Gersson Rosas' climb to the top of his profession has been a meteoric one, as just a decade ago he was a Houston Rockets intern working in the team's video department. Suddenly he's part of the Mavs' hierarchy as he comes to Dallas with the title 'general manager.'
Rosas, 35, is a native of Bogota, Columbia, and has a coaching history at the University of Houston and with the Venezuelan national team. He spent three seasons as the Rockets' video coordinator, in 2008 was the director of scouting, was director of player personnel in 2008-09 and from 2009-12 was vice President of player personnel. Last year, Houston elevated him to "Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations" maybe in part because other teams (including the Spurs) were considering as a GM.
Rosas will work under owner Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson, who has held the dual title of "President and General Manager" for the last six years. The trust level between owner Mark Cuban and Donnie is sky-high – even as Cuban performs his usual and annual "self-evaluation" of the franchise. Before Cuban made a late-afternoon appearance on the team's flagship station KESN to acknowledge the move, Mavs sources had been very careful to whisper that Nelson is "involved" with the hire, and FOX Sports was told Donnie will carry on as the "President of Basketball Operations" overseeing Rosas in the chain of command.
"We try to take pride in being one of the most technologically advanced teams in all of sports, not just the NBA, and to keep on pushing the envelope in directions that I wanted to go, we needed to not just add brainpower but organizational management and process power,'' Cuban said in the interview. "I asked Donnie to go out there and find out who he thought would be the best person to do this, and he came back with Gersson's name."
Nelson's body of NBA work is strong, but that doesn't mean a re-evaluation is unnecessary, obviously. Donnie is getting help here … but our understanding is the "help" will have the authority to push hard for change.
The club intends to make clearer Rosas' duties in an upcoming press conference to announce the hire first revealed by Yahoo. Sources familiar with Rosas cite his technological expertise, and his ties with Houston boss Darryl Morey strengthen our thoughts of him as an "analytics guy."
But consider Morey's quote from a year ago, when Rosas was elevated by the Rockets. …
"Gersson is one of the best basketball evaluators and executives in the NBA,” said Morey. "He has been key to the success we have had in the draft and all personnel moves during his tenure. He is one of the fastest rising executives in the industry."
That reinforces the truth of what Dallas believes it is getting here: A full-fledged basketball executive with experience in coaching, scouting, administration and even overseas connections.
