Yesterday afternoon Marc Stein reported that Mark Jackson has impressed Kings Chairman Vivek Ranadivé, sending Kings fans into new rounds of hysteria either in favor of or staunchly opposed to the idea.
Also covered: Mark Jackson has impressed Kings owner Vivek Ranadive in the interview process to date and appears to have his best shot at an NBA coaching job since his Golden State ouster eight years ago –> https://t.co/t2E8SwNy5L https://t.co/GVPhBGlKTB
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 2, 2022
This report was further substantiated this morning by Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer, who reports that Jackson is viewed as the current front-runner and is a favorite of Vivek:
Jackson has long been a darling of Ranadive, who was vice chairman of Golden State when Jackson piloted the upstart playoff contender in the early stages of the Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green era. In 2020, Ranadive urged the Sacramento front office to consider Jackson for the associate head coach position that went to Gentry, sources said.
But before those of us who want no part of Jackson get into a full-blown panic, Fischer adds another interesting wrinkle.
But which faction of the Kings brass makes this decision may hold even greater intrigue around the league. For months, Ranadive has told colleagues across the NBA that general manager Monte McNair has full autonomy atop Sacramento’s basketball operations. Kings personnel insist that to be the case. The move to terminate Luke Walton midseason, for example, came from McNair, not ownership.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation believe Brown is the favorite among McNair’s front office. Wes Wilcox, a Sacramento assistant general manager, began his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003, overlapping Brown’s first tenure as Cleveland head coach from 2005 to 2010.
It is also worth noting that Fischer confirms what Sam Amick reported yesterday, which is that neither Brown nor Jackson have had their second interviews yet. Fischer also notes that Jackson’s case could be hurt by Joe Dumars’ departure from the Kings, who may have been part of the faction pushing in Jackson’s favor.
This leads to a fascinating dynamic where the next head coach of the Kings could confirm or dissuade some of the worst suspicions about Vivek’s continued meddling in basketball operations.
To be clear, it is not unusual for owners to be involved in the second round of interviews, as Vivek reportedly will be. The question is going to be whether Vivek will allow Monte McNair to choose his own head coach, or if he will overrule and force his own vision upon the team.
Based on the reported timing of interviews, we probably won’t get a resolution on this story until later in the week or possibly early next week. In the meantime Kings fans are left, as we so often are forced to, to wonder who is really calling the shots.
Who knew?
Come on Monte!
Amazing how many times Vivek will say whoever is his GM at the time is given full authority to do their job when he has a constant history of getting in the way and influencing decisions. I guess if you keep saying it enough, it must be true. Sigh.
He’s the smartest guy in the room.
I just threw up in my mouth
You’re no courtside material.
Thankfully
mine was projectile.
He may be in some roooms but clearly it’s not in a basketball decision room .
…Stauskas
Cringe!
Said it before but 1 question Vivek…. What the fuck is your problem?
His ego is so big he’s crushing this franchise.
How can he keep meddling and fucking things up and not make the connection? Vivek involved=bad decisions.
Fuck you Vivek. Seriously. What you do is gross.
Dismissive little chap
I am glad this crucial moment for the franchise is going as well as expected.
Just stop the ride already.
????
If only we could force Vivek out. Probably the only way the ride stops.
Seriously, this guys ego is so big it’s astounding. Beyond logic and reason. Despite failing at every turn he still thinks he knows what he’s doing.
I remember there was a report awhile ago that he could be forced out if the Kings become unprofitable enough.
Well if Jackson ends up getting the HC job we know who is still calling the shots.
If Jackson does get the nod, that’d be the breaking point for many King’s fans (including myself) to give up their fandom.
At the very least, some sort of revolt or boycott needs to ensue against this putrid owner that has ruined this franchise and crushed the fandom of the best and most loyal fans in the NBA. All the while he gleefully laughs his way to the bank.
He must have that little man syndrome, the only thing that explains why he won’t relinquish power and decision making to his GM(s).
To be fair, there aren’t many of us who are not going to look dumb if we’re standing in the middle.
BabyGiraffe says hi
Pretty sure he says “McNair is an idiot.”
Most of us would at least come up to their shoulders. He’s at armpit level
Agreed. If Jackson is the hire, I’ll stop giving Vivek my money. It isn’t much, but I’ve stuck through so much bullshit that just having confirmation that the ride through basketball hell will never end until he’s gone will be the final nail in the coffin. I’ll be back the day he sells.
