Morey, Rockets agree to partways
Daryl Morey made one last move that stunned the NBA.
After 13 seasons as the Rockets’ general manager — completing trades that shook the league, guiding the franchise through enormous changes and courting controversy on occasion — Morey stepped down Thursday.
The team moved quickly to replace him, promoting vice president of basketball operations Rafael Stone to general manager. Stone, who has been with the franchise since 2006 when he started as its legal counsel, is one of 12 minority general managers/ top executives in the 30-team league.
Morey, who had become the face of analytics in the league, said he considered the move for a month after returning from the NBA’s Florida bubble. The deci
sionwasmade for a variety of reasons, he said, but mostly because it “felt right” to leave the Rockets and see where that takes him.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while,” Morey said without citing specifics. “It’s been a great run. My son (Scott) is graduating from high school, my youngest. Timingwise, I just felt like it was time to think about other possibilities, family. Both ofmy kids are on gap years from college. It felt like the right time.
“Obviously, a very tough decision with the Rockets being so much a part of my life.”
Morey, who will officially step down Nov. 1and continue towork as an adviser on the team’s coaching search, said he wanted to leave with the right leadership in place. He praised Stone and Eli Witus, whomoved up to assistant general manager.
“I’m very comfortable with Rafael,” Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta said. “I met Rafael when we started working on this deal (to purchase the Rockets). From the beginning, he was always in the middle of every deal. I’m not concerned there.”
Witus, who joined the Rockets as general counsel the year before Morey was hired from the front office of the Boston Celtics, has been central to the Rockets’ decision-making on the basketball side for many years and became executive vice president in April 2019 after the departure of Gersson Rosas.
“I wanted to make sure the new leadership was in great hands going forward,” Morey said. “I think with Rafael and the coach choice … the Rockets will be in great hands.”
Fertitta said the decision was
entirelyMorey’s and unrelated to Morey’s controversial tweet a year ago in support of Hong Kong protesters. It was not, however, entirely a surprise.
“The last extension we did on Daryl’s contract (in March 2019), Daryl told me, ‘Tilman, I want you to know I’m not going to al
ways be here. I’ve been here a long time. There’s a part of me that still wants to go back to the East Coast,’ ” Fertitta said. “Did I think it was going to be today? This year? No.
“He also sat in the bubble for three months. You think about things. He also told me when his
youngest graduated from school. All of us have had different things that havemade us think about life and different things. I wasn’t totally surprised, because he warned me a couple years ago.”
Morey, 48, became Rockets general manager in 2007 after one season working under his predecessor, Carroll Dawson. He had been hired by former Rockets owner Leslie Alexander in a move as surprising at the time as his departure 13 years later and quickly led the NBA’s analytics movement.
The Rockets went 640-400 under Morey, never having a losing season and compiling the second-best record in the NBA behind the San Antonio Spurs during his tenure. Their streak of eight consecutive seasons reaching the playoffs is the longest active run in the NBA. His record as general manager ranks fifth amongGMswith more than1,000 games.
Yet the Rockets never won a title or made the NBA Finals in his tenure.
The Rockets advanced to the Western Conference finals twice during Morey’s years with the team, most recently in 2017-18, when they won a franchise-record 65 games in Mike D’Antoni’s second season as coach but lost in seven games to the Golden State Warriors. The team that eliminated the Rockets in the playoffs reached the Finals in five of the past six seasons. Three won the championship, including the Lakers this year.
After the Lakers eliminated the Rockets last month, D’Antoni announced the next day that he would not return as coach, the start of an offseason of tumultuous change for the Rockets. It has also been a year of dramatic leadership overhauls in the three major sports in Houston, with the Texans, Astros and Rockets all changing their general manager and head coach/manager.
Morey became particularly known for frequent roster moves and sometimes league-altering gambles, most notably for the trade to land James Harden, who went from Sixth Man of the Year in 2012 to MVP in 2017 and has been an MVP finalist in five of the past six seasons. The Rockets signed Dwight Howard in 2013 when he was the most coveted free agent in the NBA, traded for Chris Paul in 2017 and dealt Paul for Russell Westbrook in 2019.
TheRockets underMoreywere so active in the trade market that they agreed to deals at the trade deadline in 12 of Morey’s 13 seasons.
“There’s a time you take a step back and say, ‘Let’s look at family and let’s look at what might be,’ ” Morey said. “I grew up with the Rockets. They’ll always be a big part of me.”