down in their last two-minute report for the game.
🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜 pic.twitter.com/aZV8d2pSCl
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) January 30, 2024
In its two-minute report, the NBA rules that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did NOT foul Anthony Edwards on the dunk with just under two minutes left. pic.twitter.com/5ve0Sf4ofi
— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) January 30, 2024
Minnesota is still doing quite well for themselves overall, sitting at 33-14 on the year (first in the West). But their frustration with the officiating this season has boiled over and has even bought Towns and Edwards (who seemingly used to be at odds) closer together.
