Inside The Kings

Kings Executive Expected to Take New College Position

Sacramento Kings Assistant GM Wes Wilcox has been linked to the University of Utah.

Eric Sperlazza

December 15, 2020; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings assistant general manager Wes Wilcox during the second quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
December 15, 2020; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings assistant general manager Wes Wilcox during the second quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
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Amid a season of change, Sacramento Kings Assistant GM Wes Wilcox has been linked to the University of Utah to take over as their general manager.

With the changing landscape of college basketball brought on by the NIL era, more and more teams are looking for general managers to help oversee their programs. In 2022, Duke hired the first college general manager in former NBA and Nike exec, Rachel Baker. Brendan Marks and Kyle Tucker at The Athletic wrote about the changes back in 2023 and the story is worth a read for anyone looking to understand how College basketball has changed over the past few years. 

With the NBA dealing with trades, free agency, contracts, and other business related aspects for a long time, it makes sense that college teams are looking to the NBA to hire general managers. The University of Utah is one of those teams, and they happen to be eyeing someone in Sacramento’s front office. 

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported today that Wes Wilcox, the assistant gm for the Kings, is expected to be the highest sitting front office member to take a college job. While this may not be something that Sacramento Kings’ fans had on their mind, the timing does make sense. 

Sacramento is in the midst of a season of turnover and the front office of Monte McNair and Wilcox has taken its fair share of the blame after Mike Brown was fired and De’Aaron Fox was traded. Since the Fox trade, the Kings are 11-12 and in danger of missing the Play-In tournament all together.

Conventional wisdom would tell you that the current front office probably is not going to be around long after this season and Wilcox may be trying to take things into his own hands before he’s without a job. Sactown1140's, Carmichael Dave sees this as a “jumping ship” situation and I have to say, I agree.

Wilcox has had an interesting time in the NBA. Back in 2017, Wilcox was involved in a strange racially charged situation with the Atlanta Hawks where he was disciplined by the team. Soon after, Wilcox resigned from his GM role but stayed on as a special advisor.

In 2020, Wilcox was hired by Sacramento as the assistant GM to Monte McNair and immediately helped construct the first playoff roster that Sacramento had in 16 years. Since then, McNair and Wilcox haven’t been able to find a way to fit the Kings’ puzzle pieces together as the team missed the playoffs last season and has an uphill battle to make it into the postseason this year. 

It might be in both parties’ best interest for Wilcox to try his luck in the college game with big changes likely needed top to bottom in Sacramento. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Monte McNair on his way out next either. 

The Utah Utes had a disappointing season, finishing 16-16 with only one win against a ranked team. Wilcox and new head coach Alex Jensen will have the task of bring the program back to the tournament in the 25/26 season if Wilcox officially takes the job.

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Eric Sperlazza
ERIC SPERLAZZA

Eric Sperlazza covers the NBA and Sacramento Kings for Sacramento Kings On SI.

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