SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Sacramento Kings took little time to hire a new general manager, agreeing to a deal with Scott Perry just hours after parting ways with Monte McNair.
A person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Thursday that Perry and the Kings are finalizing a deal for him to take over for McNair and try to upgrade a roster that lost in the play-in tournament for a second straight season. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal hadn't been announced.
The Kings and McNair mutually agreed to part ways shortly after the team's 120-106 loss to Dallas on Wednesday night ended a disappointing season.
After snapping an NBA-record 16-season playoff drought in 2022-23 when McNair was named executive of the year, the Kings fell just short of returning to the playoffs the past two seasons, leading to the change.
Perry returns to Sacramento after spending three months in the front office as vice president of basketball operations in 2017. Perry was hired that summer to become general manager of the Knicks under team president Scott Mills.
Perry ran the team briefly on an interim basis in 2020 following Mills' firing before returning to his role of GM under team president Leon Rose through the 2022-23 season.
Perry spent more than a decade in the front office for the Pistons, playing a role in building a roster that won the 2004 NBA Finals and made six straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances.
Now he will try to do the same with the Kings after becoming the franchise's fifth lead executive since owner Vivek Ranadive took over the team in 2013. The Kings have gone through nine coaches in that span — including interims — and have the fifth worst record in the NBA.
One of the first decisions will be on the status of interim coach Doug Christie, who went 27-24 in the regular season after taking over when Mike Brown was fired in December. Christie said after the game that he wants to remain in the job and that he needs to "finish what I started.”
“He loves the team, he loves the franchise, he loves the city,” star center Domantas Sabonis said. “He's going to give everything he has every day. ... We were just talking that if he does get the job, what's going to happen this summer. I love Doug to death and we’ll see what happens.”
Sacramento won at least 40 games in each of the past three seasons after failing to do that even once in the previous 16 seasons but the Kings weren’t able to take the next step to be a contender in the Western Conference.
This past season was a big step back as the team fired Brown in December, traded star De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio in February and finished in ninth place in the conference with a 40-42 record.
It bottomed out with the blowout loss at home to the Mavericks on Wednesday night.
“It’s one of those things that’s just indicative of the season that we have endured from top to bottom,” forward DeMar DeRozan said. “It still hasn’t really set in yet really what happened from Mike being fired to now this and losing last night. ... This has definitely been a year.”
Perry inherits a core of Sabonis, DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Keegan Murray and Malik Monk. He might not have a first-round draft pick unless the Kings land in the top 12, which appears unlikely unless Sacramento can jump into the top four.
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FILE - In this July 17, 2017, file photo, New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry poses for a picture after a news conference in Greenburgh, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — In the aftermath of a fire inside a Swiss Alpine bar that killed 40 people celebrating the new year, survivors, friends and family members, the region’s top authorities and even Pope Leo have spoken to the public in remarks in French, Italian, German and English, reflecting the tradition of Swiss multilingualism.
Another 119 people were injured in the blaze early Thursday as it ripped through the busy Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest tragedies in Switzerland’s history.
Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.
Here’s a look at what people said in the wake of the disaster:
— “I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,” Laetitia Brodard told reporters Friday in Crans-Montana as she searched for her son, 16-year-old Arthur. “I want to know, where is my child, and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”
— “We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could. We saw people screaming, running,” Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday, recounting how he rushed to the bar to help the injured. “There was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can’t imagine the pain I saw.”
— “It was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, ‘Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?’” Eric Bonvin, general director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured people, told AP on Friday. “This place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,” Bonvin said. “Also, seeing young people arrive — that’s always traumatic.”
— “I have seen horror, and I don’t know what else would be worse than this,” Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was in Crans-Montana on vacation and rushed to the bar to help first responders, told France's TF1 television.
—“You will understand that the priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region's attorney general, told reporters Friday during a news conference in Sion.
Pope Leo said in a telegram Friday to the bishop of Sion that he " wishes to express his compassion and concern to the relatives of the victims. He prays that the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.”
— “We have numerous accounts of heroic actions, one could say of very strong solidarity in the moment,” Cantonal head of government Mathias Reynard told RTS radio Friday. "In the first minutes it was citizens — and in large part young people — who saved lives with their courage.”
— “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help," Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the position that changes hands annually, told reporters Thursday.
People bring flowers near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
A woman holding a stuffed animal, whose daughter is missing, gather with others near the sealed-off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People light candles near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
