NBA: Tanking? You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

On Thursday, April 9th, 2026, the NBA released an official statement regarding a bizarre situation in a recent Sacramento Kings versus Golden State Warriors game.

In case you missed it, Sacramento Head Coach Doug Christie instructed his own players to intentionally foul an above average free throw shooter, Seth Curry, despite holding a one-point lead in clutch time. The KANGZ Kings ultimately lost the game in regulation, and considering the tight battle to earn the top lottery odds in a stacked draft, it sparked yet another conversation about “tanking.”

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By now, you must be sick of hearing about this. Adam Silver’s focus on punishing teams for losing instead of much more important matters (sports betting). Nonsensical and complicated draft lottery reforms. Fans criticizing talking heads for even talking about it.

Enough!

Alright, fine. But before we leave this all behind us, can I just give you one more quick story? Please?

Let’s turn back your clocks back to calendar year 2006.

Actually, almost exactly 20 years ago to the day. It’s April 18th, the last day of the regular season. The Minnesota Timberwolves were going to miss the playoffs for the second straight season. An inauspicious 33-48 record put them second to last in the West standings, but tied for the seventh-worst overall record. Not great. However, the silver lining was that they were in line to secure the seventh spot in the 2006 NBA draft lottery.

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Here’s where it gets interesting.

There was one team just half a game behind Minnesota in the standings: the Boston Celtics. More importantly, three teams sat just one game ahead of the Wolves in the standings: Seattle SuperSonics, Golden State Warriors, and Houston Rockets. Why does this matter?

Just eight months prior, the Timberwolves traded away their first round pick (along with All-Star Sam Cassell) to the Los Angeles Clippers.

That pick was smartly (?) top 10 protected through 2011. That meant if the Wolves finished with the eighth-worst record or lower, they would not be at risk of losing said pick. With three teams on the Minnesota’s heels, there was potential for…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-tanking-ain-t-seen-130000855.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-11 13:00:00

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