The NBA is investigating a head-scratching move by the Sacramento Kings amid a crackdown on tanking.
The league is looking at a curious foul directed by head coach Doug Christie with his team up by one point with 3:15 left against the Warriors on Tuesday, ESPN reported.
Doug McDermott intentionally fouled Seth Curry, putting the Warriors guard at the line for free throws.
Sacramento (21-59) is one of the worst teams in the NBA this season and is on track to finish in the bottom five in the league.
Sources claimed to ESPN that the move by Christie was a mistake, as he allegedly believed there was a foul to give and he wanted to get a timeout in before the clock ticked under three minutes.
But the Kings went on to lose, 110-105, raising plenty of eyebrows, including Draymond Green’s.
“I saw a team tonight foul Seth Curry with three minutes to go in the game for no reason. In the penalty,” the Warriors star said after the game. “I get fined when I do wrong. Fine the hell out of people. We love taking money from players.”
The Kings, who have been ravaged by injuries, were down by 13 in the third quarter and did take a three-point lead after the “mistake” by Christie in a 101-100 game, as Curry made one free throw before McDermott drained a 3-pointer.
But back to back 3-pointers by Golden State put the Warriors up for good.
Christie did say after a win over the Jazz last month that “tanking is the last thing” he’d do.
The NBA recently presented three anti-tanking proposals to its board of governors, and they’re set to vote on them on May 28, per ESPN, which said the proposal with the most “momentum” is one in which 18 teams would be in the lottery: the bottom 10 teams and the eight teams that reach the play-in tournament.
Under that proposal, the bottom 10 teams would have an eight percent chance of moving up from their slot, while the remaining 20 percent would be split among the other eight teams.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
