Inside the NBA is universally beloved, but not by everyone.
Instead of bringing their a** to do a postgame interview with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal, the Minnesota Timberwolves opted not to do so after their Game 4 win. In retrospect, it’s simply a minute detail, given that the Dallas Mavericks dominated the Western Conference Finals, winning in just five games.
Still, it paints a picture of a team rallying behind some of their own who have been under heavy fire from prominent analysts.
While just about everyone in the game wants to support the Inside crew despite uncertainty about NBA rights, there’s a perceived line. Based on some astute reporting from The Athletic, it seems that may have been crossed, at least in the minds of the Timberwolves.
NBA insiders Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania reported on Minnesota’s upcoming offseason. And in doing so, they shed light a strong team bond within the Timberwolves locker room. Despite being favored and losing their playoff series in five games, the team remained close.
According to Krawczynski and Charania, the Timberwolves’ chemistry was so strong that the entire team declined to appear on Inside the NBA. The report goes into more detail about the reasons behind this decision.
Edwards was surrounded by a tight-knit team, one with such strong chemistry that it decided as a group that no player would appear on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” postgame show after their victory in Game 4 in Dallas, team sources told The Athletic. The decision was a sign of support for Gobert and Towns, who were the subject of derisive and seemingly personal criticism from panelist and Golden State forward Draymond Green.
That said, criticism of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert was expected, but it remained professional from the Inside the NBA crew. Many have suggested that Draymond Green’s comments on the show cross a proverbial line, but he also disrupts the chemistry of the already existing cast and crew. Phoenix Suns announcer Eddie Johnson specifically called out Green, suggesting his jealousy of Gobert’s four Defensive Player of the Year awards (compared to Green’s one) clouded his judgment and turned his analysis unprofessional.
It stands to reason that the Timberwolves felt the same way.
Only time will tell if the Timberwolves’ stance sets a precedent or if it’s a one-off response to a specific situation. While Inside the NBA has become the darlings of the NBA media, the Timberwolves are proving that loyalty runs just a bit deeper. Perhaps other teams won’t allow Green to get away with personally disparaging some of their teammates, much like Minnesota did.
Some will laugh, considering this was the Timberwolves’ only chance to do so in the Western Conference Finals. At the same time, Anthony Edwards did turn Barkley’s coming to Minnesota into a meme, so there is some precedent there.
At some point, they decided they had enough. And with that, it’ll be interesting to see how active players — like Green — critiquing and criticizing some of their counterparts will be perceived moving forward.