SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Kings and general manager Monte McNair have agreed to part ways, two years after McNair helped end the longest playoff drought in NBA history.
A person familiar with the decision said the sides mutually agreed on a breakup shortly after the Kings’ season ended Wednesday night with a 120-106 loss to Dallas in the Play-In Tournament. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team hadn’t announced the move.
The Athletic first reported that McNair was out as general manager.
McNair was hired by Sacramento before the start of the 2020-21 season and helped put together the team that ended a 16-season playoff drought in 2023 when it went 48-34 to finish third in the Western Conference. McNair won NBA Executive of the Year in 2022-23.
The Kings lost a first-round series to the Golden State Warriors in seven games that season and weren’t able to make it back to the playoffs the past two seasons, losing in the Play-In Tournament each season.
Sacramento won at least 40 games in each of the past three seasons after failing to do that even once in the previous 16 seasons but the Kings weren’t able to take the next step to be a contender in the Western Conference.
This past season was a big step back as the team fired coach Mike Brown in December, traded star De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio in February and finished in ninth place in the conference with a 40-42 record.
It bottomed out with the blowout loss at home to the Mavericks on Wednesday night and then the quick change was made at GM.
The Kings had a 195-205 record with McNair in charge. Under his leadership, Sacramento made a key trade in 2022 to acquire star center Domantas Sabonis from Indiana for Tyrese Haliburton, signed Malik Monk as a free agent, drafted Keegan Murray and made the three-team trade this season that sent Fox to San Antonio and sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento.
Sacramento also must make a decision soon on whether to bring back interim coach Doug Christie, who went 27-24 in the regular season after taking over for Brown.
Christie said before the news about McNair became public that he had been given no indication of his job status.
“But this is where I want to be,” he said. “You guys know that. I need to finish what I started.”
The new general manager will be the fifth lead executive since owner Vivek Ranadive took over the team in 2013. The Kings have gone through nine coaches in that span — including interims — and have the fifth-worst record in the NBA.
