As is the case in the NBA’s head coaching ranks, a handful of long-tenured heads of basketball operations have been replaced in 2022, a result of some offseason front office shakeups.
Oddly, since we put together last offseason’s list of the league’s longest-tenured heads of basketball operations, all of the major front office changes have occurred in the Northwest Division. Thunder GM Sam Presti is the only lead basketball executive who retained decision-making autonomy in the Northwest, while the other four teams – in Portland, Denver, Minnesota, and Utah – all made changes.
Among those changes were Neil Olshey being let go by the Trail Blazers after nearly a decade at the helm and Tim Connelly leaving the Nuggets (for the Wolves) after a nine-year stint with the team. Olshey and Connelly had been the NBA’s fifth- and seventh-longest tenured heads of basketball operations, respectively.
Although only one person holds a team’s head coaching job, that same team might carry a variety of front office executives with titles like general manager, president of basketball operations, or executive VP of basketball operations. In some cases, it’s not always clear which executive should be considered the club’s head of basketball operations, or which one has the ultimate final say on roster decisions. That distinction becomes even more nebulous when taking into account team ownership.
For our list of the longest-tenured GMs/presidents in the NBA, we’ve done our best to identify the top exec in each front office, but if a situation isn’t entirely clear-cut, we’ve made a note below .
Here’s the list of the NBA’s longest-tenured heads of basketball operations, along with their respective titles and the dates they were hired or promoted:
- Gregg PopovichSpurs (president): May 31, 1994
- Brian Wright holds the general manager title, but Popovich ultimately has the final say.
- Pat RileyHeat (president): September 2, 1995
Sam PrestiThunder (GM/executive VP): June 7, 2007- Bob MyersWarriors (GM/president): April 24, 2012
- Masai UjiriRaptors (president): May 31, 2013
- Sean MarksNets (GM): February 18, 2016
- Kevin PritchardPacers (president): May 1, 2017
- Jeff WeltmanMagic (president): May 22, 2017
- Travis SchlenkHawks (president): May 25, 2017
- Jon HorstBucks (GM): June 16, 2017
- Koby AltmanCavaliers (GM): June 19, 2017
- Lawrence FrankClippers (president): August 4, 2017
- Mitch KupchakHornets (GM/president): April 8, 2018
- Tommy SheppardWizards (GM): April 2, 2019
- Sheppard assumed the job on an interim basis on April 2, 2019. He was named the permanent GM on July 22, 2019.
- Rob PelinkaLakers (GM/VP): April 9, 2019
- Pelinka has been the Lakers’ GM since February 2017, but was below Magic Johnson in the front office hierarchy until Johnson resigned on April 9, 2019.
- James JonesSuns (GM): April 11, 2019
- Jones began serving as the Suns’ co-interim GM alongside Trevor Buckstein in October 2018, but was named the lone, permanent head of basketball operations on April 11, 2019.
- Zach KleimanGrizzlies (executive VP): April 11, 2019
- David GriffinPelicans (executive VP): April 17, 2019
- Leon RoseKnicks (president): March 2, 2020
- Arturas KarnisovasBulls (executive VP): April 13, 2020
- Troy WeaverPistons (GM): June 18, 2020
- Monte McNairKings (GM): September 17, 2020
- Raphael StoneRockets (GM): October 15, 2020
- Daryl MoreySixers (president): November 2, 2020
- Brad StevensCeltics (president): June 2, 2021
- Nico HarrisonMavericks (GM/president): June 28, 2021
- Owner Mark Cuban is also heavily involved in basketball decisions and ultimately has the final say.
- Joe CroninTrail Blazers (GM): December 3, 2021
- Cronin assumed the job on an interim basis on December 3, 2021. He was named the permanent GM on May 10, 2022.
- Danny AingeJazz (CEO/alternate governor): December 15, 2021
- Tim ConnellyTimberwolves (president): May 23, 2022
- Calvin BoothNuggets (GM): May 23, 2022
Information from Basketball-Reference was used in the creation of this post.