Kevin Durant’s Manager Rich Kleiman A Candidate To Be Next Knicks President: Report

The New York Knicks finally cut ties with team President Steve Mills on Tuesday afternoon, much to the delight of the disgruntled fan base. Now, the question becomes who will take over and lead the Knicks to the promised land?

For the time being, Knicks general manager Scott Perry will take over as President, but a permanent replacement will need to be hired in the near future. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne, Knicks owner James Dolan is reportedly considering “hiring a top basketball executive out of the player agent ranks,” similar to the way the Warriors brought in Bob Myers, and the Lakers with Rob Pelinka.

With that in mind one name that has surfaced as a potential candidate for Knicks President is Rich Kleiman, the de facto manager of Brooklyn Nets superstar, Kevin Durant.

According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, Kleiman has long desired to run the Knicks, a team that he grew up watching in New York. Berman also claims that sources have told him Kleiman would hire former Knick and fellow New York native, Mark Jackson, to be the team’s head coach.

It has also been reported that the Knicks’ preferred replacement is Toronto Raptors’ President Masai Ujiri. However, Ujiri is still under contract until 2021, and Adrian Wojnarowski believes the “process for a successor is likely moving faster than the time needed to wait on an Ujiri courtship.”