Anthony Edwards has been racking up big stats this season for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He’s also racking up over a quarter of a million dollars in fines.
Edwards drew a $50K fine Monday for “making obscene gestures toward a game official” during a 127-125 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. It’s his fifth fine from the league this season for a total of $285K as the NBA season nears the halfway mark.
This time, Edwards’ offense was blatant. After receiving a questionable technical foul for celebrating a dunk from the bench, Edwards extended a middle finger toward the officials. The technical foul call was brutal, but the fine was automatic.
Edwards’ first fine of the season for obscene gestures stemmed from a Nov. 15 action that was directed at the fans in Sacramento. During December, he was fined for using profane language and for criticizing officials after games against the Golden State Warriors, with the first incident drawing a $25K fine and the second a $75K fine. Later in the month, Edwards received a fine for $100K for profane language in a postgame interview, this time after a win against the Houston Rockets.
The NBA generally escalates the value of fines for repeated infractions. This most recent obscene gesture cost Edwards $15K more than his first one, although he may have gotten more for flipping off a ref than he would for flipping off the crowd. Last year, Edwards received a $40K fine for criticizing officials.
This habitual line-stepping may be a reason that Edwards isn’t universally embraced as the next face of the NBA. His electrifying play on the court and his competitiveness are very appealing, but his self-control is lacking.
In 2022, the NBA fined Edwards $40K after he posted a video to his Instagram where he filmed a group of strangers and made homophobic comments about them. He apologized, and last season, he also made a public apology after private messages were posted online that appeared to show him urging a woman to have an abortion and sending her $100K as payment.
Edwards can afford the fines. He’s in the first year of a five-year contract that pays him $42.2M this season, so these fines reflect a very small part of his salary. But it doesn’t speak well for his discipline and maturity that he can’t help himself from giving the ref a finger, knowing it’s an automatic, costly fine.
If Edwards truly wants to be recognized as a superstar, with the attention and promotion that comes with it, he’s going to have to show a lot more maturity.
