SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA has fined Jazz stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert for criticizing the referees after Wednesday's loss to Philadelphia.
Mitchell was fined $25,000, while Gobert will take a $20,000 hit.
Mitchell was ejected after receiving two technical fouls in the final minute of the 131-123 overtime loss. Afterwards, the Jazz guard shared his frustrations about how he and his teammates believe Utah is disrespected by league officials.
“I’m never ever one to blame a ref, blame an official, but this is getting out of hand,” Mitchell said. “There have been games like this we’ve won. Games we’ve lost. We’re nice, we don’t complain, we don’t get frustrated, we fight through things. But the fact that we continuously get screwed in a way by this … It’s getting [expletive] ridiculous.”
Gobert was in agreement, echoing Mitchell's statements about how the NBA favors teams from the league's bigger markets.
Further proof of how the league might feel about the league-leading Utah Jazz, Mitchell and Gobert were the final two players selected in Thursday night's All-Star Game player draft.
"There’s no slander to the Utah Jazz,” Western Conference captain LeBron James said. "You’ve got to understand, just like in video games growing up, we never played with Utah. As great as Karl Malone and John Stockton was, we would never pick those guys in video games.”
