With the Sacramento Kings ahead by one point and time winding down in the fourth quarter, the team decided to do something unexpected. Kings forward Doug McDermott intentionally fouled Seth Curry, sending the Golden State Warriors’ guard to the free-throw line.
One player on the court couldn’t believe the sequence. Following the contest — which the Warriors won 110-105 — Draymond Green ripped the Kings for blatantly tanking. He then offered up a solution to NBA commissioner Adam Silver to stop the practice.
When asked about the play-in tournament, Green brought up the issue of tanking, calling out the Kings for their late foul on Curry.
“I saw a team tonight foul Seth Curry with three minutes to go in a game for no reason. In the penalty,” Green said.
Green was then asked a follow-up about teams tanking. He took a second to think about the question before offering up an answer.
His response read:
“I get fined when I do wrong. Just fine the hell out of people. We love taking money from players. Keep fining the teams. I’ve seen two fines. And we all know everybody tanking. But you’ve seen two fines. If it was players, snatch that money in a heartbeat. Why isn’t it the same? Everybody love money.
“The punishment for players is always ‘let’s take the money.’ Well, now it becomes time to punish teams and all of the sudden nobody know what to do. Why not? We know exactly what to do when somebody gets a technical foul or suspended for a game. We know exactly what to do.
“Now, all of the sudden, we’ve got team issues and we don’t know what to do. What happened to the whole take the money stuff? Everybody else trying to reach a quote too. But when it comes to player discipline, we want to snatch the money as fast as we can. When it comes to team discipline and we see 12 teams tanking, we’ve seen two fines. If my math serves me correctly that’s 10 that ain’t been fined.
“We don’t keep that same energy. When it comes to teams, when it comes to officials, when it comes to everybody but players, we don’t keep that same energy. But it’s a players’ league.”
The two fines Green referenced in his answer were given to the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers. Both teams were fined in February for “overt” tanking behavior.
The Jazz were hit with a $500,000 fine after removing Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. from two games early. Neither player was announced with an injury. The Jazz led both games when Markkanen and Jackson were taken out. The team lost one of those contests, though managed to win the second.
The Pacers received a $100,000 fine for violating the NBA’s Player Participation Policy. The team held out forward Pascal Siakam and two other starters from a Feb. 3 game, but an independent doctor claimed those players were capable of participating in the contest.
With just a few games left in the regular season, seven NBA teams have 25 wins or fewer. The 2026 NBA Draft promises an immensely-talented freshman class to teams bad enough to secure a top selection, giving those teams motivation to tank down the stretch.
That hasn’t gone unnoticed by Green, who wants to see teams punished more harshly for engaging in the tactic.
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