When Vlade Divac boarded the Kings’ plane out of Orlando on Thursday, he had no plans to call it quits on his time as the team’s general manager.
Their bubble experience had been disappointing, what with the 3-5 record, a league-leading 14th consecutive playoff absence, yet another injury for Marvin Bagley III to deal with and all those damn Luka Doncic highlights making the social media rounds among the fans who were calling for Divac’s head yet again. But even with all of that, he still felt confident the Kings were heading in the right direction.
Then came Friday morning.
Sources say Divac had a phone conversation with Kings owner Vivek Ranadive about the future of the front office, and a major shift to their agreed-upon structure was proposed: What if, Ranadive told Divac, Kings adviser and former Detroit Pistons player and executive Joe Dumars assumed a larger role in which he would have the final say on the roster and the two of them…
