Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert was fined $75,000 for making a money gesture with his hands during Game 4 of Minnesota’s playoff series against the Nuggets, the NBA announced Tuesday morning.
The league determined that Gobert made an “inappropriate and unprofessional gesture that questions the integrity of the league and its game officials,” according to a news release. Gobert had already been fined earlier this season for making the same gesture toward a referee.
The Nuggets defeated the Timberwolves 115-107 in Game 4 to even the series. Game 5 is Tuesday (8:30 p.m. MT) at Ball Arena. The road team has won all four games so far.
Star players for both teams have now faced steep fines from the NBA in this series. During Denver’s Game 2 loss, Jamal Murray threw multiple items in the direction of lead official Marc Davis from the bench. One of those items, a heat pack, slid onto the court during live play. Murray was fined $100,000 for the incident.
Frustrations boiled over for Denver that game, with coach Michael Malone screaming in the face of an official during the first half and Aaron Gordon receiving a technical foul during the second half for arguing that Nikola Jokic was getting hacked. Then the script flipped in Minnesota. Kyle Anderson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker received technical fouls late in Game 3 after confronting referees, and Alexander-Walker punched a chair on his way to the locker room.
Then came Gobert’s Game 4 gesture, which is occasionally used as a method to tauntingly accuse officials of fixing games for money. Throughout the course of the series, both fanbases have chanted “ref you (stink).”