The changing face of the NBA’s front office continues.
Longtime league executive Joel Litvin announced last week that he was leaving the league later this summer. The league’s president of league operations since 2006, Litvin, 56, is stepping down after 27 years with the NBA.
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Litvin’s role as president of league operations means he works closely with owners.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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Litvin’s scheduled Sept. 1 departure nearly coincides with the planned August retirement of Rod Thorn, the longtime league and team executive who took the job as president of basketball operations in 2013 with the plan to stay for two years. Thorn replaced former executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson on an interim basis after Jackson left his job in July 2013.
“We’ll all miss working with Joel,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “Fortunately, to deal with the departure of a long-term colleague like him, we have an extraordinary team of highly skilled and experienced executives here to make those transitions as seamless as possible.”
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THORN
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Litvin and Thorn have been preceded in departure by Ski Austin, the NBA’s executive vice president of events, who left in October after 25 years with the league. In addition, in January 2014, former president of NBA International Heidi Ueberroth left her post, doing so one month prior to when Silver took over for David Stern as commissioner.
Neither Ueberroth’s nor Austin’s executive title has been filled by Silver. Their work, instead, has been absorbed by others, including Sal LaRocca, NBA president of global operations and merchandising, picking up international
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AUSTIN
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reports excluding NBA China (David Shoemaker is NBA China chief executive officer), and Danny Meiseles, president and executive producer of content for the NBA, picking up Austin’s reports on the events front.
Thorn’s replacement also has not been announced, but Kiki VanDeWeghe, who works as NBA senior vice president of basketball operations, is a likely successor.
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UEBERROTH
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No replacement for Litvin was immediately announced.
“Adam has an extraordinarily deep bench and is able to replace most anyone without missing a beat,” said Litvin, adding that he hasn’t yet decided on his next move. “It’s way too early to have any firm ideas about that, although running a not-for-profit is something I definitely plan to explore. But I’m confident there will be other opportunities that I haven’t even thought about.”
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Mark Cuban: “Whenever his name showed up on my caller ID, I knew I was getting fined.”
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Throughout his tenure at the NBA, Litvin worked on nearly all key league initiatives, including collective bargaining and salary cap administration, and he played a significant role in creating the NBA’s revenue-sharing program. He also worked with owners in dealing with a variety of issues.
“Whenever his name showed up on my caller ID, I knew I was getting fined,” said Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in an email. “Despite that little fact, it was always fun to talk to Joel. He did all the dirty work when it came to dealing with the owners, or at least with me. And while he was usually the bearer of expensive news, we managed to become friends.”
