Rod Thorn

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Rodney King "Rod" Thorn (born May 23, 1941 in Princeton, West Virginia) is the president and general manager of the NBA's New Jersey Nets. A highly-regarded high school athlete in both basketball and baseball, Thorn attended West Virginia University, where he was an All-American guard in basketball, as well as playing three seasons on the WVU baseball team. In the 1963 NBA Draft, Thorn was the second player selected overall, drafted by the Baltimore Bullets. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team, but was traded by the Bullets following his first season. After brief stints with Detroit and St. Louis, he concluded his career as a player with the Seattle SuperSonics (1967-71).

After retiring, he stayed with the SuperSonics as assistant coach and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in political science. In 1973, former teammate Kevin Loughery hired Thorn as assistant coach of the New Jersey Nets. The Nets won the 1973-74 ABA championship, led by Julius Erving. Thorn then became head coach of the Spirits of St. Louis (another ABA team) in 1975, but returned to the Nets coaching staff after the NBA-ABA merger in 1976, when the Spirits team was one of three ABA teams to be discontinued. In 1978, Thorn became the general manager of the Chicago Bulls and was instrumental in the team's selection of Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft. He served briefly as interim head coach of the Bulls in 1981-82. From 1986 to 2000 he was the NBA's Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations.

Thorn rejoined the Nets organization on June 2, 2000, and he was named the NBA Executive of the Year in 2002 after the Nets advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.

Preceded by Bob MacKinnon	Spirits of St. Louis Head Coach 1975	Succeeded by Joe Mullaney
Preceded by Phil Johnson	Chicago Bulls Head Coach 1982 (interim)	Succeeded by Paul Westhead