Basketball Hall of Fame member Joe Dumars has been named the NBA’s executive vice president in charge of basketball operations.
He begins his job next Monday and will report to Byron Spruell, the president of basketball operations.
Dumars will oversee areas that include the development of playing rules and interpretations, conduct and discipline, and policies and procedures relating to the operation of games.
He most recently spent three seasons in the front office of the Sacramento Kings, two of them as chief strategy officer. Prior to that, he was the president of basketball operations for 14 seasons with the Detroit Pistons, the team with which he spent his entire NBA career (1985-99).
“My life has centered on the NBA for nearly 40 years, which makes the opportunity to serve the entire league incredibly exciting and rewarding,” said Dumars, who turns 59 this month. “I’m looking forward to using my skills and experience to collaborate with all 30 teams on ways to shape the future direction of the league and help the game continue to evolve.”
The Pistons selected Dumars with the No. 18 overall pick of the 1985 NBA Draft, and he was a key member of the Detroit team that won back-to-back NBA titles in the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons. He was the MVP of the 1989 NBA Finals and is the franchise leader in games played with 1,018.
Although the Pistons of his era were known as the “Bad Boys,” Dumars generally is considered one of the good guys of the sport. He was the first winner of the NBA Sportsmanship Award in the 1995-96 season, and the winners now are awarded the Joe Dumars Trophy.
The six-time All-Star was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
–Field Level Media
