With 8:01 left in Game 6 and the Timberwolves trailing the Spurs by 33, Minnesota coach Chris Finch threw in the towel and pulled his starters. When that happened, Anthony Edwards did something in-game usually reserved for postgame: he walked over and dapped up the Spurs players, congratulating them on their win.
That drew an instant backlash from former players and fans who didn’t like the fact he did that during the game, including Dirk Nowitzki and Udonis Haslem on the NBA on Prime postgame show.
Edwards addressed the controversy in a video posted to his YouTube channel.
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“Yes, eight minutes in the game, but we’re not going back in the game,” Edwards said. “When you win a playoff series, everybody’s celebrating at the end of the game, so they’re gonna be smiling while I’m pissed off, and we just lost.
“So I was just like, ‘S***, let me go and congratulate these boys, because I ain’t trying to be kiking with you all after you all whooped my a**.'”
Edwards then said his real preference would have been not to congratulate the Spurs (or any team that beats him) at all.
“Then what would they have been saying about me? That would have been a whole other conversation,” Edwards said.
Edwards is an intense competitor who had to take away from that series what everyone else watching — including Minnesota management — saw in those six games: San Antonio was a flat-out better roster and team, and the Spurs are still very young and just getting better. That would frustrate anyone.
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At the end of the day, if it didn’t bother Edwards’ current teammates, then it doesn’t matter. If it did bother them, a couple of veteran team leaders need to have a conversation with Edwards during the offseason in a calm setting, and then everyone can move on. Ultimately, this is great sports talk show content that will not matter in the Timberwolves locker room next season.
