Subscribe
Follow Us
The Sacramento Kings and general manager Monte McNair have mutually agreed to part ways, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.
This decision by the Kings and owner Vivek Ranadive comes in the immediate aftermath of their season-ending loss in the play-in tournament. Sacramento fell 120-106 to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night. League sources have since confirmed Amick's report of McNair being relieved of his duties to ClutchPoints.
After firing Mike Brown early in the 2024-25 season and trading De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs, the writing had been on the wall for McNair's eventual departure.
Rumors of McNair's potential firing if the Kings lost to the Mavericks began to circulate on Wednesday afternoon when Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported that the general manager was on the “hot seat.”
McNair was hired by the Kings in September 2020 and was named the 2023 NBA Executive of the Year after the Kings made the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
In the immediate aftermath of taking over for former general manager Vlade Divac and interim executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars, who was recently appointed as the New Orleans Pelicans' newest EVP of basketball operations, McNair made it his mission to turn things around in Sacramento rapidly.
He achieved this by trading Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers in his second season for All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis. Next to Fox, Sabonis emerged as an all-around playmaking big man who presented a positive direction for the Kings' future.
Article Continues Below
Further moves like signing Malik Monk and drafting Keegan Murray fourth overall in 2022 made the Kings real rising threats in the Western Conference. Over his five years with the franchise, the Kings won 40 or more games in three straight seasons under McNair’s leadership.
However, the quick success McNair and the Kings endured was shadowed by foundational cracks between multiple coaching staffs, management, and ownership. McNair replaced head coach Luke Walton during the 2021-22 season with interim head coach Alvin Gentry, who accepted a front-office role with the organization when Brown was hired in 2022.
The desire to win from Ranadive clouded McNair's decision-making over the last two seasons, resulting in desperation moves being made in free agency and on the trade market. With the front office not seeing eye-to-eye on decisions that were being made about the roster, friction between the players and coaches began to boil over.
As a result, Brown was fired 31 games into the season, and Fox followed him out the door shortly after since he and his agent Rich Paul made it clear there was no long-term future to be had in Sacramento.
Ranadive and the Kings will now be in search of another lead executive to attempt at putting the broken pieces in Sacramento back together to once again find success. A roster headlined by Sabonis, Monk, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine now faces uncertainty entering what should be a busy NBA offseason.
This season, the Kings went just 40-42, failing to make the playoffs via the play-in tournament for the second consecutive season.
