The Sacramento Kings almost achieved the unthinkable on Tuesday night: Win a game. Locked in a stunningly close battle with the Golden State Warrior, the 21-59 Kings had to make sure they lost to keep their draft dreams alive, and damn if they didn’t go above and beyond the call of duty.
With 3:25 left on the clock Sacramento came to the realization they were actually leading the game due to some horrific Warriors’ shooting, which meant it was time to tank like nobody has tanked before.
Doug McDermott was so far away from the play that it was comical, and fouled Seth Curry for absolutely no reason other than intentionally trying to lose the game while up by one point. It was part of some simply incredible work in the clutch by the veteran McDermott to achieve the franchise goal of losing.
Following this foul he made a three, and needed to pull himself back in. He immediately committed a turnover on a bad pass, then missed two threes early in the shot clock with under a minute left to kill any potential Sacramento offense and ensure the Warriors could pull away.
It worked, as the Kings went from leading 101-100, to losing the game 105-110.
This is the entire raison d’être for Sacramento this season. They are currently tied with the Utah Jazz for 4th worst in the NBA, and they absolutely cannot afford to finish and better. If they were to win on Tuesday night their No. 1 lottery pick odds would have dropped from 11.5% to 8.3%, and their Top 4 pick offs would have fallen from 45.2% to 34.8%. The 2026 NBA Draft is loaded with talent, but there is serious suck competition to try and get one of the big three prospects in the class between Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson, and AJ Dybantsa.
Even with the stake being this high the tanking in the NBA is out of control, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Adam Silver levies some sort of penalty for committing such a brazen, unnecessary foul.
