Longtime NBA front-office operative Rod Thorn, 73, will call it quits in August.
Thorn famously drafted Michael Jordan as the Chicago Bulls’ general manager in 1984, and enjoyed a long successful career at the League office, and also ran the New Jersey Nets.
Thorn will walk away from his gig this summer as the NBA President of Basketball Operations.
Per the AP:
“When I came back it was just for a transition-type period anyway,” he said. “When I came back I said I would stay for two years and two years is up in August, so that’ll be it.”
As a team executive, Thorn drafted Michael Jordan in Chicago and built the Nets into two-time Eastern Conference champions. He said Monday he has no plans to work for a team again, at least on a full-time basis. […] The 73-year-old Thorn previously spent 14 years at the league before taking the Nets job. He traded for Jason Kidd and won the 2001-02 Executive of the Year award, when the Nets made their first of two straight NBA Finals trips. He spent 11 years as team president and later held the same position for the Philadelphia 76ers.
He then agreed to return to the NBA and stay on during the transition from David Stern to Adam Silver as commissioner. […] Among Thorn’s duties was to serve as the league’s main disciplinarian. He said his job likely will be filled by senior vice president Kiki Vandeweghe.
