by Charlie O. Mallonee

According to Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, a major change could be coming very soon in the front office of the Sacramento Kings. Wojnarowski cites sources who claim Kings General Manager Pete D’Alessandro will be a candidate for the Athletic Director’s job at St. John’s University. D’Alessandro is an alumnus of St. John’s.

Multiple news outlets in New York City are reporting that current St. John’s Athletic Director Chris Monasch will be fired or will resign from the position. Monasch has been the AD since 2005 and has been credited with returning the school back to athletic prominence in the redesigned Big East Conference.

Monasch was responsible for bringing another former Kings employee – Chris Mullin – back to St. John’s to become the head men’s basketball coach. It had been rumored that Monasch favored extending the contract of former head coach Steve Lavin, but he was overruled by St.John’s President Conrado “Bobby” Gempesaw.

The sudden vacancy has led to immediate speculation that D’Alessandro might be reunited with his good friend Mullin at the university.

D’Alessandro – the Kings General Manger – has been relegated to a lesser position in the organization since former player Vlade Divac was appointed Vice-President of Basketball and Franchise Operations. D’Alessandro retained the title of General Manager,but he clearly reports to Divac.

With Divac being new to the job, D’Alessandro’s experience with the salary cap and analytics would be of great help to the new VP as he settles into the job. The problem for D’Alessandro is easy to discern. Who wants to be the guy that has to train the new boss?

It should come as no surprise that D’Alessandro is looking to go elsewhere. If he should go to St.John’s, the Kings can spin the story as D’Alessandro returns to his beloved university.

The question becomes if D’Alessandro leaves, who steps in to assist Divac as he gets his feet on the ground in his new position? What about Geoff Petrie?

Divac knows Petrie. Petrie was the architect of the great teams that Divac was a part of in the early 2000’s. Unfortunately, Petrie was caught up in the craziness that was “Maloof era” as it came to an end. Petrie did not become a poor judge of basketball talent. He became a general manager without the money and resources needed to build a competitive team.

Petrie would become a trusted consultant (think Jerry West and the Golden State Warriors) not a disgruntled employee who has been demoted in a very public fashion. Kings fans know and trust Petrie as a “basketball man”.Divac would have a mentor who is not looking to take over his job.

The problem with this scenario is that it makes too much sense. Kings managing owner Vivek Ranadive likes the new, cutting edge version of everything including his basketball team. New is good but experience is better when it comes to the NBA. It could be NBA version 3.1 instead of 3.0. Let the former great player and new executive work and learn under the tutelage of an experience executive that Divac knows and can trust.

Whatever happens next will be interesting. The front office of the Kings may not be very stable at the moment, but it is never boring.