With the glory days behind him, long-time Detroit Pistons executive Joe Dumars stepped down on Monday as the club’s president of basketball operations after missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season.
Dumars, 50, spent 29 years with the Pistons as a star player and in the front office.
“It’s time to turn the page on a wonderful chapter and begin writing a new one,” Dumars said. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with some great people throughout the last 29 years as both a player and executive, and I’m proud of our accomplishments.
“Tom Gores and ownership is committed to winning and they will continue to move the franchise forward.”
Dumars, a Hall of Famer, will remain with the club in an advisory role and will be allowed to look for other opportunities.
As a six-time All-Star guard drafted in 1985, Dumars helped lead the Pistons to back-to-back NBA Championships in 1989-90.
The success didn’t stop there. After retiring in 1999, Dumars took over as president a year later, and became the architect of the 2004 NBA Championship team and another one that made it to the 2005 NBA Finals.
But the Pistons have fallen on tough times and haven’t made the playoffs since the 2008-09 campaign, signaling an end to Dumars’ long reign, especially after Gores expected a return to post-season play.
“Joe Dumars is a great champion who has meant so much to this franchise and this community,” Gores said.
“We are turning the page with great respect for what he has accomplished not only as a player and a front office executive, but as a person who has represented this team and the NBA with extraordinary dignity.”
Well-respected in NBA circles, Dumars is rumoured to be in the running for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ president position, according to another local report.