At the very least, fans should not be wasting their hard earned money on going to games.
I said I refused to go to a game last year. Ended up going to about 7 games but tickets were free for every game lol
I stopped that already after they kept Walton.
This time would mean no longer watching or cheering for the team at all until an ownership change (or I eat crow because Coach Jackson has been the missing piece all along, but hahahahahahaha)
Vivek: “How do we convince them I’m not meddling?”
Matina: “Right before you hire Brown, leak you want Jackson.”
Vivek: “Niccccce.”
This is completely believable. Its a win/win for him, he gets to do a solid to someone famous who has complained about not getting opportunity, and he get’s to show he is not meddling, and he still gets a coach with a Warriors pedigree.
Agree. Billboard campaign etc.
If that’s the metric I’d say that the vast majority of us have little man syndrome.
The effect of being a Kings fan.
Then:
And now:
This is not my beautiful house…
For the record: This is my beautiful wife.
Well, how did I get here!?
If true, fuck off Vivek.
If the whoremonger gets the job, McNair should resign, and salvage some dignity from all of this.
If he doesn’t, I wonder how he’s gonna handle any possible issues between Jackson and Barnes. There is already history there.
That is something that hadn’t even occurred to me yet! I’d imagine that a blowhard like Jackson is extremely irritating to someone who handles things with quiet dignity.
Makes me think Barnes will finally get traded actually.
What makes Jackson a whoremonger lol?
There were reports that mark Jackson had an extra-marital affair with a stripper and was being blackmailed by her and her boyfriend. The warriors front office covered it up with the local media at the time, but it soured their opinion of him because of how he would continue to preach being a good Christian.
Stripper night at Golden One!
They’re naked and they dance.
Drinks half-priced. Bring plenty of $1 bills.
Just make sure they do it on Jackson’s birthday.
Peja would come back as an unpaid intern if this happened.
Unfortunately, the strippers will be those dudes who can’t throw a mini basketball more than 10 rows.
Oh, maybe just his extramarital affair with a stripper?
Adamsite got it.
If Jackson is hired then it’s real simple. At least half of all kings fans will literally be rooting for the Kings to lose, for Sabonis and Fox to demand a trade and for this franchise to become an even bigger shit show that it has been over the last 16 years.
how many god damn times does this owner need to put his nose into hiring or firing a coach and having it fail miserably?!?! Firing Malone, hiring Karl, firing Joeger and now this fucking rumor?!?! Seriously man?!? Come on!
I won’t root for them to lose, I’ll just lose interest. It was difficult enough trying to support the team with a scumbag like Walton as head coach. I don’t need to add “staggering hypocrite” on top of it.
Mark Jackson is a terrible person. I don’t give a shit if he’s the next coming of Greg Popovich, I won’t be able to reconcile my passion for the team with the people hired to run it.
I’m hopeful that McNair will have final say.
I’ll root for them to lose. Maybe I’m being petty, but I don’t give a fuck.
Walton was a scumbag and a bad, disinterested coach.
Mark Jackson- don’t trust him at all and I don’t think he is a good coach.
Brown will command attention. Jackson will command giggles.
Vivek, do you really want this hire on your shoulders? This is why you have a GM. Let him succeed or fail, you just collect the money and sit court side and watch good basketball while being happy and hanging out with celebrities. It’s simple. Why would you want to make your life difficult and ruin your reputation in the city you have so much invested in? Pleas man, I beg you, let Monte make the hire of Mike Brown and let’s go into the season on a positive note and hopeful for a playoff birth. Please don’t force Kings fans to actively root against you instead of rooting for the success of their favorite team that they have so much love for. Please.
I see what you’re saying, but I don’t really see how Ranadive’s reputation in Sacramento can get any worse, short of attempting to relocate.
Which I don’t think for a minute is actually being considered.
It’s crazy to feel like my entire Kings Fandom is based on this final decision alone, but here I am. We will have final confirmation of who makes the decisions and I’m not going to support Vivek any longer if somehow Jackson gets the job.
How can anyone be supporting Vivek before this decision.
He has taken a team WE caught to keep. WE are the reason this team stayed.
Vivek has proceeded to shit on fans and the entire franchise by doing what he wants.
Ding, ding, ding.
