Anthony Edwards called out for unusual move in fourth quarter as Timberwolves season ends: ‘Weakness’

Anthony Edwards gets no respect for showing respect.

The Timberwolves star was hit with criticism, including from one basketball Hall of Famer, after his unusual decision to walk to the other end of the court to congratulate the Spurs with 8:01 remaining in San Antonio’s 139-106 series-clinching beatdown in Minneapolis.

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Udonis Haslem, a three-time champion in his 20 seasons with the Heat, sharply called out the 24-year-old Timberwolves star during the Amazon Prime postgame show.

“As great as Ant is as a basketball player, there’s still some growth for him as well because as a leader I would not have walked down there and shook their hand,” Haslem said. “I would not have walked down there and shook their hand with eight minutes left in the game. As a leader of my troops and my guys, I would not show that weakness. The game is not over, I got eight minutes left. I still got smoke coming out of my ears because I’m so damn mad that we’re losing. Let me calm down for those eight minutes since I’m not in. And then after those eight minutes, I’ll go down there and I’ll congratulate them and their coaching staff. But in the middle of the game, when I got guys that have sat the bench and cheered me on, no, I’m going to sit there and cheers those guys on. I’m going to put that energy back into those guys and then when the game’s over, I’ll go over there and shake their hands.”

He added: “I damn sure know [Spurs star Victor Wembanyama] wouldn’t have went down there and shook his hand.”

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NBA Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki and six-time All-Star Blake Griffin both could not believe what happened, although they did not go as far as Haslem.

“I’ve watched the NBA and been a part of [it] for a long, long time. I’ve never seen this,” Nowitzki said. “A guy walking into the huddle with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter and dapping up the entire team. Too much for me. Obviously, you can do that after the game and show plenty of respect.

“That was a little strange for me.”

Players usually wait for the postgame handshakes or maybe in the final minute or two to…

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Publish date : 2026-05-16 13:57:00

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