Report: Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace Pursued Kings Front Office Position

According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, Chris Wallace asked permission to speak to the Sacramento Kings about their front office opening.

NBA sources say Grizz GM Chris Wallace secured permission to pursue the Kings' recent front-office vacancy before Sacramento pursued Joerger

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 7, 2016

The Kings wound up hiring Detroit's Ken Catanella after talks with both Wallace and David Morway, then proceeded to their coaching search.

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 7, 2016

That coaching search apparently has centered around Dave Joerger, who was fired earlier today by the Grizzlies.

Sam Amick, NBA Insider for USA Today has backed up Stein's original reporting:

Can confirm @ESPNSteinLine intel that Memphis GM Chris Wallace talked to Kings about front office position before they hired Ken Catanella.

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) May 7, 2016

That being said, Wallace's message to Kings at the end of talks was that he felt connected to Memphis community and didn't want to leave.

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) May 7, 2016

That jives with half of the report by Chris Vernon of 92.9 ESPN, who spoke with Chris Wallace this morning.

Just talked to Chris Wallace - "I never interviewed for a job with Kings. I've been in Memphis 9 years, I'm not interested going anywhere"

— Chris Vernon (@ChrisVernonShow) May 7, 2016

Wallace cont... "This has been the best run in my career. Why would I want to leave? You can quote me"

— Chris Vernon (@ChrisVernonShow) May 7, 2016

And then there was this from The Commercial Appeals Chris Herrington

Think we're in a world of semantics on Wallace/Sac. But pretty sure there was no formal interview/stated interest.

— Chris Herrington (@HerringtonNBA) May 7, 2016

Sounds a little like posturing and some crafting of responses by both sides. Wallace has interviewed for the Kings job in the past after the ownership change and the rise of Jason Levien.

So someone here is wrong. My completely uninformed personal opinion is that someone was going to change from this season, because the team was disappointing even before injuries at the end of the year. And it would have either been Wallace or Joerger, or both.

Who knows? It still might be. Because we have never been entirely sure who is making the decisions for the Grizzlies anyway. So who knows even if it's Wallace making these personnel decisions anyway.

Meanwhile, check out the Q&A the Grizzlies out about from Chris Wallace about the coaching change. Fascinating stuff.