Technical foul on Rudy Gobert for…what, exactly?
About a minute into the second quarter of Wednesday night’s Timberwolves-Thunder game in Oklahoma City, Gobert was whistled for a tech. He had flailed his right arm in a rebound situation, and OKC big man Isaiah Hartenstein had gone down in a heap.
The issue is that the replay shows that Gobert made very light, glancing contact with Hartenstein — if any at all. The reaction from Hartenstein certainly didn’t seem to match up with the amount of contact that was made.
“Does he get the tip of his nose?” ESPN analyst Doris Burke wondered aloud.
Rudy Gobert with the HARD FOUL on Isaiah Hartenstein 😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/pR0Y8Crrdo
— NBACentel (@TheNBACentel) November 27, 2025
The case against Gobert is that there was no basketball-related reason for him to swing his arm like he did in the direction of Hartenstein’s face. But is that alone enough for a call if no real contact was actually made?
“Are they considering that an extraneous, unnecessary flail of the right arm?” Burke asked. “There’s no need to do that. But I don’t know if I’d give him a hostile act or a technical on that.”
“Minnesota is saying that Hartenstein flopped,” said play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch. “It was a delayed reaction to the contact from Gobert. Quite delayed.”
Isaiah Hartenstein just had one of the most EGREGIOUS flops I have EVER seen. Somehow they gave Rudy Gobert a technical for that.
— ᵂᴵᴸᴸ (@BiasedHouston) November 27, 2025
The officiating crew automatically initiated a review on the play for a potential hostile act. They didn’t deem that to have happened, but the technical foul call remained.
“Upon review, there is a flail by Gobert that catches Hartenstein on the nose and that will be assessed a technical foul,” said crew chief Josh Tiven.
The Wolves ended up challenging a loose ball foul on Gobert that was also called on the play, and that was successfully overturned. In total, including the initial review and a timeout for the challenge, there was a stoppage of nearly seven minutes.
The Thunder led the Wolves 49-39 at halftime.
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