Although Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves went deeper into the postseason than the team has in recent history, they unanimously made the decision to avoid participating in the “Inside the NBA” postgame interviews.
Most fans will be aware that the Timberwolves managed to make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals this season. While they managed to defeat the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets, the Timberwolves ended up losing to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks within 5 games.
Inside the NBA is a show which features former NBA legends such as Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. The crew watches games and provides input and analysis during halftime. Moreover, they also interviewed the best players on the winning side after the game had concluded. Now that the context has been provided, let us take a closer look at why Edwards and the other Timberwolves declined to go on air with this show.Anthony Edwards did not appear on the show in support of his Timberwolves teammates
The NBA media is supposed to be unbiased and is expected to be neutral when discussing teams that are competing in the postseason. While Inside the NBA does just that, they decided to bring in Draymond Green as a member of the crew to cover the Western Conference Finals.
Given that Draymond is still an active star with his own personal biases, he appeared to be heavily favoring Luka Doncic and the Mavericks while delivering extensive criticism against stars of the Timberwolves such as Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves chose not to participate in “Inside The NBA” interviews, standing in solidarity with Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert against criticism from Draymond Green, per @TheAthletic
“Edwards was surrounded by a tight-knit team, one with such… pic.twitter.com/peFvv5rHEK
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 31, 2024
In order to show a sense of solidarity and loyalty to Gobert and Towns, Edwards and the rest of the Timberwolves did not accept an invitation to appear alongside the crew and discuss their thoughts after winning Game 4 of this series. Since it is not mandatory for players to participate in these interviews, the Timberwolves were perfectly within their rights to decline while standing up for their teammates.
Upon hearing the decision made by Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, fans took to social media in order to make their feelings on this subject clear.
Fans show support for Anthony Edwards and call out Draymond Green for his behavior
Since the majority of the basketball community watches Inside the NBA, they were privy to the fact that Green did not appear to fit in with the rest of the crew and clearly let his own personal bias and feelings enter the equation when discussing this matchup between the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves. Thus fans voiced their support towards Edwards’ decision and called out Draymond for his behavior.
Good decision, why is an NBA player hating watching as an analyst
— Russ’ TD ⚡ (@RussFcb) May 31, 2024
Adding draymond green on Inside the NBA were inevitably a bad decision. No professionalism only pure hate coming from this clown
— ⏳ (@kingDiaws) May 31, 2024
It is certainly good to see that the Timberwolves have a sense of loyalty and commitment towards each other. They chose to stand by their teammates in the dark as opposed to seeking a little bit of extra fame by going on air with Inside the NBA. This team appears to be made of the right stuff and is likely to go deep into the playoffs several times in the future.