The NBA has fined Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Taj Gibson $25,000 for giving an obscene gesture toward a referee on Friday against the Utah Jazz.
Gibson was extremely frustrated with a call and gave the middle finger to a referee. He was ejected from the game. The Timberwolves wound up losing by a final score of 106-102.
NBA has fined Minnesota's Taj Gibson $25K for obscene gesture toward ref in recent loss to Jazz.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 26, 2019
Speaking to reporters after the game about the incident, Taj Gibson said he just lost his cool after the referee, James Williams, missed a few calls which Gibson thought were unacceptable.
The veteran big man did say, though, that he plans to apologize to Williams.
“We were so beat up and banged up, I saw him miss a couple plays, blatant foul plays and I just lost it,” Gibson said, via Christopher Hine of the Star Tribune. “Like I said before I’m human, but I got a lot of respect for James. Playing the games — he’s been reffing my games 10-plus years in the NBA. That’s up to me to just go talk to him and apologize.
“He’s like a big brother. You see him every day, you have a relationship, sometimes tempers flare and you kind of lose it a little bit, but you know you mean well. I’ll see him again, but it was just part of the job. It was just one of those times I just lost it.”
As Taj Gibson said, the Timberwolves were very shorthanded on Friday against the Jazz. Jeff Teague, Derrick Rose, Tyus Jones and Robert Covington were all out due to injuries.
Gibson was just sticking up for his teammates and went a little overboard.
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