Rudy Gobert was upset after his Minnesota Timberwolves took an L against the Phoenix Suns Wednesday night, saying the NBA shows favoritism to certain teams, according to the (Minneapolis) StarTribune.
“It’s not fair. It’s really not fair,” Gobert said. “Every night. I’ve been in this league for 10 years and I try to always give the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard for me to think they’re not trying to help [the Suns] win tonight. It’s hard for me to think they didn’t try to help the Warriors win the other night or Sacramento Kings the other night. It’s just so obvious. As a basketball player that’s been in this league for so long, it’s disrespectful.”
The Suns had 27 free-throw attempts against Minnesota’s 12. Devin Booker had 29 points and went to the free-throw line 15 times.
“We understand that we’re not the biggest of the markets and we’re a team that—I think you want to see KD [Kevin Durant] in the playoffs, Steph [Stephen Curry] in the playoffs, you want to see LeBron [James] in the playoffs,” Gobert said. “[The] Timberwolves are not there yet. We got to keep putting our head down, keep playing through that and it’s frustrating for sure, especially for me.”
“We work so hard to be in a position to compete with the best and we just get manipulated into those situations where it just impacts the game for the other team too much,” Gobert said. “We understand that it’s also a business. Unfortunately, it’s sad, but it’s good also. … We understand that we’re not the biggest of the markets and we’re a team that—I think you want to see KD in the playoffs, Steph [Curry] in the playoffs, you want to see LeBron [James] in the playoffs. The Timberwolves are not there yet. We got to keep putting our heads down, keep playing through that and it’s frustrating for sure, especially for me.”
“It was a tough one, man,” Timberwolves guard Mike Conley said. “It’s hard to talk and breathe at the same time. But we’re a competitive group and we don’t use that as an excuse.”