I root for each game to be an embarrassing loss so that someday the owner loses interest and sells. Since it’s the Kings of course, I expect the latter to never actually happen, so I just focus on the embarrassing losses.
So Jackson is Vivek’s favorite, even though he supposedly wasn’t part of the interview. Why even have interviews then, if Vivek is just going to choose the guy because he coached Steph, and Steph liked him?
Apparently, the man upstairs is on Jackson’s side.
Stephie liked him because they both shared some personal beliefs. But that does not make a good coach. .
The man upstairs is Greg Lukenbill with a bucket- he likes Jackson?
B/R reporting Jackson as the favorite for the job.
Found Jim Crandall’s burner
Already so much drama and jackson is not even the coach. Imagining if he does become the head coach, what kind of chaos would that bring to this team…
So it looks like we’re getting Mark Jackson then.
Just lovely….this fucking team….
What’s the response if the Jackson led Kings are over .500 at the halfway point?
Viral menginitis, or one of the other 7 biblical plagues.
Then we’ll try an exorcism of Barnes, gild Jeremy Lamb and worship him in absence of a calf, and bathe Fox’s ankle “situation” in a mixture of holy water and Zing vodka.
Oh yeah! And maybe donkeys will fly out of my ASS.
Could you imagine if Steph injured his ankle running around that church after mark Jackson’s laying of the hands bit?
“Back in my day when the Kings last finished a season over .500 we still were using rabbit ear TVs!”
same as the response if Bagley is better than Luka
Lol
The response is “wake me when you get the postseason. No, the play-in doesn’t count. And yes, you have to do it more than once.”
The same response we gave Rondo for leading the league in assists while playing for the Kings.
I thought Vivek does not like Jackson? I’ve been listening to James Ham on his podcast and he was saying that Vivek keeps telling people that Mike Malone was the brain trust behind the Warriors success and not Jackson. IMO, it sounded like Vivek is not that impressed with Jackson so not sure how accurate this report is.
Also, I thought Jackson and Clifford already had their 2nd interview with the Kings? and Mike Brown is the only one left who had not have a 2nd interview yet because they are currently in Memphis for Games 1 and 2.
I could easily see why Monte and Wes favors Brown or even Clifford. Monte is known for working closely with the coach and Jackson is known to doesn’t want to have any interference coming from the F.O so that dynamic wouldn’t work with Monte.
It would be really interesting to see who gets hired.. My money would be on Clifford since he is the middle ground. Monte wants Brown. Vivek wants Jackson.. The compromise would be Clifford.
I think a more likely compromise is; fire McNair, hire Jackson.
James Ham is a super nice guy sincerely a great person. But I had multiple instances in the past that he would be reporting what he was being told vs what was actually out there. James used to shill hard af.
Also why this place meaning TKH is so amazing. Can keep a community that is miserable together and also deliver articles and content that while not all of us might agree on is usually way more accurate and well done vs apparatus that the Hamster was a part of.
I don’t see why Monte would have to compromise. It’s his job to hire the coach. Owner hires GM. GM hires coach. Simple.
simple to you and to me but to Vivek ? not so fast buster.
At this point, it almost seems inevitable that whatever decision Vivek makes is the exact opposite of the one that’s right. It’s kinda incredible.
He is consistent.
He’s a dick
You say tomato. I say tomato.
What do you have against dicks, which are generally harmless and useful????
fun to hang around with.
I will go full Ziller if Vivek does this. I cannot take it anymore.
Becoming a Warriors fan will be easy. So will rooting for Fox and Sabonis to escape to actual basketball teams.
I’m literally starting to question whether this man keeping the team here was worth what he has done to it.
Weighing our Kangz fandom:
This is what I’m saying. The way I feel at the moment I will actively root for the kings to lose all their games from day one and hope every player most importantly Fox and Sabonis demand a trade. It’s crazy, I’ve been supportive all these years and I have mostly remained positive and hopeful for all kinds of things. This though, this is another level of bullshit that I just won’t be handle the same way. I will happily root for them to lose and be shitty. Why will this Jackson thing be the one that will potentially change a life time of fandom you ask? #1.) it’s hypocritical to hire this guy with the history he has. That’s maybe the biggest factor. 2.) everyone knows how crucial this hire is and to choose the most controversial choice by anyone who pays any attention to the NBA makes absolutely ZERO SENSE!!! ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3.) it would feel like a literal slap in the face/a middle finger to at minimum Half of all kings fans. I’m not cool with that. You want to be a dick and make a dick move? Guess what, you can expect an emotional reaction to that.
