The San Antonio Spurs punched their ticket to the franchise’s first Western Conference Finals since 2017 with a convincing wire-to-wire 139-109 road blowout win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The win clinched the series 4-2 for the Spurs, who will now face the defending champion OKC Thunder in the WCF.
It’s no secret that basketball purists like myself have been clamoring for this Thunder/Spurs series, and now it’s here. We will have plenty of time to get into that before Monday, but let’s talk about what transpired just four minutes into the fourth quarter of last night’s Spurs blowout win. The sequence of events had many former NBA legends calling out Wolves superstar Anthony Edwards, who in their opinion did the unthinkable.
Nowitzki Not A Fan Of AntMan’s Gesture
With just over 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Edwards walked down to the Spurs bench to congratulate them on the win as he and all the Wolves started we’re about to be subbed out for the final time this season. What seemed like a solid gesture of sportsmanship quickly drew the ire of former Dallas Mavericks legend and former NBA champion Dirk Nowitzki, who had plenty to say about it on the Amazon Prime postgame.
“I’ve watched the NBA and been a part of it for a long, long time. I’ve never seen this. A guy walking into the huddle with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter and dapping up the entire team. Too much for me. You can do that after the game. … That was a little strange for me.”
The always outspoken Edwards attempted to justify the move in his postgame presser, saying this:
“At that point, you know you ain’t going back in, so you’re just trying to get them respect they deserve.”
All fine and dandy but don’t tell that to former Miami Heat legend and three-time NBA champion Udonis Haslem who agreed with sweet shooting German.
Haslem Says Naw Ant You Can’t Do That
Haslem chopped it up to Ant’s lack of maturity at the ripe age of 24 and leading a franchise with no real veteran leaders in the locker room outside of Mike Conley Jr.
“As great as Ant is as a basketball player, there’s still some growth in him as well,” Haslem said. “Because, as a leader, I would not have walked down there and shook their hands … with eight minutes left in the game. … I would not show that weakness. The game is not over. I got eight minutes left. I still got smoke coming out of my ears (because) I’m so d— mad that we’re losing.”
Fans Ran With This One
Edwards’ gesture didn’t just draw the ire of NBA legends, it also had fans talking.
“Ngl, that was bad on Ant. There’s still a ball game. You can’t just do sh-t like that regardless of the score. On top of that, you’re the f-cking leader,” a fan said.
“Kobe Bryant would have strangled Anthony Edwards if they were teammates,” another fan said.
“Ant was actually telling the Spurs to trade for Him,” a fan quipped.
“Guys don’t care about being true leaders anymore. Or winning. It’s 100% a money game these days,” a fan mentioned.
“While Ant is talented he has some growing up to do respectfully,” a fan said.
“Didn’t LeBron do this in like 2018 or 17 ???” a fan spewed.
“Yes but that was on court near his bench when Bron did that. Ant during a timeout walked all the way to other side of court in the huddle and dapped everyone up.” a fan replied.
In the end while it was a great show of sportsmanship by Edwards, he probably would’ve waited until the final seconds to do something of that nature. The dynamic of the whole thing doesn’t look good because although the Wolves had conceded defeat, it’s an unwritten rule to stay with your guys until it ends and then shake the hands of the opposing team.
Not with eight minutes left in the game. OKC/SA though, let’s go.
