Veteran basketball executive Joe Dumars is leaving his position with the Kings for a job in the NBA’s league office, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The league has confirmed in a press release that Dumars is its new executive vice president of basketball operations.
According to the NBA, Dumars will begin his new role next Monday and will oversee all basketball operations matters for the league, including “the development of playing rules and interpretations, conduct and discipline, and policies and procedures relating to the operation of games.”
Dumars, a Hall-of-Famer as a player, joined the Kings as a special advisor to then-GM Vlade Divac in 2019. When Divac was fired a year later, Dumars became Sacramento’s interim head of basketball operations, then transitioned into a chief strategy officer role following the hiring of Monte McNair. He had held that position for the last two years.
Dumars previously spent 14 years as the president of basketball operations in Detroit, winning an Executive of the Year award in 2003 and building the Pistons team that earned a championship in 2004.
“Joe’s extensive track record of accomplishment as an NBA player and team executive and the leadership and expertise that he has demonstrated in various roles make him a natural fit to drive efforts to further enhance the game,” NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell said today in a statement. “As a respected longtime member of the NBA family, Joe has developed strong relationships across the league that will set the foundation for success in his new position.”
Dumars is replacing Kiki VanDeWeghe, who transitioned into an advisory role for the NBA last August after spending eight years as the EVP of basketball operations.
Rank these great 2guards in terms of who you would rather have on your team if you could have them from their rookie season until retirement, Joe Dumars, Latrell Sprewell, Zach LaVine & Walter Davis…
I’d have to go Zach for the high end upside. Lavine could shoot 45 and 40 the next 5 years at 22+ per game.
Dumars is probably the most consistent and a great defender. I’d only go Lavine because of peak Lavine.
Sprewell was good in his time but always struck me as a volume guy.
Idk who Walter Davis is.
Looking at Walter Davis stats he was a beast. I’ll have to look at some YouTube to see him play.
Lavine has potential to be a A on a team in the way KAT is a A.
Dumars a B and Sprewell a C on a good team.
I feel like we saw Zach as the #1 guy on the Bulls & tho he was great he wasn’t able to lift the team to the playoffs. Spree on the other hand was the #1 (1b at worst) guy on a team that won the East. Granted that team was only an 8seed themselves but Spree was their leader during that great run & we’ve yet to see Zach do anything like that. Of course Zach is still squarely in his prime & has potential to add to his legacy in a big way. Spree was also a great #2 guy for KG in 04 when they had the best season in franchise history & went to the WCF.. Walter Davis in beast mode in his 2nd season vs the eventual NBA champs – link to m.youtube.com
Only knock I have on Spree is that he’s volume but low efficiency. Even being a 1b guy and getting 25 ppg it’s like was it the best thing to have a lower than great efficiency guy take more and more shots. Spree had balls though, but had some Monte Ellis in his game.
I guess team make up always comes in to play.
Lavine is like a KAT to me. Great on offense, always leaves a little more to be desired on defense. An A but not a true A as in those great players.
Now this Wolves team with Lavine instead of Don’t Care D’Angelo would be great to watch. Lavine and Pat Bev, with Lavine and Kats gravity, all Pat and Beasleys shots would come wide open.
I definitely respect that answer/reasoning. Sprewell was more than good for his time tho. He would be dominant even today or in any era tbh… Both Jerry Stackhouse & Walter Davis are NC guys that often get compared to MJ but they’re way more similar to each other imo. Davis was on some great Phoenix squads early in his career in the late 70s & early 80s but they had brutal playoff losses, especially this 1.. link to m.youtube.com
My #1 is Walter (Belongs in the Hall of Fame) Davis, followed by Dumars, LaVine and Sprewell.
Dumars by a mile … leadership, locks up the top (so valuable today), clutch, and has the 3 pt shot
One could argue Joe might hold more value today then back then with the game changing so much. Would be hard to find a better team fit tho than those Pistons for Joe…he was so underated to those teams and often gets overlooked
*Gives me the Micheal Cooper vibes for being looked past too much on great teams
Without those 2 the Lakers and Pistons rafters are probably less full today
Byron Spruell… Randallwood Elementary’s finest!
Dumars was a poised and quality guard and won a title. IDK what this change means.
Dumars was a tough guy as a player, but not demonstrative at all, quite conservative. He might view Dray Green as a clown, or another tough guy.
LaVine is definitely last. The people voting him number one probably have no clue who the other players are