After Rudy Gobert was called for a foul on Dwyane Wade that sent him to the line with three seconds left, Gobert was disappointed, but not surprised.
When he was asked about it after the game, he couldn’t help but speak his mind.
“I just want it to be consistent, at one point. Every night is the same s---. Every night has been the same s---. If you call something one way, you have to call it the other way. Once they start doing that, I’m going to have a little more respect. I’m just tired of it. Every game is the same,” Gobert said.
The statistics from Sunday’s game show only a small Heat advantage from a foul point of view: The Heat were called for 16 fouls, while the Jazz were called for 18. The margin of difference was larger at the free-throw line, though: The Heat got 24 free-throws compared to the Jazz’s 15.
But more than the final margin of calls, Gobert was probably most upset by the game’s final minutes. There was the aforementioned foul, but it was proceeded by a no-call on Donovan Mitchell’s drive seconds earlier.
“They can’t be deciding the issue of a game just like that. If you call a foul on the play on D. Wade, Donovan got pushed harder right before. But he’s not Dwyane Wade, it’s fine,” Gobert said.
The Jazz were also frustrated by a charge call against Mitchell with two minutes left (though the Heat’s Hassan Whiteside was called for an offensive foul with 68 seconds left as well).
Gobert tied the calls to the Jazz’s smaller-market status compared to Miami. “We’re a small market and we know it,” Gobert said.
If the NBA finds Gobert’s comments worthy of a fine, he’s likely to be docked $15,000, the same punishment other public criticism of officiating has earned over the past couple of seasons. But Gobert says he has nothing against the referees personally, but feels the calls on the floor in Miami were one-sided.
“But they gotta be more consistent. It’s not even personal, they’re doing their job. We all make mistakes. I make mistakes. Tonight, we made a lot of mistakes, we could have won this game anyway,” Gobert said. “But just respect us, as competitors, as players. I sacrifice everything to do this job, and I would like to be respected as a basketball player.”
