Kings Name Micah Nori Assistant Coach

--Team also adds Bill Pope as advance scout--

SACRAMENTO ---- The Sacramento Kings announced today the organization has named Micah Nori as an assistant coach, joining Brendan Malone, Dee Brown and Chris Jent on Head Coach Michael Malone's staff. In addition, Bill Pope was hired as an advance scout.

Nori joins the Kings after 15 seasons with the Toronto Raptors organization, serving the last four as an assistant coach. In addition to his duties on the bench, Nori was responsible for overseeing all scouting operations.

In his previous roles as director of NBA scouting and advance scout, Nori managed all upcoming opponent preparation for both the coaching staff and players. He also served as an assistant to the Raptors coaching staff from 1998-2000 following a successful collegiate baseball career at Indiana University.

As a Hoosier, