McNair prefers Mike Brown, while Ranadivé prefers Mark Jackson.
The Sacramento Kings continued their second-round of interviews for their head coaching vacancy on Tuesday with former Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson.
NBA insider Marc Stein reported on Monday that Jackson impressed Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadivé in his first interview, and while there have been conflicting reports about Ranadivé’s involvement in the initial interviews, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report reported on Tuesday that Jackson is indeed Ranadivé’s preferred candidate:
Jackson has long been a darling of Ranadive, who was vice chairman of Golden State when Jackson piloted the upstart playoff contender in the early stages of the Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green era. In 2020, Ranadive urged the Sacramento front office to consider Jackson for the associate head coach position that went to Gentry, sources said.
Jackson isn’t the only coaching candidate with ties to the Warriors. Current Warriors assistant Mike Brown is someone Kings general manager Monte McNair thinks highly of, according to Fischer:
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation believe Brown is the favorite among McNair’s front office. Wes Wilcox, a Sacramento assistant general manager, began his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003, overlapping Brown’s first tenure as Cleveland head coach from 2005 to 2010.
It will be interesting to see who ends up being named the head coach because if it’s Jackson, that would suggest that Ranadivé, not McNair, ultimately had the final say.
It’s not atypical of an owner to have a say in basketball decisions, but Ranadivé doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to his opinions on personnel. Plus, he hired McNair to do this exact thing and should let him trust in his ability to hire a head coach.
The Kings have a real opportunity to do things differently this time around and change the narrative surrounding their front office; we’ll see if they actually do it.