Rudy Gobert gets carried away and hits Kyle Anderson, his teammate, in the middle of the match

NBA – Rudy Gobert, the French pivot of the Minnesota Timberwolves, hit his teammate Kyle Anderson this Sunday, April 9 in the last game of the regular season against the New Orleans Pelicans and was sent home by his franchise.

“Emotions got the better of me today. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, regardless of what was said. I want to apologize to the fans, the organization and especially to Kyle, who is someone I really love and respect as a teammate.”tweeted the 30-year-old pivot, a few hours after the incident which did not prevent his team from winning 113-108.

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A video shows the start of a verbal altercation between the two players during a timeout. Then the Frenchman punches Anderson before players separate the two teammates.

The Timberwolves were then trailing 48-36 with nearly four minutes to go. Gobert had scored 2 points and taken 3 rebounds in 13 minutes on the floor. The franchise then announced that the 30-year-old center would not play late in the game. The Timberwolves were playing an important game, the last of the regular season, against the New Orleans Pelicans.

“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 continue to manage the situation internally.”said franchise general manager Tim Connelly.

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“We are not proud of this behavior, whatever it is”said coach Chris Finch. “I have not yet looked into the root causes of this behavior. But the guys were just frustrated – we weren’t playing well, we weren’t sharing the ball, we looked lethargic. »

“Veterans can get angry too, so I don’t want to be too hard on him”he added of Gobert, three-time defender of the year, “but obviously that’s not something we’re going to tolerate here”.

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