firing Malone because you had bad people giving you bad advice is unfortunate and I can give you the benefit of the doubt. Doing the same with hiring Karl and I can do the same thing. Forgive the egregious mistake that had good intentions but failed miserably. Picking Stauskus, going against obvious choice of Luka are all mistakes. Mistakes, are expected and forgivable. So many is pretty tough but they’re forgivable. Hiring Jackson against the advice of your GM who supposedly “has complete control” while also knowing it will alienate half your fan base is one thing and one thing only. Fucked up.
if Vivek hires Jackson he is being an asshole. Be an asshole to people and see how they react. It’s that simple.
don’t hire Jackson and I’ll give Vivek credit for doing the right thing. I’ll still have some support and hope for the guy and the team.
I fucking dare you, Vivek.
Honest question for you, Mr. Ranadive:
Would you let Mark Jackson spend time alone with your daughter?
Just thought of another: You’re aware that Mark Jackson believes that you’re going to hell for having beliefs different than his own?
Maybe he can hire KJ to replace McNair so there’s synergy between the coach and FO.
no, and I don’t even have a daughter- but the thought of it.
Jackson has some beliefs that- to be kind- are a bit out there- off the normal brain grid so to speak. That has to seep into his coaching. Those who have off the grid personal beliefs often get their calling from those beliefs. It is fine to believe most anything, but a coach has to focus on the team and players and not seen them through a special lens. I wish Jackson would just lay his hands on the doorknob and leave.
Looking on the bright side here (hard as a Kings fan, I know), if McNair hires Brown then that would give the fanbase confidence that Vivek ISN’T meddling, right? I’m not questioning or doubting his history of past meddling. But if McNair is able to choose his guy then that is a serious sign of progress with respect to Vivek keeping his distance. Especially in this scenario because of his ties to and fondness for Mark Jackson.
Stakes are raised all around for this hiring. This decision is going to be very revealing about the decision making process.
Who knows?
Maybe Vivek will let him hire Brown, but block trades and only give them both this one year to reach the play-offs or find other ways to undermine the decision?
When was it that Vlade celebrated that he finally had a free hand?
Agreed. Either way Monte is screwed. He hires Jackson and he is in Vivek’s goodwill and probably get a longer leech. If he hires his guy Brown, Vivek might give him a mandate about getting the playoffs next season or else Monte gets fired.
Only way I would know that Vivek is really not meddling is if he let Monte hire Brown (if indeed Brown is his preferred coach) and signs him to a 5 year contract and extends Monte to align with Mike Brown’s contract.
Longer leech? Sounds right.
That must suck.
Mistake after mistake. I wonder what needs to happen in a situation for the NBA to step in and to say enough is enough and takes control of the franchise. Obviously you have to protect the best interests of the league and it’s consumer base (the fans) if people start protesting the direction and ownership of the franchise and not going to games, I feel this may work. I wish there was a major story (espn, sac bee, or other national media) to start siding with the fans. Vivek should never have been an owner and I still wish burkle had purchased the team instead.
You say that, but…
“Fraud” is such an ugly word.
Buckle was a regular (rumored ) on Jeffrey Epstein Island . Why he backed out of several alliances.
“We’re still gonna get you, Mark!”
“Also, you were talking about Rudy Gay, right Mark? You didn’t want Rudy Gay in your locker room. Well, he’s no longer here, so we don’t have to worry about any drama.”
“You are possessed by a demon!
…which is why you regressed.”
“Please god, grant Harrison the strength to martyr his career in the name of my ego trip.”
The look on Falcon’s face says it all.
That’s the closest I’ve seen HB doing a legit scowl…and he’s played for the Kings the last two years.
Look at Harrison’s eyes: focused- a clear sign of being possessed by a Demon. and Jackson is trying to lay his hands upon him.
Harrison has put on some pounds since this picture- he ate the Demon !
Mark Jackson for the Supreme Court !!
I have to admit, I loved Mark Jackson’s character in Night of the Hunter.
These are all very funny!
Mark Jackson was Chris Mullin’s teammate at St. Johns. We all knew how Mullin had Vivek wrapped around his finger. I suspect something similar here.
