People around the NBA love dunking on the Kings.
Now, the league itself has taken the opportunity.
NBA release:The Sacramento Kings organization has been fined $50,000 for violating league rules prohibiting team owners and executives from interacting with scorer’s table personnel during game play, it was announced today by Byron Spruell, President, League Operations. Assistant General Manager Wes Wilcox was also fined $15,000.
The incident took place during a timeout with 10:50 remaining in the third quarter of the Kings’ 115-113 win over the Miami Heat on Jan. 2 [in Sacramento], when 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 clock procedure at issue was, in fact, administered correctly by the shot clock operator.
That last line is spicy!
This isn’t the Kings jump-ball issue you’re thinking of. That came two days later against the Lakers.
You can see the play that led to the fine here. The Heat – trying to retain possession with 1.5 seconds left on the shot clock – won a jump ball. Miami center Omer Yurtseven then hit a jumper, clearly more than 1.5 seconds after the ball was tipped.
However, only the game clock starts when the ball is first touched. The shot clock doesn’t start until possession is obtained, and Yurtseven bobbled the ball before corralling it. The 1.5-second timer didn’t begin until he had possession.
In fact.