NBA: Frenchman Rudy Gobert receives a heavy fine for a provocative gesture towards a referee
|Rudy Gobert a écopé d'une lourde amende. EFE – Ángel Colmenares
Le Français Rudy Gobert a écopé de 100.000 dollars (environ 91.400 euros) d'amende pour un geste provocateur adressé à un arbitre ce vendredi 8 mars, mais a échappé à une suspension, a annoncé la NBA dimanche.
During the Minnesota Timberwolves' defeat against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, Gobert received a technical foul for a gesture implying that a referee, who had just whistled at him a sixth personal foul and therefore taking him out of the match, was corrupt.
"I cost my team the match. It was an immature reaction, the 31-year-old French international interior commented after the meeting.
100,000 dollars
Gobert was fined $100,000 for “directing an inappropriate and unprofessional gesture toward an official and then publicly criticizing the refereeing,” the NBA wrote in a statement. .
The Frenchman may be relieved not to have been suspended at a key moment of the season.
A little over a month before the end of the regular season, the Minnesota Timberwolves are second in the Western Conference (44 wins – 20 losses).
They are fighting to finish on top and thus be assured of home field advantage during the play-offs in their conference.
The Wolves have already suffered a big blow this week with the injury of interior Karl-Anthony Towns, who suffers from a lesion in the meniscus of his left knee.
Towns is scheduled for surgery early next week and his state of health will be "reassessed" in four weeks. He will only be able to return at best at the start of the play-offs.