Zach Collins can get his checkbook out now just to be ready, because he will be writing one to the league.
In the second quarter of the Spurs’ blowout loss to the Kings, Collins was angry about a call: Domantas Sabonis got a pass in the midpost, lowered his shoulder and drove hard into Collins, pushed his way under the basket and went up, and Collins got called for the foul on the shot. On the broadcast, Collins can be heard yelling at referee Michael Smith, “What the f***?” as he walks over to hand him the ball.
The Spurs then took Collins out of the game, but as he walked to the bench Collins wasn’t done and said a few more magical words to Smith, who hit Collins back with a technical. Collins responded to that by yelling a few more things at Smith that we can’t publish here, earning Collins a second technical and an ejection. Collins responded to getting tossed like this.
That’s going to lighten Collins’ next paycheck by more than a few dollars.
Collins was starting with Victor Wembanyama out due to a back injury. To put it kindly, the Spurs are not the same team without Wembanyama.