Do we have a timetable yet to prepare ourselves for the Gut-punch that is the upcoming Mark Jackson announcement?
Next Monday
Thanks. I guess they’re gonna’ let us stew for a while. I’m so pissed.
Embrace the darkness.
So become a Lakers fan?
Monte is apparently meeting with Jackson this very minute. If for some reason they hire Jackson before the have a sit down interview with Brown (which can’t happen until later this week when the Warriors return from Memphis) then will have officially only interviewed in person just two candidates for the job.
If they are gonna make this a legitimate process, they need to have a sit down with Brown and I wouldn’t expect an announcement until next week. Anything before that is a Vivek train wreck.
Also, have new head coaches been hired in the NBA while still in the middle of the playoffs with a different team as an assistant? I’m assuming it has happened but I can’t recall one recently.
Kings trying to lock up Mark Jackson before any of the other NBA teams do it first!
Vivek sweating right now. Rumors saying Lebron and now Lamelo Ball wants Jackson as their next head coach.
This is from Reddit so take it with a grain of salt, but damn:
“You want it in chronological order? I don’t have the full list (there’s just way too much stuff to remember off the top of my head), but here goes.
Not to mention that he was just a really horrible coach. I’m sure I left out a lot of stuff.
Edit: I see you guys asking for a source on the Barnes Demon thing. One source is a message board post where a guy said he talked to Darren Erman in a bar, and Erman told him the story. The second (the one I personally believe) source is a Warriors reporter telling me this personally. I can’t give you guys proof of this since he told it to me, so you’ll have to take it w/ a grain of salt. I don’t expect you guys to trust some random guy’s word online, so make of it what you will. But to me that’s 2 sources (one personal, which makes it more believable to me).
I forgot some more post-coaching shitty things he did:
Yeah, but aside from that?
Maybe this fits in with Vivek’s approach of having advisors to himself, aside from the actual GM.
Also notice that erman has continuously been in the league as an assistant head coach since Jackson fired him.
Possessed by a demon …???
It’s crazy enough, it just might work.
that’s it?
and insisting that he needed to leave practice to go preach.
Anyone else think the head coaching decision should be made on AFTER the lottery, just in case the Kings land at top 3 pick. That might affect what kind of coach you would want, right?
We just want a coach who won’t take the ball out of Fox’ hands. The rest is immaterial.
No because a coach like Mark Jackson and his qualifications are in such high demand, you must jump on hiring them before you lose them to the top 5 teams in the NBA ????????????
This is a mastermind plan by Vivek. It is a win-win for him no matter the choice.
He thinks Jackson is the better option, so if Brown is hired and fails, Vivek can say that he Brown was not his choice and the fire the GM. Which would lead to somehow getting Mark Jackson to eventually become the coach…
If Brown is hired and wins, Vivek gets to sit back and say that he trusted his GM all along and Monte calls the shots. Vivek takes credit for hiring a smart GM that brings winning back to Sacramrento.
Or something like that…
I can live with that. I don’t know if Brown or anyone else can lead a team to success, but the GM has to be allowed control, not just as a convenient fall guy, but as a person hired to get positive results. If it doesn’t work out, it’s on the GM, whether it’s because of decisions made/not made, or bad luck.
There was no point in firing Divac if his replacement doesn’t have autonomy in hiring decisions. McNair is a bright guy, so if Jackson is hired over his objections, it won’t matter if the team gets better or not. He’ll either be hanged over decisions that weren’t his, or if there is improvement, it’ll be understood that in many important ways, he’s merely a figurehead.
If I was in that situation, I’d be calling Morey and the rest of the league’s GMs, asking about a place to make a soft landing after resigning from the Kings. Mark Jackson as head coach is a no-win scenario for Monte McNair.
I think what Ranadive wants, based on my read of him Sims, is to say, if Mike Brown doesn’t work out, that he wanted Mark Jackson and looking how swimmingly it went in ‘Charlotte, LA’, wherever he ends up. That coulda been us!
Of course many people will continue to assume that Vivek Ranadive doesn’t know shit about NBA basketball and is an asshat when it comes to basketball operations. But that won’t stop him from putting out his bullshit that he knows all the right moves. In some ways, Vivek Ranadive as Sacramento Kings owner is a beautiful idiot.
