Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell Pay for Critical Comments Following Loss to Sixers
The Utah Jazz were not thrilled throughout the final minutes of Thursday night's game between them and the Philadelphia 76ers. As the Jazz held a solid lead over the Sixers for most of the game, Philly pulled out in front during the final quarter, which eventually led them to force overtime.
During the critical moments of the game, the referees made some calls, which the Jazz expectedly disagreed with. Utah star Donovan Mitchell collected two technical fouls down the stretch, which led to an ejection 30 seconds before overtime ended.
On his way out, Mitchell smacked over a water cooler and prepared for his postgame Zoom press conference, where he would eventually sound off on the game's referees. In Mitchell's eyes, the Jazz should've won Thursday's game. But because of some of the calls, he was questioning, the young star believed that the Sixers received an advantage from the refs.
"This whole refereeing stuff and the way we're nice, we don't complain, we don't get frustrated, we fight through things. The fact that we continually get screwed in this way -- we won this game, in my personal opinion. Like I said, I'll give them credit. They won whatever, cool."
Mitchell's entire rant was lengthy, and Rudy Gobert's might've been even longer. In the end, the two Jazz stars got nothing positive out of it. Not only do the actual results of the game remain unchanged, but the two stars have been fined on Friday, according to the NBA.
Gobert, who simply ranted about the job done by the officiating on Wednesday, received a $20,000 fine. Meanwhile, Mitchell's was a tad bit more expensive. For his rant, Mitchell was fined the same as Gobert -- but the NBA added in an extra $5,000 for "recklessly knocking over a water cooler while leaving the court."
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_ & Instagram: @JGrassoNBA.
