Kings GM Monte McNair Joins The Carmichael Dave Show

The new Kings GM joined the show to talk basketball, his new role with the organization and much more

This week on The Carmichael Dave Show with JayMarzz, newly-hired Sacramento Kings general manager Monte McNair joined the guys on the air to discuss his new job.

McNair, who spent the last 13 seasons within the Houston Rockets organization, accepted the position of general manager and with the Kings last week.

The 36 year-old was a college football player at Princeton before jumping into the analytical side of sports. On how he can understand both aspects of sports–the athlete side and the analytics side–McNair said the following:

“Absolutely, I think that it’s a huge key, being around a locker room” he said.

“You learn all of the dynamics and how to talk to people a certain way, and then being in an analytics department for the last 13 years, you learn how to speak that language. I put it all together the last five or six years when I traveled with the team and worked closely with the coaching staff. I hope I was successful in trying to bridge that gap and be a liaison of sorts.”

After 13 successful years with a winning organization in Houston, Dave asked McNair if his expectations about Sacramento were answered during his interview process.

“From the outside looking in, the key thing was the talent on the roster,” McNair said. “That was intriguing. Getting in on the interview process, the ownership group, Vivek (Ranadive) especially, we speak the same language in a lot of ways, and I think that was really apparent during the interview process. That made me even more excited.”

During Wednesday’s introductory press conference, McNair stated that the team will push forward into next season with Luke Walton as the head coach.

On how he has evaluated Walton in his very short time with the organization, McNair said that he and Walton see eye-to-eye on the vision for the franchise.

“It was a big part that we talked about during the interview process, and we talked about it after, but to me it was clear from looking at the team and certainly speaking with Luke, that he’s a great coach. Our alignment is spot on and I’m really excited. He’s a younger guy, I think he relates well to the players and our vision for what the team is going to be is in lockstep. To me, it ended up being an easy decision to keep Luke onboard.”

Over the course of the interview, McNair goes on to share what he has learned from working under respected general managers Sam Hinkie and Daryl Morey, how he looks at the Kings rebuild and much more.

To listen to the entire interview, click the ‘play’ button on the YouTube video at the top of the page or listen to the audio file at the bottom of this page.

You can find today’s full-episode of The Carmichael Dave Show with JayMarzz here.

Interview with Kings GM Monte McNair begins at the 21:06 mark

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