<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Sonics executive vice president Billy McKinney has left the team after nine years with the organization. His letter of agreement with the team expired on June 30, and the contract was not renewed. McKinney has been the color commentator on the team's radio and television broadcasts for the past three seasons, but when Fox Sports Northwest bought the Sonics' broadcast rights, the network also got the right to choose the color commentator. Fox picked Craig Ehlo for its 70-game broadcast schedule. But McKinney was also the executive vice president who said he served on five different boards. He was the organization's only African-American front-office employee. McKinney was general manager of the Storm for two seasons, a term that began with the negotiations that brought Lauren Jackson to the WNBA. McKinney initiated an offseason training regimen for players and even worked out players himself on the floor. He hired Anne Donovan to replace Lin Dunn, whom he did not want to leave as coach. McKinney was a candidate for the Sonics' general manager job in 2001 after Howard Schultz led a group of 75 investors that bought the team. It was a position McKinney foresaw as a natural progression from six years working in the front office under Wally Walker, now team president and part of the ownership group. But Rick Sund and Ed Tapscott -- now with the expansion Charlotte Bobcats -- were the two finalists, and Sund was hired for the job. The following season, McKinney moved to the broadcast booth, became the Storm's general manager and helped pave Jackson's entry to the team.</div> <div align="center">Link</div>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Shard:</div><div class="quote_post">McKinney was one of the only guys in the Sonics front office who isn't a moron.</div> Hear hear. Will be sorely missed - is he just leaving the Sonics, or the Storm as well? He has done tremendous work with that franchise.
I don't know what he has done as an executive, but I was very impressed with his color commentary. I hope that this loss doesn't signify more losses to come.
McKinney will look to get another job in the NBA <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Not long ago Billy McKinney was considered the next in line to pilot the Sonics' front office. But he has been jettisoned by the team during a quiet separation, and the former executive vice president and broadcast analyst hopes to safely parachute back into the NBA. "I've got a few things that I'm going to consider," McKinney said. "But there's a desire there to stay in the league. I'll admit that much." Prior to arriving to Seattle in 1995, the 49-year-old McKinney was director of player personnel in Detroit and he held an identical position with Minnesota during its first NBA season in 1988. During his first five years with the Sonics, McKinney's main duty was scouting, which forced him to travel 100,000 miles annually. His frequent flying made him an anonymous presence in the front office, but McKinney was the second most influential executive behind president and former general manager Wally Walker. McKinney was also instrumental in re-signing Gary Payton and built an encyclopedic knowledge of players around the league. But when Walker vacated his GM position and assumed minority ownership in 2001, the Sonics filled the vacancy with Rick Sund, which eliminated McKinney's chances of running the team. McKinney was delegated to community relations and sales and marketing of the Sonics and Storm. He assumed a larger role with the WNBA team in 2002, but his personnel-decision responsibilities decreased the past year. After serving as the Sonics' broadcast analyst for the past three seasons ? a position he lost when Fox Sports Net purchased the television broadcast rights and replaced him with Craig Ehlo ? the Sonics decided not to renew McKinney's contract, which expired June 30.</div> <div align="center">Link</div>
