Minnesota Timberwolves basketball operations chief Tim Connelly told reporters Tuesday that the franchise got no choice but to suspend Rudy Gobert upon his conduct last Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans, wherein he punched Kyle Anderson during their heated argument during the timeout.
Connelly noted that Gobert and Anderson already patched up their misunderstanding, but expressed his disappointment with the big man’s behavior that reflected the Timberwolves.
“We have standards we have to uphold, and we saw what happened and it was embarrassing,” Connelly told reporters Tuesday, according to Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. “It’s not who we are as an organization, who Rudy is as a professional.
“Those guys quickly made amends, but we’re trying to be an elite organization and trying to hold ourselves to elite standards.”
Gobert, who is also reportedly nursing and limited due to back spasms, was suspended by the Wolves on their Play-In bout against the L.A. Lakers on Tuesday.
As such, Anderson made it known that they’ve finally moved on as they are now eyeing playoff contention.
“We definitely hashed it out. That happens all the time in sports,” Anderson. “I feel like people are acting like they’ve never seen it before. We’re grown men. We’re able to put it behind us. We both want to win.
“We spoke about it that night and just seeing how everything is playing out is kind of lame, honestly. We’re teammates at the end of the day. I don’t want it to be a Kyle versus Rudy thing. That’s never the case. I always got my teammates’ back, and we moved on.”
