Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey is stepping down, sources told ESPN.
In the aftermath of Houston’s elimination from the NBA’s restart in Orlando, Florida, Morey approached owner Tilman Fertitta with the idea of leaving the job and the sides quietly worked through an exit agreement to conclude his 13 seasons running the franchise’s basketball operations, sources said.
Morey isn’t ruling out a future return to the NBA on the team side, but he has become increasingly determined to explore what else might interest him professionally, sources said. Morey also saw an opportunity to spend time with two college-age children who are each taking a gap year academically during the coronavirus pandemic.
Morey will remain in an advisory role for a short period to assist in the Rockets’ completion of their head-coaching search, sources said.
The Rockets are planning to promote executive vice president of basketball operations Rafael Stone to general manager, sources said. Stone has played a significant part in the Rockets’ team building throughout his tenure with the organization.
Houston is also promoting Eli Witus to assistant general manager, sources said.
Under Morey, the Rockets have the league’s longest consecutive playoff appearance streak with eight — advancing in the Western Conference playoffs in each of the past four years.
Nevertheless, his final season on the job became engulfed in scrutiny after a tweet supporting freedom in Hong Kong led to China pulling the NBA off its airwaves and suspending sponsorship agreements with the league.
China returned the NBA to its airwaves for the first time during the NBA Finals.
Commissioner Adam Silver and Fertitta supported Morey, despite China’s calls for his dismissal. Silver estimated that the league’s losses in revenue could cost in the neighborhood of $400 million.
There had been leaguewide uncertainty about Morey’s job security since his tweet affected the NBA’s and Rockets’ business relationships with China, costing Fertitta millions of dollars in sponsorship money. Through it all, Fertitta remained consistently adamant that he was committed to Morey, calling him “the best general manager in the league” in an interview with ESPN on the night of the tweet. Fertitta never seemed to waver in his plan for Morey to continue running the Rockets’ basketball operations.
Despite the economic turmoil of the pandemic, Fertitta has publicly and privately insisted that he is committed to keeping the Rockets a contender in the Western Conference, even if that means elevating the team’s payroll into the luxury tax.
Morey has been the Rockets’ general manager since 2007-08 and have the league’s second-best regular-season record over his 13 years as general manager and 14 years with the franchise. He signed a five-year contract extension in March 2019.
Stone, who played basketball at Williams College and received a law degree from Stanford, has served as the Rockets’ general counsel since 2005. He was promoted to executive vice president of basketball operations in April 2019, briefly before former Rockets executive Gersson Rosas left to become the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ president of basketball operations.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon contributed to this report.