Sacramento Kings general manager Monte McNair is the 2022-23 NBA Executive of the Year, the league announced Wednesday.
In his third season with the Kings, McNair assembled a squad that finished 48-34 and snapped a 16-year playoff drought.
In May 2022, McNair hired Mike Brown, who was voted the first-ever unanimous NBA Coach of the Year this season. McNair also orchestrated the acquisitions of Kevin Huerter (trade) and Malik Monk (free agency) and selected Keegan Murray in the first round of the 2022 NBA draft. Murray finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting.
Before joining the Kings in September 2020, McNair spent 13 years in the Houston Rockets‘ front office.
Sacramento won the Pacific Division but lost in seven games to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs, the club’s first postseason appearance since 2006.
Brown finished with 98 points in the Executive of the Year voting, ahead of Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman in second with 63 points and Utah Jazz GM Justin Zanik and Denver Nuggets GM Calvin Booth in a tie for third with 20.
The Kings have had the NBA’s top executive three times since the award debuted in 1973. Then-president of basketball operations Geoff Petrie received the honor in 1999 and 2001.
Reuters contributed to this report.