Kevin Durant took the ragebait during Monday’s game.
The Houston Rockets star forward Durant, a District of Columbia native, returned home Monday night for a game against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Durant had an impressive showing with 30 points on 8/15 shooting as the Rockets went on to win by a final score of 123-118.
But Durant also produced an incredibly silly moment during the closing seconds of the contest. With 30 seconds left on the clock and the game already decided, Wizards guard Sharife Cooper scored an uncontested layup to make the score 123-114 in favor of the Rockets.
Washington teammate Bub Carrington then lingered over the dead ball, preventing Durant from inbounding it immediately. As a result, Durant gave Carrington a shove, and Carrington flopped hard to the floor.
Referee Jacyn Goble promptly hit Durant with a technical foul over the shove. Here is the video.
Kevin Durant shoves Bub Carrington and he flopped like a fish in the ocean and baited KD into a technical. pic.twitter.com/C3On7ENm1E
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) March 3, 2026
It doesn’t get much more boneheaded than that for Durant. Though the lapse in judgment did not ultimately cost the Rockets the win, it does now mean that Durant has to pay a $3,000 fine for the technical foul (up from the standard fine of $2,000 since it was Durant’s seventh T of the season).
Monday’s game between the Rockets and the Wizards was definitely heated in other regards as well. During the third quarter, there was a spat between Houston’s Tari Eason and Washington’s Jamir Watkins that ultimately resulted in injured Wizards star Trae Young somehow being ejected from the bench while in street clothes.
