Minnesota Timberwolves players Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson got into a scuffle this weekend during a timeout. The 30-year-old center threw a punch at his teammate and was sent home during the game.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Andrew Lopez reported that the incident began after a second-quarter argument during their Sunday (April 10) game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Anderson was urging Gobert to “block some shots” and Gobert responded by saying he should grab a rebound, with an expletive. They continued going back and forth until Anderson telling Gobert to “Shut the f**k up, bi**h” which led the latter to strike his teammate.
The argument reportedly continued during halftime, as well. NBA insider Shams Charania said the former UCLA Bruin told the three-time All Star “I’ll knock your a** out.”
Minnesota Timberwolves President Tim Connelly shared a statement about the team’s handling of the situation. “We made the decision to send Rudy Gobert home after the incident in the second quarter […] His behavior on the bench was unacceptable and we will handle the situation internally.”
Wojnarowski reported that Mike Conley revealed Gobert sent a text to his teammates later in the day. “We’ll speak about it and move on,” the French center wrote. “We’re grown men.” As for Anderson, this situation isn’t new to him.
“It ain’t the first time somebody swung on me,” the 29-year-old said. “It is what it is. We keep it in house…We’ll speak about it and move on. We grown men.”
The Minnesota Timberwolves ended up defeating the New Orleans Pelicans 113-108 and strengthened their positioning in the play-in tournament. They will take on the seventh-seed Los Angeles Lakers in the first play-in game to determine who will advance to round one and face the Memphis Grizzlies.