Kings hiring Rockets' McNair as new chief of basketball operations

The Sacramento Kings have hired Monte McNair as their new head of basketball operations, according to Sam Amick and Shams Charania of The Athletic.

McNair has been a member of the Houston Rockets' front office since 2007, most recently as the assistant general manager under Daryl Morey. McNair was promoted into the assistant GM role in 2018.

A native of Oak Park, Calif., McNair worked at STATS Inc. as a researcher prior to latching on with the Rockets. He played football at Princeton University.

Like Morey, McNair is an analytics guy and has been a speaker at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

“Monte has been absolutely critical to the success of the Rockets over his long tenure,” Morey said in a press release in 2018. “His unique combination of analytical skills and ability to work with our coaching staff was a key driver in our record breaking season last year."

The Kings are hiring McNair out of a pool of candidates that also included Minnesota Timberwolves executive VP Sachin Gupta and former Atlanta Hawks GM and Cleveland Cavaliers assistant GM Wes Wilcox.

New Orleans Pelicans GM Trajan Langon, Denver Nuggets GM Calvin Booth and Miami Heat assistant GM Adam Simon were all candidates, per The Athletic, before each bowed out of the running.

The Kings parted ways with former GM Vlade Divac after the season.