{"id":698389,"date":"2026-04-04T20:31:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698389\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T20:31:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T20:31:39","slug":"blazers-fined-100k-execs-suspended-after-tampering-drama-with-yang-hansen-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/698389\/","title":{"rendered":"Blazers fined $100K, execs suspended after tampering drama with Yang Hansen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The NBA hit the Portland Trail Blazers with a hefty punishment for \u201cviolating league rules governing contact with draft-ineligible players\u201d by scouting Chinese 7-footer Yang Hansen in December 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Portland selected the center with the No. 16 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft as part of a draft-night trade with the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n<p>The NBA said Wednesday it\u2019s fining the Trailblazers $100,000 and suspending assistant general managers Sergi Oliva and Mike Schmitz for two weeks each without pay.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38969317\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-124701525.jpg\" alt=\"Yang Hansen #16 of the Portland Trail Blazers dribbles the ball during the game against the Washington Wizards on March 29, 2026 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon.  \" class=\"wp-image-38969317\"  \/>Yang Hansen #16 of the Portland Trail Blazers dribbles the ball during the game against the Washington Wizards on March 29, 2026 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon.   NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The two front office personnel scouted Hansen, who was 18 at the time, making illegal contact with him before he was draft eligible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen this was brought to our attention the Portland Trail Blazers self reported to the NBA,\u201d the league said in a statement, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2039484620354318639?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team cooperated fully with the investigation and accept the league\u2019s determination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hansen, who is a native of China, was a two-time All-Star for the Qingdao Eagles of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old rookie is averaging just 2.3 points and 1.6 rebounds \u00a0in 7.2 minutes per game over 41 appearances for Portland this season.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38969318\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-124701554.jpg\" alt=\"Yang Hansen #16 of the Portland Trail Blazers dunks the ball during the game against the Washington Wizards on March 29, 2026 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland.\" class=\"wp-image-38969318\"  \/>Yang Hansen #16 of the Portland Trail Blazers dunks the ball during the game against the Washington Wizards on March 29, 2026 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Trail Blazers are 39-38 and currently in the ninth spot in the Western Conference, just a half-game behind the Clippers for eighth place, and will compete in the league\u2019s Play-In Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Portland secured its spot in the Play-In Tournament with a 134-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA hit the Portland Trail Blazers with a hefty punishment for \u201cviolating league rules governing contact with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,687,471,3967,66,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-698389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-portland","12":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","13":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116348341729914768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}