NBA Investigated the Kings for Tanking and Found Out They're Just Badly Coached
Well, this is embarrassing. The NBA launched a full investigation into whether the Sacramento Kings were intentionally throwing their game against the Warriors, and you know what they found? Nobody was trying to lose. The Kings were just making terrible decisions on the court, which somehow feels worse.
The whole mess started with a controversial late-game foul in Sacramento's loss to Golden State. It looked suspicious enough that people started asking questions: Were the Kings deliberately tanking to improve their lottery odds? The league decided to take it seriously and actually investigate whether Sacramento was playing to lose.
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Here's the wild part: the NBA determined the Kings were not tanking at all. It was just a coaching mistake. A bad call in a crucial moment that made everyone wonder if something shadier was going on. But nope. According to the league's findings, Sacramento simply messed up the execution down the stretch.
Anthony Slater reported that this whole tanking controversy boils down to Doug Christie's coaching mistake. Not some grand scheme to tank for lottery positioning, not a coordinated effort to lose games on purpose. Just a coach and a team making the wrong call at the wrong time and accidentally sparking a national debate about the integrity of the game.
The Season's Already Over, So What Happens Now?
The Kings have two games left to play and they're inching closer to a top-3 draft lottery spot. The question now is what Sacramento does with their final weekend. Do they actually try to win out, or does the damage from this investigation linger?
Sam Amick said he'd be shocked if the league handed down any fines. The NBA determined there was nothing criminal here, just incompetence dressed up as controversy. Sometimes the scariest thing isn't that a team is actively trying to lose. Sometimes it's just realizing they have no idea what they're doing in the first place.
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