Spoiler When Vlade Divac boarded the Kings’ plane out of Orlando on Thursday, he had no plans to call it quits on his time as the team’s general manager. Their bubble experience had been a disappointing one, what with the 3-5 record, a league-leading 14th consecutive playoff absence, yet another injury for Marvin Bagley III to deal with and all those damn Luka Doncic highlights making the social media rounds among the fans who were calling for Divac’s head yet again. But even with all of that, he still felt confident that they were heading in the right direction. Then came Friday morning. Sources say Divac had a phone conversation with Kings owner Vivek Ranadive about the future of the front office, and a major shift to their agreed-upon structure was proposed: What if, Ranadive told Divac, Kings advisor and former Detroit Pistons player and executive, Joe Dumars, assumed a larger role in which he would have the final say on the roster and the two of them would work side by side? Divac, sources say, had zero interest. Despite all the criticism that came his way during his five-year tenure, he still contended until the end that the Feb. 2017 trade of DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans was the move that sent them on their way to better days. They avoided giving the big man a $207 million extension that was coming his way and landed franchise centerpiece De’Aaron Fox soon thereafter, and that foundation — even with missteps that had happened since — remained. So this notion of giving up personnel power, in his eyes, was a non-starter. Divac and Ranadive then decided to take a break from the discussion and circle back, sources say. Divac, who had told Ranadive he would not accept the proposal, told Ranadive that he would conduct exit interviews with his players in Sacramento and that they could speak again afterward. And so he did. One by one, they discussed the few highs and many lows of a season that was so tension-filled that there were signs of this kind of front office change happening back in February. Then after the player interviews, sources say, the two spoke again. But nothing had changed. Ranadive, who wanted Divac to remain in the diminished capacity, was intent on making this move. Divac, the Kings legend as a player who had made it clear all along that he needed full autonomy to complete this passion project, wanted no part of it. Their time together had come to a bitter end. Sources say Divac will be paid the remainder of his contract that runs through the 2022-23. As for a possible ripple effect on coach Luke Walton, who was hand-picked by Divac in April of 2019 and given a contract that also runs through the 2022-23 campaign, sources say he’s safe. Dumars will now serve as the interim executive vice president of basketball operations, with the Kings expected to take their time in a search for a new general manager. As The Athletic reported on Thursday, Dumars’ influence within the Kings organization had increased a great deal in recent months. Most recently, he attended the early Kings games in Orlando with Ranadive as rival executives who saw this new dynamic emerging began to wonder what it might mean. In seemingly no time at all, Dumars — who was hired in June of 2019 — had become a major part of Ranadive’s vision for the future. The irony of the Dumars-Divac landscape wasn’t lost on those who had been monitoring this situation as it grew more and more uncomfortable. Dumars, of course, was not the only Hall of Famer who won titles with the Pistons as a player in 1989 and 1990 and built the team that won it all in 2004, but the executive who infamously took Darko Milicic with the No. 2 pick over Carmelo Anthony in No. 3. For Divac, the choice to go with Bagley over Doncic in the No. 2 spot in 2018 will always go down as the move that led to his demise. Divac’s ascent to general manager was muddled from the start. He was named vice president of basketball and franchise operations March 3, 2015. The Kings had a general manager, Pete D’Alessandro, so Divac’s exact role wasn’t clear to some in the organization, including D’Alessandro and head coach George Karl. Sound familiar? In some ways, it was eerily similar to what would later take place with Dumars and Divac. By June, when the NBA Draft was set to take place, D’Alessandro had stepped down and Divac was in control. That would begin a pattern of questionable draft picks and free-agent signings. Before the draft, Divac’s first deal was a salary dump, sending Carl Landry, Nik Stauskas and Jason Thompson to Philadelphia in a deal that would be criticized for years. The trade gave the 76ers the right to take the Kings pick (which was finally conveyed in 2019) and gave the 76ers the right to swap picks with the Kings, which happened in 2017 when the Kings moved up to No. 3 in the lottery, but ended up fifth because of the swap. Divac’s inexperience with the inner-workings of the general manager position would be problematic with agents and opposing team executives complaining about having to deal with the Kings. Divac not adding to the front office would be a criticism throughout his tenure. Divac was determined to do things his way. The confusion and what league executives saw as a sign of Divac’s inexperience, resulted in the Kings having a limited number of in-person draft workouts, even when picking in the lottery. Divac had not been an NBA executive and had assistant general manager Mike Bratz as his second in command. Divac looked to add another assistant general manager but found it tough to add an executive because some who spoke with him did not want to report to someone they believed they were more qualified than to run an NBA team. Eventually, Ken Catanella was hired as an assistant general manager in April 2016. Ironically, Catanella came from Detroit, where he’d worked under Dumars. Catanella was well versed in the salary cap and contracts, which was a needed addition to the front office. Bratz would be reassigned to overseeing college scouting and would later leave the organization in Jan. 2018. Before hiring Catanella, Divac’s most significant addition to the front office was his former teammate with the Kings, Peja Stojakovic. Stojakovic was hired as director of player personnel and development and general manager of the Reno Bighorns, the team’s G League affiliate before it relocated and rebranded as the Stockton Kings. Stojakovic is now one of two assistant general managers, along with Catanella. The most experienced executive the Kings would land would be Scott Perry in April 2017, hired as vice president of basketball operations. Perry also worked under Dumars in Detroit and league sources said it would not be a surprise to see Dumars reach out to Perry, who left the Kings in July 2017 to become general manager of the New York Knicks. During Perry’s brief stint, the Kings gained a level of respectability because of Perry’s connections and experience. The Knicks, however, are also undergoing a restructure under new executive Leon Rose, and might be able to move on from what he’d called his dream job to reunite with Dumars. The Kings’ last foray into bolstering the team around Divac came with Brandon Williams, who joined the Kings in July 2017. He handled many of the duties of the general manager, but Divac always had the final say on roster decisions. Williams, whose well-chronicled feud with Joerger only added to the dysfunction of the 2018-19 campaign, was fired last April along with Joerger. Divac, who had yielded much of the daily duties to Williams during that time, did not like the perception it was Williams running the front office. And so, it seems, this brutal Kings cycle continues.
A NBA player and a GM job require very different skill set. There are people who can make that transition, others not so much.
That franchise is a mess. Maybe they should have ran those plays the owner insisted would work at the NBA level after seeing it work at his daughter's basketball game just to shut him up.
This is exactly why it works, the Kings are so proud of their kids that they want to share them with other teams.
