The New Orleans Hornets announced the hiring of Tim Connelly as Assistant General Manager and Gerald Madkins as Vice President of Player Personnel today. Per team policy, terms of the contracts were not released.
“Tim and Gerald are very well respected people in the NBA as two of the top, young talents in the league,” said Hornets General Manager Dell Demps. “Tim has a keen eye on international talent and has been a key asset to the Wizards basketball operations department for the last decade. Gerald has a wealth of experience in this league as a player and in scouting roles. We are excited and fortunate to be adding them to our staff.”
Connelly comes to the Hornets from the Washington Wizards where he most recently served as the Director of Player Personnel. Connelly’s recent roles at the Wizards as Director of Player Personnel including head scouting, salary cap and database management, player evaluation responsibilities, as well as assisting Tommy Sheppard, the Vice President of Player Personnel, with all front office duties.
The Baltimore native has traveled to five continents to identify top talent in the basketball world. Well-known both internationally and domestically in basketball circles, Connelly enjoyed a rapid ascent in the Wizards organization.
Connelly began working for the Wizards as an intern in the basketball operations department in 1996, and after his graduation from DC’s Catholic University in 1999, Connelly was named to the Wizards scouting staff as Assistant Video Coordinator. In 2000, Connelly became a full-time scout for Washington, and later assumed the head scouting role.
Connelly’s service to the game of basketball has spanned the globe in recent years. During the summer of 2006, Connelly served as a coach for the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program in South Africa, as well as at the Seed Academy in Dakar, Senegal. In the summer of 2007, Connelly visited Dublin, Ireland to help raise youth awareness of cultural diversity and integration through the sport of basketball, and to work with the Irish federation on future basketball related initiatives. More recently, with his brother and Wizards scout Pat, Connelly visited England in his personal efforts to aid the globalization of basketball.
A graduate of Towson Catholic High School, Connelly has aspirations to further his involvement in grass-roots basketball programs in his hometown of Baltimore. One of seven children and five brothers, each of Connelly’s brothers — Joe, Pat, Daniel and Kevin — played basketball at Towson Catholic; the powerhouse Baltimore program. Joe is currently a coach and teacher at Baltimore Freedom Academy; Pat is employed as a scout with the Wizards and Daniel works as an assistant coach at Princeton.
Madkins comes to the Hornets from the Houston Rockets where for the last two seasons served as the Director of Scouting. At the Rockets, Madkins was responsible for scouting colleges and developmental leagues. The UCLA product served as the Director of West Coast College Scouting for the Seattle SuperSonics during the 2007-08 season and as a scout for the New York Knicks from 2003-07.
The Merced, California native served as an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team at his alma mater, UCLA, from 2001-03 and at California State University from 2000-01.
After a stellar playing career with the Bruins during college, Madkins began an eight-year professional career in 1992 that included stints in the Continental Basketball Association (Grand Rapids, Rockford), NBA (Cleveland, Miami and Golden State), Spanish Basketball League (Joventut Badelona) and French Basketball League (Pitch Cholet). He was named the 1993 CBA Rookie of the Year.