Jackson getting a five-year, sixty million dollar deal to take charge of the Lakers is the single best outcome I can imagine.
Me too.
We lead the league in expecting the next hire to wash away the disfunction.
The track record of this franchise under his ownership clearly shows he’s been meddling and continues to do so.
There is no way that thru several changes in the front office and advisors and whatnot the same mistakes keep being made.
For what it’s worth I think everyone has been able to “make their own choices” under employment of Vivek. But I think all of them have gone to him for counsel and taken his advice to keep themselves employed. When Shaka-con stops listening they leave.
It’s been the same pattern every single year.
Of course he does…….of course he does….SMH
Well, once the Jackson hiring is official I guess I’ll be making a trip to Goodwill with some Kings apparel I won’t be needing anymore. Even if they hire Brown or Clifford (which they won’t), I’m not sure I have the energy to support this organization any more.
Goodwill won’t accept it????
Kings gear, just as popular as a bus full of muffin stumps!
The only reason to follow the Kings the last 2 seasons is the Herald and the talented writers and knowledgeable NBA fans . I have now became an NBA fan more than a Kings fan and my life is more balanced . It happened slowly but surely .
FWIW, Goodwill isn’t a good organization to support.
So, the billionaire coached his daughter’s high school team to some kind of championship and in his ego-infested mind, that made him a basketball genius. So, he bought a team and meddles in how it is run. Heaven help us Kings fans. 16 years and counting….
I’ve seen a few people mention that Monte is screwed either way by this.
Just for giggles, I’ll take the opposite position.
Not only do I think that Monte wins now either way, I think it was likely someone in his inner circle that leaked this info.
Why?
If Monte gets his man, it’s a clear signal to agents across the league that he is in charge, Vivek has stepped back, and the chaos is finally clearing. FA signings will be slightly easier. Trades may even be slightly easier. Unstable as Vivek may appear to be, he’ll give Mike Brown two seasons to turn it around. He has no choice, financially.
If Vivek is still pulling the strings and Jackson is the choice, it will be clear to other NBA owners/executives that anything that has gone wrong on Monte’s watch as GM will not have been his fault, as he clearly never had full control, and it will be proof that Vivek’s meddling likely meant Monte couldn’t fully prove what he was capable of.
Which means…much like Mike Malone, he’ll get another shot, and he’ll almost certainly be successful wherever he goes next.
It’s brilliant, actually. The Kings may lose (again, again, again). But Monte comes out of this situation with 2 paths to future success for himself.
This is a wonderful comment on so many levels. I hope other fans read it.
I’ll add a slight addendum to this. Do you think that much of the Mark Jackson talk is simply Vivek’s managing style to test Monte McNair’s resolve and his choice (in this case Mike Brown)?
While I don’t deep-dive on all things Kangz as many others here, I do recall an article from several years back that Vivek prefers a “matrix” style of business organization. (Which is an organizational model where subordinates “directly” report to more than one person.) This model naturally generates a certain degree of conflict, and proponents of it say that from this conflict, higher levels of creative solutions result.
Having been a part of these types of organizations multiple times, I couldn’t possibly disagree more. But I digress…
You bring up a great point that Vivek could also be testing Monte to see how he handles this type of conflict with his boss. Will he stand up and fight for his guy (we’re assuming it’s Brown, but it could be anyone in this scenario), or will he back down, take the second path I mentioned above, and eventually slink out of town saying “I just didn’t have the control I needed to turn things around there.”
I’m as anti-Vivek as anyone these days, but testing the confidence and resolve of your subordinates to see how strongly they believe in their vision is another tried-and-true business technique. And while I don’t exactly love this one either, I disklike it a lot less than the first one, and can even see some practical applications for it.
Or I could just be talking out of my ass…who knows? 😀
Yeah, I’m not a fan of the style either. I’ve seen no evidence it works at the NBA level, either.
If the owner is still treating the general manger like a freshman during pledge week, two years into his tenure, then there is no hope whatsoever.
If you aren’t going to respect your GM’s abilities and intellect, just find the cheapest guy available, because it won’t make any difference. You can dump the money saved into the community.
The games are on the court, not in the fucking offices.
This only works if the person doing the testing listens, which no one playing manipulation games with their staff does. What they’re testing is a person’s willingness or ability to get fired for a decision they’re going to be overruled on anyway. We call it getting Smailsed.
