James Jones hiring sign of things bigger than imagined

When the Phoenix Suns announced that there was a press conference on Wednesday morning, one aspect of the event came as an obvious one: Robert Sarver extended General Manager Ryan McDonough’s contract.

But he made another announcement that came as a surprise, though a pleasant one.

Before the condensation could create a ring on the table, Sarver, McDonough, and former Suns forward James Jones sat down – and they didn’t bring a jersey out with them.

Jones has been hired as the next Vice President of Basketball Operations.

A former fan-favorite for two seasons during the early Mike D’Antoni era, he has since become synonymous with LeBron James, and Championships.

Tailing LeBron since the King’s move to Miami, he and Jones have appeared, side-by-side, in the past seven NBA Finals – tied for the fourth longest streak in NBA history. Although he wasn’t always a key component, and certainly not a star player, Jones has been a sidekick to James, while also building an extremely favorable image among the league’s players.

As the former Secretary Treasurer of the NBA Players Association, he was a strong advocate for players financial rights in one of the most important collective bargaining agreements in recent history.

On the court, he was also, a winner.  Not only did he win three titles, and the 2011 three-point shooting contest, but he unbelievably also never played for a team with a losing record in his 14-year pro career.

Each of these facts about Jones’ background build upon the foundation with which Robert Sarver and Ryan McDonough are basing the hiring of him into their future. A strong, active, and respected member of the league and it’s players, Jones is also someone whose reputation as a winner and a leader – even when not a star player – is something that precedes him.

However, while all of this is important when making the formal introduction of a former player who will be taking over as the Vice President of Basketball Operations, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 revealed an intriguing point about another reason that Jones would bring with him to the Phoenix Suns’ management team.

Noting that he had spoken to a player about the Suns’ hiring of Jones (who literally announced his retirement today at he same time as well), Gambo noted that Jones was also hired to help groom the franchise in it’s preparation of a superstar, or more, who will presumably and eventually be joining the team.

Jones is a close and respected friend of the biggest superstar in the world, LeBron James, and will bring with him knowledge and understanding of how a franchise should run with, and treat, a superstar like James – an extremely important part of building and maintaining a winning culture, especially in this day and age of the NBA.

If tanking for high draft picks and selecting future superstars is the first step in building a franchise ready to either groom or accept in a superstar, is hiring James Jones the first move of step two – the accumulation of superstars?

While Jones will have a role in the day-to-day operations of the franchise moving forward, he will also become an advocate for the franchise itself to star players who might want to join, or re-sign, with the Phoenix Suns.

Which leads us back to Robert Sarver himself.

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While several years ago he decided that he was going to take a step back from the day-to-day control of the team with the hiring of Lon Babby, Sarver has since maintained a relatively hands off role in the crafting of the team. This has become more apparent when the admittedly impatient Sarver has accepted and allowed the direction of both tanking and not signing big named free agents by Ryan McDonough, fortified of course by the General Manager’s extension. This is now an even more so a settled argument with the hiring of James Jones.

If he can allow Ryan McDonough to build the team the slow and methodical way through the draft, side-stepping the image problem by selecting potential stars who have no choice in their first career stop, the hiring of Jones further smooths things among the NBA player-elite by allowing his polished image to be at or near the forefront of conversations with those established superstars as they make their decisions about where to play next.

This is a fascinating step in the re-building of the team, and one that comes as an unprecedented step in the franchise’s history.

One that not only took foresight – but also a deft grab at taking a popular face from the past.