Former NBA executive Billy King, who led front office with the Philadelphia 76ers, told SiriusXM NBA Radio that he tried to hire legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski after Larry Brown left the Sixers.
King joined the Philadelphia organization in 1997 and became general manager the next year. He was finally promoted to the joint president of basketball operations and GM role in 2003. Brown, the Hall of Fame coach who led the Sixers from 1997 to 2003, resigned from his position and went on to guide the Detroit Pistons to their third championship in 2003-04.
King served as an assistant coach for Brown while the two worked with the Indiana Pacers.
āI knew if [Coach K] wasn't going to come here, he wasn't going anywhere,ā King told SiriusXM radio.
š£ļø @bkdefend revealed to @hoopscritic & @Mitch_Lawrence that after Larry Brown left the Sixers, he tried to hire his former @DukeMBB Coach Mike Kryzyzewski in Philly. pic.twitter.com/cAkxpqNPFD
ā SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) August 5, 2019
Coach K has been with the Duke Blue Devils since 1980. He has led the men's basketball team to five NCAA titles, including in 2001 when Brown and the Sixers ā headlined by the star guard and MVP Allen Iverson ā appeared in the 2001 NBA Finals.
King was relieved of his duties in Philly in 2007 and would go on to be hired by the Nets as their GM in 2010. The former Sixers GM left his position in Brooklyn in 2016 following years of misery for the team after engineering the trade that brought Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Boston Celtics.
King told SiriusXM that Coach K turned him and the Sixers down, saying āit was a little chuckle and laugh, and āNah, nah, I'm good.'ā
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