Here’s my thought. Since McNair and Wilcox have arrived, you have patterns of these types of leaks. Mainly, it comes from (Wilcox I presume) the Kings FO knowing that if they are leaning Mike Brown, or Steve Clifford even (and it doesn’t seem like they are with Clifford), part of the way to get Ranadive to back off the decision is to leak thinly veiled sourced information to a respected writer like Jake Fischer and let Ranadive see how the fans react.
The fans are going to react how they do (I’d assume more negative than positive) and I’m sure there are plenty of fans that prefer Brown to Jackson. Part of the strategy here is to leak that info out and let Ranadive see how it’s being received publicly as he is clearly sensitive to that type of thing.
Combine this with Joe Dumars likely being the biggest basketball voice wanting Mark Jackson, and I can see this being a hire where Ranadive gets to have his say on the next coaching search (as he is always wont to do). But ultimately McNair will get his way because he is in charge of basketball operations and has won out on power struggles with Ranadive before. And Dumars is now on his way to the NBA FO.
I’d be pretty surprised if Ranadive ends up getting his way if Mike Brown is truly the Kings FO’s choice. After all, the FO decided to let Bogdanovich go against supposedly what Ranadive wanted (who knows what Vivek Ranadive really wants though), and if you believe Fischer (and other media people) that it was McNair who let Walton go. (I don’t really believe this, I just don’t think McNair really laid it on the line to keep Walton because it was a McNair vs Walton situation at that point.) McNair almost certainly was behind the Sabonis trade even if other’s in the FO like Dumars were involved. (Politics make strange bedfellows after all.)
I’d bet it ends up being Mike Brown and thus the FO’s choice for the next coach. It’s a messy chaotic way of getting there, and that’s the problem with Vivek Ranadive. These things seem a lot messier, a lot nastier than they really need to end up being. Hopefully it works out….because if the choice ends up being Mark Jackson….hoo buddy. I just don’t see that working out well at all.
Despite the journey and what not, I think it will be Mike Brown. I think the FO more or less has as much control as they are likely to ever have right now. While Mike Brown might be interviewing for other jobs, he might not get an opportunity quite like the one he has in Sacramento (it’s arguably the worse roster to take over as a head coach of all the openings) in part because he has continued to interview for head man jobs while as an assistant for the GSW’s. He was passed up for David Fizdale, Thom Thibodeau for the Knicks and Ty Lue for the Clippers.
That all said, it’s a matter of opinion at this point. And if I’m Monte McNair and I know I have a limited time in that chair to really make headway after laying in wait for several years, I’m going to lay my job on the line to hire someone I’m comfortable with. That wasn’t Luke Walton. But a lot of signs point to that being Mike Brown and despite the ‘Forever Chaos Agent’ that will always loom around the Kings with Ranadive, it feels like him squawking a bit to make his voice more influential than it really is in reality to a large degree. Either he really thinks the FO he has should be running things, or he should run it himself. That’s what this article feels like. Vivek Ranadive cannot have this both ways no matter how often he may try to. You cannot, as owner, make important basketball decisions for your FO and then be able to successfully claim the results are your basketball people and not the results of your decisions.
I think, in the end, McNair gets his way. But that also means there’s a clock and that clock has probably a year and possibly two depending on what happens over the next year. And, in the end, if that means the difference between Mike Brown and Mark Jackson, I’m good with that. I don’t think Mark Jackson is the right fit for the Kings regardless of the stuff that’s been said about him (some of which is overblown). And that’s the real truth of the matter. Mark Jackson just isn’t the best basketball fit for this roster, IMO, The appeal, though, for Ranadive is that he’s a guy who prides himself on finding underappreciated data and maximizing the value of it. Or that’s generally the way I look at him anyway.
Would it be nice if this coaching process was less messy and had a few younger names on it? Yeah, it would be. Would it be nice if Vivek Ranadive being Vivek Ranadive didn’t cause all kinds of dry heaving among the fanbase? Of course. But in the end, it really matters whether or not you make the right choice. Because, whether or not it’s Mark Jackson or Mike Brown or Steve Clifford, or hell Quin Snyder, it matters whether or not you get it right. Monte McNair, fair or not, working within basketball hell, might just end up getting this right. In the end, will anybody care that the final candidates (assuming that’s accurate because Sean Cunningham threw a bit of shade on that on the Deuce & Mo podcast yesterday saying he isn’t really sure) and that the process will be a bit messy in how the FO got to those final candidates? A few will focus on it, yes. But it’s really not that important.
