After firing David Griffin this week, the New Orleans Pelicans are expected to hire another NBA champion to take his place.
The Pelicans announced Monday that they have made the decision to fire their longtime lead executive Griffin. While Griffin, a former NBA champion executive with the Cleveland Cavaliers, had held his position of executive VP of basketball operations for New Orleans since 2019, the team is now moving in another direction following an awful 21-61 finish this season.
Shams Charania of ESPN reported later in the day Monday that Basketball Hall of Famer Joe Dumars has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Griffin with the Pelicans. Charania notes that Dumars is expected to finalize a deal with New Orleans by the end of the week.
Dumars, a native of Louisiana, had a storied run as a guard for the Detroit Pistons. He played for them from 1985-99 (spanning his entire career), making six All-Star teams and five All-Defensive teams. Dumars was also a major part of the Pistons’ back-to-back championships in 1989 and 1990, being named Finals MVP for the former title.
After retiring as a player, Dumars became the president of basketball operations for the Pistons, winning NBA Executive of the Year in 2003 and helping guide the team to the 2004 championship (still their most recent one to date). But Dumars’ reputation in Detroit cratered in subsequent years thanks to a series of bad free agent signings and a high turnover of head coaches.
Dumars eventually resigned from his post with the Pistons in 2014 and later became an executive for the Sacramento Kings from 2019-22. Since then, he had been serving as the executive vice president and head of basketball operations for the NBA, which included dealing with some high-profile issues of discipline.
Now it looks like Dumars will be returning to a leading role with an individual NBA franchise. Interestingly enough too, the Pelicans have seemingly been eyeing a Dumars hire for almost a decade now.
