Over the weekend, the Sacramento Kings made some sweeping changes to their coaching staff (not to the top spot, though), firing five of their assistants from the 2024-25 NBA season. The list of cuts included Jawad Williams and their lead assistant, Jay Triano.
These moves left a lot of vacancies to be filled. And on Tuesday, it was announced that one of those spots would be filled by a former NBA Champion.
Mike Woodson joins the Kings as Doug Christie's lead assistant
The first spot on the Kings' coaching staff to be accounted for is the role of head coach Doug Christie's lead assistant. Sacramento lands one of the most well-decorated coaches on the market in Mike Woodson.
Woodson is one of the few guys out there with even more experience than Triano. He played in the NBA for over a decade (from 1980 to 1991) before becoming an NBA assistant coach in 1996. He stayed in the NBA for a quarter of a century, including head coaching stints with the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks. Woodson then left the NBA game to be the head coach at Indiana. He parted ways at the end of this season after four years with the Hoosiers.
As the tweet above mentions, former Kings' spark plug guard Bobby Jackson will also be joining Christie's staff. Jackson spent a dozen seasons in the NBA, including six with the Kings. Jackson averaged 10.6 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.2 APG, and 1.0 SPG on 53.2% true shooting during his time in Sacramento.
Jackson has been coaching since 2011. He had two prior stints with this organization. Jackson was an assistant for the NBA team from 2011-13, and he was also the G-League head coach for the Stockton Kings from 2021-23. Jackson spent the last two years as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers.
On top of those additions, Perry brings his podcast partner, B.J. Armstrong, on as his assistant general manager. Armstrong played eleven seasons in the NBA, including the 1993-94 season, where he won the NBA title with the Chicago Bulls.
Armstrong has had an interesting journey since leaving the NBA. Unlike Jackson or Woodson, Armstrong didn't immediately become a coach after the conclusion of his playing days. Instead, he stepped into a front office role with the Bulls (special assistant to the vice president of basketball Operations). He was relieved from his duties as special assistant when John Paxson became the vice president of basketball operations in 2003. However, he did stay on with the team as a scout until 2005.
Armstrong eventually became an agent at Wasserman Media Group, representing guys like Derrick Rose, Josh Jackson, JaVale McGee, and Bismack Biyombo. He also eventually joined the podcasting game as a co-host on the Hoop Genius Podcast.