Rudy Gobert’s Gambling Comments Raise Questions — But Not The Kind He Thinks

Rudy Gobert likes to say things. And in the most recent round of "Rudy Gobert says things," the Wolves big man decided to share his opinion that gambling has become a big issue in the NBA.

First, he made the "money" gesture on the court, which earned him an immediate technical foul, because of course it did. Then, he doubled down postgame with his comments about how the NBA has a gambling problem. Was he implying that the refs are fixing games? It sure seemed like it. Or maybe he's just asking questions. Who knows.

As always, the missing information here is pretty relevant. Has Gobert talked with the league about their efforts to prevent another Tim Donaghy incident? Is he aware of the dozens of ways the league has set up ways to monitor games for suspicious betting activity or for officiating malfeasance?

The answer, in the absence of him suggesting anything of the sort, seems to be no.

Here’s another question: Why is it that every time a player alleges that an official is “on the take,” it comes in a losing effort? You never see a player on a winning team who went to the line 18 times suggest that the officiating is corrupt. Then, it’s just a reflection of how they controlled the game and outplayed the opponent. What an odd coincidence! When a player loses, the officials had an incentive for them, specifically, to lose, but when they win, it’s just a result of how the game is played.

The NBA deserves a level of criticism for some of the lack of transparency caused by their efforts to shield officials. The league’s approach has been to try to make the officials as invisible as possible. But at the very least, having more public transparency in the ways the league monitors these things would be helpful for perception. The risk, of course, is that being transparent in those efforts provides a blueprint for how to try to get around them, but your efforts need to be (and realistically should be) strong enough to manage those concerns.

(A lot of this would be improved, in my opinion, by simply moving Scott Foster, who had a close relationship with Donaghy away from in-game officiating and into a league role in Seacaucus if not a quiet retirement, but Foster also consistently rates out as a quality official per the NBA’s internal grading, per reports.)

But these complaints are always the same: a team loses a tough game and a player feels that the refs are the source of the gap between them and the opponent. If you want to have a serious conversation about impropriety in officiating, you need to A.) bring evidence and B.) discuss it in a forum that isn’t a postgame locker room.

But then, the players aren’t really looking for a serious dialogue. They just want to pin the problems on someone else.

NBA players: they’re just like us!