A shorthanded Golden State Warriors ran away with a massive 99-94 upset on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers. With Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green all out, two-way guard Pat Spencer was the team’s savior, leading from the front with a career-high 19 points and seven assists.

It all culminated with Spencer hitting a huge fourth-quarter three-pointer and celebrating afterward with his hands in the air, rubbing his fingers together for a ‘money’ gesture right at the Warriors’ bench. His teammates were celebrating, his head coach, Steve Kerr, was smiling, and the Rocket Arena was quiet in astonishment.

But as clips of it spread like wildfire, one thing began to worry Warriors fans. A referee was standing near the bench. And making gestures like the one Spencer made doesn’t sit well with the NBA. While it might be a breakout moment for the former lacrosse athlete, it’s something the league has harshly punished before.

In 2024, during a heated Game 4 between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Denver Nuggets, center Rudy Gobert made a money gesture toward an official and was subsequently fined $75,000.

The head of basketball operations, Joe Dumars, had called it an “unprofessional gesture that questions the integrity of the league and its game officials.”

Gobert was also fined $100,000 earlier last season for making a similar gesture toward referee Scott Foster.

The thing is, a fine like this doesn’t mean much if you’re Gobert, someone who earned $41 million in 2024. $75,000 was about 0.18% of the Frenchman’s pay, but for Spencer, who earns $636,434 from his contract, that same fine is almost 12% of his salary. We all love underdogs, and this would be simply unfair…

But there’s a good reason to believe this might not happen. As noted earlier, Gobert’s fine was incurred for making the gesture at the officials during the game. In contrast, anyone watching clearly understood that Spencer was just making a harmless celebration toward his bench, and they were into it too.

Alongside Pat Spencer, Steve Kerr’s ‘passionate’ praise makes him a potential target of a fine

Pat Spencer isn’t the only Warrior who could be under scrutiny from the league for his conduct. Coach Steve Kerr said something during the postgame conference that caught a lot of attention.

“His coach realized that Pat is that m———–, I think that became clear,” Kerr said of Spencer’s breakout performance.

After his comments, though, he immediately realized his mistake.

“Am I allowed to say that or am I going to get in trouble?” Kerr asked with a smile.

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But it wouldn’t be his first time getting into trouble for being crass, either.

In 2017, Kerr was caught on camera yelling at referees some really harsh words.

“F— you, m———–,” the Warriors coach launched at the referee.

Afterwards, he apologized during a different postgame conference and managed to avoid being assessed a fine. Earlier that year, in February, however, he was fined $25,000 for verbally abusing official Bill Spooner before being ejected that night.

Earlier this year, in May, Anthony Edwards was fined $50,000 for “using profane language.”

The Timberwolves player had said he “only took 13 f—— shots” during a post-game press conference.

But unfortunately for Kerr, unlike Spencer, who was just celebrating with his teammates, the Warriors head coach is likely to receive a fine, especially given the NBA’s pattern of punishing repeat offenses.