Report: Wolves boycotted ‘Inside the NBA’ over criticism

There was a distinct lack of Wolves players joining TNT’s Inside the NBA after the team’s 105-100 Game 4 win. Normally, a postgame interview with one of the stars of the winning team is a given, but that wasn’t the case Tuesday night in Dallas. Now we know why.

According to The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski, Wolves players chose to boycott appearing on the show because of one of the panelists.

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.

– Jon Krawczynski

Anthony Edwards had previously made headlines in his post game appearances on the show, notably telling TNT analyst Charles Barkley to “Bring ya a**” to Minnesota, after the Wolves’ game 7 win over the Nuggets. The clip of Edwards’ comment to Barkely has been viewed over two millions times on twitter.

Edwards’ growing stardom normally means he is a near lock to appear in the post game appearance for a national broadcaster. Clearly, the team had had enough of Green’s over-the-top criticisms of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert.

Green’s involvement in the pre-, half- and post-game shows for TNT during the Western Conference Finals was a source of derision for many Wolves fans, and clearly for the team itself. Fans notably booed the Warriors forward during the show’s broadcasts from Target Center.

Rudy Gobert and Green have a long-standing personal rivalry that has featured numerous verbal barbsbetween the two. The rivalry intensified earlier in the season when Green put Gobert in a chokehold during an on-court fracas between the Wolves and Warriors. Green was suspended five games due to the chokehold.

Wolves fans were not the only viewers who noticed an unnatural focus on Gobert from Green throughout the series. NBA viewers took to twitter at various points during the series to criticize the normally beloved show for giving Green the time to voice his personal disdain for Gobert time and time again.