NBA teams don’t replace their top decision-makers as often as they replace theirs head coachesbut there has still been a lot of turnover among the league’s top managers over the past couple of years. Since we last checked the longest-tenured basketball operations executives two years agowe’ve seen 11 different changes among the NBA’s 30 teams.
Although only one person serves as the team’s head coach, the same club may have different front office managers with titles such as general manager, president of basketball operations, or executive vice president of basketball operations. In some cases, it’s not always clear which manager should be considered the head of the club’s basketball department, or who has the final say in roster decisions. This distinction becomes even more nebulous when team ownership is taken into account.
For our list of longest-tenured NBA CEOs/presidents, we’ve done our best to identify the top executive in each office, but if the situation isn’t entirely clear, we’ve made a note below.
Here is a list of the NBA’s longest-tenured basketball operations executives along with their respective titles and the dates they were hired or promoted:
- Pat RileyZhar (President): September 2, 1995
- Sam PrestiThunder (GM/Executive VP): June 7, 2007
- Sean MarksNets (GM): February 18, 2016
- Kevin PritchardPacers (President): May 1, 2017
- Jeff VeltmanMagic (President): May 22, 2017
- John HorstBucks (GM): June 16, 2017
- Coby AltmanCavaliers (President): June 19, 2017
- Lawrence FrankClippers (President): August 4, 2017
- Rob PelinkaLakers (GM/VP): April 9, 2019
- Pelinka has been the Lakers’ GM since February 2017, but has been down Magic Johnson in the head office hierarchy until Johnson resigned on April 9, 2019.
- Zach ClaymanGrizzlies (Executive Vice President): April 11, 2019
- Brian WrightSpurs (GM): July 23, 2019
- Basketball president Gregg Popovich and CEO RC Buford are also involved in the Spurs’ decisions, but we view Wright as the team’s primary basketball executive.
- Leon RoseNix (President): March 2, 2020
- Raphael StoneRockets (GM): October 15, 2020
- Brad StevensCeltics (President): June 2, 2021
- Joe CroninTrail Blazers (GM): December 3, 2021
- Cronin took over on an interim basis on 3 December 2021. He was appointed permanent CEO on 10 May 2022.
- Tim ConnellyTimberwolves (President): May 23, 2022
- Michael WingerWizards (President): May 25, 2023
- Mike Dunleavy JrWarriors (GM): June 16, 2023
- Jeff PetersonHornets (Executive Vice President): March 5, 2024
- Troyan LangdonPistons (President): May 31, 2024
- Ben TenzerNuggets (GM): April 14, 2025
- Tenzer assumed the job on an interim basis on April 14, 2025 named executive vice president of basketball operations on June 23, 2025 and is considered co-CEO Jonathan Wallacewhose title is executive vice president of player personnel.
- Joe DumarsPelicans (Executive Vice President): April 16, 2025
- Onsi SalehHawkes (President): April 21, 2025
- Scott PerryKings (GM): April 21, 2025
- Brian GregorySun (GM): May 1, 2025
- Austin AingeJazz (President): June 2, 2025
- Ainge’s father Danny Ainge has been CEO of Jazz and Deputy Governor since December 2021, but owner Ryan Smith said “it’s Austin’s show” after he was hired.
- Bobby WebsterRaptors (Executive Vice President/General Manager): June 27, 2025
- Webster has been Toronto’s GM since June 2017, but has been down Masai Ujiri in the front office hierarchy until the team parted ways with Ujiri in June 2025.
- Masai UjiriMavericks (President): May 4, 2026
- Bryson GrahamBulls (Executive Vice President): May 4, 2026
- Mike GanseySixers (President): June 4, 2026
Information from Basketball Help was used in creating this post.
