Meet Anthony McClish, the general manager in charge of the Kings’ development team

Long before becoming general manager of the Stockton Kings, Anthony McClish knew he wanted to be involved with the sport of basketball some way, some how. He associates his attachment to the game with some of his earliest memories.

“I would probably attribute that to my mother,” McClish told The Bee. “She would sit and watch NBA on TNT and NBA on NBC and all of those games when I was really little. I remember we would play one-on-one with my little Nerf hoop in the basement and outside. Ever since I can remember, it’s been a part of my life.”

McClish got involved with volunteer coaching at a young age in his hometown of Lima, Ohio. When he moved to Columbus to attend Ohio State, he cold-called the coaches of the women’s basketball team in his first semester.

He chose which staff members to call based on who looked the friendliest in the team picture, hoping to find anyone who would let him be a part of the sport he was passionate about. Eventually, he was told he could drop in during the team’s preseason preparations.

“I literally stopped by practice and never stopped going,” McClish said.

But while he has humble roots of Nerf hoops and high school volunteering, McClish quickly found himself working with some of the greatest basketball minds of the modern era.

‘Pop’ and Spurs helped mold McClish

After four years working with the women’s team while attending Ohio State, he landed a job with Impact Basketball in Las Vegas. There, he crossed paths with scouts for the San Antonio Spurs. McClish joined the Spurs as an intern for the 2012-13 season.

“The staff at the time was obviously Coach (Popovich) and R.C. (Buford), who are still there,” McClish said. “But then Mike Budenholzer, Brett Brown and Taylor Jenkins were all on the coaching staff, who are now head coaches in the NBA. And then Scott Layden, Sean Marks and Trajan Langdon were all on the management staff, who are now all current NBA general managers.”

To call that an All-Star cast of coaches and executives would be putting it lightly.

“So my one year in San Antonio I really worked with four GMs and four head coaches,” McClish said. “And so that’s how I learned. That was my college experience in the NBA, so to speak, my learning experience. And then I came to Sacramento and had to learn how to apply it.”

McClish was hired to the basketball operations team for the Reno Bighorns in 2013, who have since relocated and rebranded as the Stockton Kings. His initial responsibilities included roster management and the execution of transactions, but he was not in a decision-making role.

That changed as he was promoted through the ranks to the position of general manager of the Sacramento’s G-League affiliate in 2016.

“The role I have is unique in that I have to know all three levels,” McClish said. “So I have to be aware of college, G-League and the NBA. Because players go all over the place, and the trajectory and the path of players can be very nonlinear.”

Whether it’s a game day, a practice day or an off day, McClish’s schedule could look very different. External scouting, internal development, and financial management all fall under McClish’s duties as GM.

But transactions and analytics aren’t what McClish prides himself on the most as a basketball executive.

“The best part of my job and where I get the most fulfillment is watching guys grow and watching guys invest in themselves and seeing the return on that investment,” McClish said. “When the lightbulb clicks.”

Lightbulb clicks for one of Stockton’s own

Gabe Vincent, a sharpshooting guard who played his high school ball in Stockton before attending UC Santa Barbra, exemplifies the growth McClish is fostering with the Kings. Vincent spent the better part of two seasons with Stockton before signing a contract with the Miami Heat in January.

“He was injured out of college,” McClish said. “We’re talking zero predraft workouts. No summer league invites. No training camp invites. As bare minimum as you can possibly come from.”

Luck was against Vincent. He got hurt early in his time with Stockton and missed most of his first season. Under the guidance of Stockton’s staff, Vincent kept at it and impressed everyone last summer.

“He just believed in himself,” McClish said. “He would come off the bench, he would start, he would play defense. I mean he just did everything we would ask of him. And to see him go from where he started coming out of college to getting a two-way (contract) with Miami is everything — his journey just illustrates everything that we, organizationally, try to be about.”

Losing Vincent to another franchise was bittersweet. It hurt the team in the short term, but McClish says that the occasional loss of a good young player is the reality of the G-League system. Stockton is there to provide opportunity, and that just what the team did for Vincent.

The Stockton Kings have plenty of other young players to develop, including Sacramento’s two-way players, Kyle Guy and DaQuan Jeffries. McClish is focused on showcasing the strengths of his blossoming prospects. His team makes sure their best skills are on display, then they work to build out their games from there.

The call-ups come often for Stockton. Ten players from Sacramento’s G-League affiliate have landed NBA deals in various forms since McClish became GM, and that’s just the players who are claimed midseason. His group has had a hand in developing many others as well.

Trying to pay it forward

McClish stays busy at home and on the road evaluating and recruiting more talent to bring into Stockton’s squad. Sometimes he takes trips to scout players associated with the Spurs, like McClish himself once was, or even his alma mater of Ohio State.

If you catch McClish on any day, one thing is clear. He found a way to get involved and stay involved with basketball, just like he wanted as a kid. The cold calls and volunteer hours paid off. Now he tries to pay them back.

“I know what it’s like to not get a return phone call. I know what it’s like to not get a return email. And so I try to pay it forward as much as possible,” McClish said. “It takes people to help you. I got lucky. It took a lot of people to take a chance on me. So I try to appreciate that as much as I can and represent them as much as I can.”

McClish still finds himself in moments of disbelief. The kid from Ohio playing Nerf hoops with his mom is still in there.

“I was sitting at our last Sacramento Kings walkthrough before our final game before the All-Star break,” McClish said. “I remember sitting there in the stands and just thinking, ‘How many people would just kill to be in the building right now?’ How many fans would want to just sit in and look at this? And I get to do this all the time. I try to just appreciate it as much as I can and share it with as many people as I can.”