Up one, three minutes left, and Doug McDermott — on a very clear signal from head coach Doug Christie — walked over and intentionally fouled Seth Curry.

Seth Curry. An 86% career free throw shooter.

Not necessarily a Hack-a-Curry situation. Not sure there's ever been one of those, with any of the three that have been in the league. A blatant decision to intentionally hand free throws to a guy who almost never misses them — while leading a game the Kings had no business being in — because they ddin't actually want to win.

Draymond Green saw it the same way everyone else did.

After the Warriors held on to win 110-105, he didn’t try to clean it up or give some safe answer — he just called it out.

"I saw a team tonight foul Seth Curry with three minutes to go in the game for no reason. In the penalty," Green said. "It ain't working."

And he’s not wrong. The Kings’ little stunt on Tuesday night wasn’t just a weird play — it was the clearest example yet of an issue that’s been building all season, and one the league still doesn’t seem to have an answer for.

You Don’t Make That Play by Accident

The logic — if you even want to call it that — wasn’t exactly subtle. Sacramento had already climbed all the way back from down 16, had control of the game late… and then just started actively trying to give it back.

And it wasn’t a one-off either.

They went right back to it in the final two minutes. Dylan Cardwell fouled Seth again with 1:39 left. Same idea, same result — free points. This time he knocked both down. The game was over shortly after.

At some point, you run out of ways to dress that up.

Call it strategy if you want. Call it overthinking. Call it whatever helps you sleep at night. But that was blatant cheating.

And honestly, that’s the part the league should be paying attention to. Not just that it happened, but how little they tried to hide it. No hesitation, no thought about how poorly it would reflect on the entire organization.

Tanking’s always been around. That’s not new. But this version of it — where the teams at the bottom seem to be having a competition to see who can do it best — feels different. 

Draymond Said the Quiet Part Out Loud

According to Spotrac, Draymond Green has paid over $1 million in fines to the NBA across 244 different violations. He knows what player discipline looks like. He knows how fast the league moves when a player steps out of line. A technical foul? Money gone. A suspension? Triple that.

By his count, around 12 teams are tanking. The league has issued just two fines. In February, the Utah Jazz got hit with $500,000 after they pulled Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. before the fourth quarter in back-to-back road games — while they were both still close. The Indiana Pacers got $100,000 for sitting Pascal Siakam in a game that the league's own independent physician said he was healthy enough to play.

Two fines. Then nothing. And both teams that got fined kept right on losing.

Green's point is simple: when it comes to players, the league is consistent and aggressive. When it comes to teams, not so much. That double standard is real, and it's hard to argue with.

I get fined when I do wrong... 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... 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... 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.

It's Going to Get Messy for the League

The line between "building for the future" and "trying to lose" is bound to be blurry from time to time. (Not so much when you're, I don't know, say, fouling Seth Curry on purpose while you're winning.) But still, you understand why teams want to lose — especially with this year's draft class.

But you better believe that the NBA is keenly aware of how this looks with their new media deal. You can't go out and demand record broadcast fees and then watch a third of your teams use the last two months of the season as a draft positioning exercise. Adam Silver said the right things when he fined Utah and Indiana — "overt behavior that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition" — and then the league went quiet.

They can't stay quiet any longer.

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