NBA fines Kings $50,000 for violating league rules; assistant GM Wes Wilcox fined $15,000
The NBA slapped the Kings organization and assistant general manager Wes Wilcox with hefty fines Thursday in response to an incident that occurred in Sunday’s game against the Miami Heat.
Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of league operations, announced the Kings had been fined $50,000 for violating league rules prohibiting team owners and executives from interacting with scorer’s table personnel during game play. In addition, Wilcox was fined $15,000, Spruell said.
The incident occurred with 10:50 remaining in the third quarter of Sacramento’s 115-113 victory over the Heat on Sunday at Golden 1 Center. The NBA said Wilcox left his seat to confront operations personnel at the scorer’s table about their handling of a clock procedure during a jump ball. The league said the clock procedure at issue was, in fact, administered correctly by the shot clock operator.
Earlier in the day, the NBA admitted officials missed a crucial call in the Kings’ 108-102 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. According to the Last 2 Minute Report, Hawks guard Delon Wright should have been called for a foul on De’Aaron Fox with 25.7 seconds remaining. The Kings were trailing by two at the time. The report noted that Wright “swipes down and initiates contact with Fox’s left elbow during his upward shooting motion.”
The Kings were involved in another bizarre situation during a 122-114 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday at Cyrpto.com Arena. The Kings trailed by five when De’Aaron Fox went up for an uncontested rebound following a missed free throw by Malik Monk with 24.8 seconds remaining.
Fox noticed the clock started running before he touched the ball, so he didn’t touch it at all. Fox let the ball hit the floor and alerted officials, expecting them to reset the clock and award possession to Sacramento, but that’s not what happened.
After a lengthy discussion, officials called a jump ball because neither team had established possession when the whistle was blown. The Lakers won the jump ball and held on to win the game. Gentry said officials correctly interpreted a “dumbass” rule.
“Before you ask me about that play, it’s a horse s--- rule in the NBA,” Gentry said. “The referees did exactly what they were supposed to do. It is the rule. They enforced the rule the way it is, and so if anything needs to be changed, the rule needs to be changed. I think there’s got to be some common sense.
“We had the basketball right there. They started the clock. We didn’t start the clock. It wasn’t our error and so we got punished for a dumbass rule. That’s the bottom line, but it had nothing to do with the officials. All they did was exactly what they were supposed to do.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 5:52 PM.
