NBA says Sacramento was not tanking with odd foul against Warriors. It was just inept.
Kings coach Doug Christie called for a foul on Seth Curry, but didn't realize the Warriors were in the bonus.
It smelled of outright tanking ā Draymond Green said as much after the game. Wednesday night, the Kings had a slim 101-100 lead with 3:15 remaining in the game when head coach Doug Christie motioned to his team to intentionally foul career 86. 4% free-throw shooter Seth Curry off the ball, even though the Warriors were already in the bonus.
Could someone wake up Adam Silver and tell him the bottom half of the league is in shambles? pic. twitter.
com/5Z8caYjPzN ā Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) April 8, 2026 The NBA investigated and concluded that the Kings were not tanking, they were just inept . The Kings had three timeouts left and would have lost one at the 3:00 mark (teams can only call two timeouts in the final three minutes), and Christie is a coach well known for taking that timeout to avoid losing it. However, he just forgot or didn't know the Warriors were in the bonus.
Here is the league's statement. "The league's investigation determined that Christie mistakenly believed that the Warriors were not in the penalty and therefore instructed his team to foul in an attempt to stop the clock and utilize one of the team's remaining timeouts. The investigation found that Christie made no intentional effort to give the Warriors a shooting foul, or to cause the Kings to lose the game.