It’s been a weird week for the Sacramento Kings. Head coach Alvin Gentry was absolutely irate about an officiating decision during Tuesday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and, the next night, the Kings lost at home to the Atlanta Hawks without Trae Young. Neither of those things rose to the bizarre level of an NBA announcement on Thursday evening, though, as the league handed down a $50,000 fine to the Kings organization for “violating league rules prohibiting team owners and executives from interacting with scorer’s table personnel during game play.”
At first blush, one might assume the incident took place amid the strange ending to the Lakers game, but it actually occurred a few days earlier on Jan. 2 in a win over the Miami Heat. According to the NBA’s release, Kings assistant general manager Wes 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 incident happened in the early portion of the third quarter in what became a 115-113 win for Sacramento, and Wilcox earned a $15,000 individual fine on top of the team sanction.
The following was released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/kuacIRZddp
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 7, 2022
Amusingly, the NBA’s announcement made sure to note that “the clock procedure at issue was, in fact, administered correctly by the shot clock operator.” In the grand scheme, this isn’t a large fine for the team by any means and, while Wilcox’s individual $15,000 fine might sting more, he has been a high-level executive for several years, including a multi-year stint as the general manager of the Hawks. Overall, though, this is one of those press releases that will make many turn their heads, and the fact that the Kings were involved brings a certain “chef’s kiss” element to the proceedings.