Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga has been hit with a $35K fine, the NBA announced on Thursday in a press release (Twitter link).
Kuminga is being penalized for “making inappropriate contact with and continuing to pursue a game official,” according to the league. The incident occurred late in the second quarter of Tuesday’s preseason game vs. Portland and resulted in the the 23-year-old’s ejection.
Kuminga believed he was fouled on a drive to the basket that resulted in a missed layup (Twitter video link) and immediately confronted referee Rodney Mott about the no-call. Kuminga later explained that he was upset about the contact on the same ankle he injured last season, as ESPN’s Anthony Slater relays (Twitter link).
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the game that he “didn’t mind the ejection at all” and appreciated the “fire” and “passion” Kuminga was playing with (Twitter video link via Sam Gordon of The San Francisco Chronicle). Presumably, Kerr didn’t realize at that point that Kuminga had made contact with Mott and wasn’t endorsing that aspect of the incident.
The $35K fine won’t impact Kuminga’s earnings as significantly as it would have last season. After making about $7.6MM in 2024/25, the final year of his rookie contract, the former No. 7 overall pick is earning $22.5MM on his new deal in ’25/26.
Preseason fouls calls has been horrible in many games. I thought I was watching an amateur game out there. You can clearly see on the play 3 different fouls not called. So why doesn’t the NBA call out Refs who want to get paid but not do their job?
Preseason is typically horrible all the way around, whether we’re talking about coaching, officiating or players. Should the NBA also call out the coaches and players who want to get paid and not put the same effort they would in the regular season or playoffs along with the officials?
they should admit the ref missed the calls. Ever since the NBA allowed betting on games by allowing sport betting the officials are getting worse. If you watch the WNBA you would see a lot of missed calls. NFL has the same problem.
Ai is supposed to make everything better, so why aren’t we replacing error-prone referees and umpires with it?
What exactly do you think AI is?
If tennis can have lasers and Ai used to determine fault calls, then NBA can do the same with ref calls.
You do understand the tech exists to scan the entire court and all the players, as they are playing, right? The scans could then be run against what foul calls are, and then the calls are made. It’s not hard to visualize.
I don’t think you understand how much a system like that would cost to operate. Even for one game. Never mind that every arena in the NBA would have to be fitted with the equipment, and even then it could never get every single call right every time.
Your imaginary system is much more complicated than a laser than can tell you if it’s been passed through.
And where do you think he learns it from? Hmm…another poisoned gsw rookie.
“We talking bout *preseason*. Not a game. Not a game. Pre-season. We talking bout pre-season.”
– AI, probably
Putting that new contract money into good use.