If Monte McNair thinks Mike Brown should be the next head coach, then so be it. Mike Brown should be the next head coach. This is perhaps Vivek Ranadive’s greatest test. Will he openly overrule his GM for a splashier, less likely to succeed hire? My gut says no, McNair continues to win those battles again and again. But, dat dere puddin’? The proof will be inherently contained within. Go forth McGenius!
I think that you’re right about Brown getting the gig, but insisting on making things chaotic for no good reason is disrespectful to fans, but also to McNair in particular.
Can you imagine being a billionaire and giving a shit about what anyone thinks?
“Kanye just said that you’re stupid!”
“Great, great! Send him a crispy hundo!”
While I don’t know you Sims, I feel comfortable saying this: You’re a human being. With relatively normal responses and such. I have no such inclination whatsoever to claim that about Vivek Ranadive. Thus, while you and I see his involvement and managing style to be chaotic and disruptive, he see’s it as natural.
Will this ever change? Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet the house or a peso, for that matter, on it. I don’t really think Ranadive is guilty of a lot of things outside of trusting the wrong people and just having a really counter-productive managing style. Those are just two really bad traits to have as a NBA managing partner.
The good news is I think McNair, Wilcox (and probably even Dumars to a degree) and the FO has set this team up to be a player in trades (even if the consensus around TKH disagrees) and hiring a coach who belongs on the sidelines in Mike Brown is a good first step. Draft a player (even if it’s at 7 or 8) who can help you sooner rather than later, make a really good trade, and trust that Brown can help you put it together. If you look from the 04-05 Cavs roster to the 05-06 Cavs roster, the biggest additions made were Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall. The year the Cavs made the Finals push (a year they won 50 games), their top minutes guys were LeBron James, Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao and Eric Snow.
I remember all those guys pretty well, but how many fans do? That’s not exactly a who’s who of talent to work with outside of The Chosen One. The only guy to average better than 16 points every night was Mo Williams…and he was only there the last two years for Mike Brown as he was acquired in 2008. JJ Hickson improved a little under Brown’s tutelage the first two years he was in Cleveland.
It is what it is. But that was Mike Brown’s first stop. Coaching complicated rosters built around one of the greatest players ever. I think Mike Brown would do pretty well coaching a Kings roster if he could extract a few things better from Fox, Sabonis and a few others on the roster. Would Mark Jackson? Maybe. But I don’t see the level of buy-in that would be there for Jackson organization wide that there would be with Brown.
But does Vivek Ranadive get that? Probably not. Monte McNair does, though, and I think recent history that says Monte will get his way when it ultimately matters (trading Haliburton, elevating Gentry instead of Christie) says he will this time too. But Vivek’s penchant for contrarianism tends to pop up at bad times and this is yet another example.
I hate how we get slices of information and have to fill in huge gaps to figure out what is happening. If Monte really wants Brown but gets overruled by Vivek then if he has any integrity he would resign.
Momma, there goes that owner again
Hysteria??…over the Kings…I really hope you’re life’s not that sad. Call me when we’re a playoff team…maybe hysteria then.
Well, I for one am shocked by this development. I mean, who would have ever thought that the guy who has absolutely ruined this franchise, would continue to absolutely ruin this franchise?
Welp… I am thrilled, quite honestly…
by my decision 2 years ago to stop caring at all about this team or what it does.
I still lurk around, but mostly to rubberneck at the flaming car crash that this organization is. I can’t help it. It really is a good source of entertainment, and it rarely fails to deliver something hilariously absurd. To ever expect anything else is just a fool’s errand.
I used to be a fan, but now I actually just enjoy watching the Kings world burn, and I get disappointed whenever they fail to do something stupid. I don’t get disappointed very often though.
Dear Vivek, PLEASE hire Jackson, and win less than 28 games for the next 2.5 years, then fire him mid season along with Monte, after Sabonis and Fox both demand to be traded while the entire organization melts down and everybody quits. It is your destiny…
Seems like hiring a GM for the Kings is just a total waste of money. Money would be better spent helping the community or something with Vivek here.
Badge Legend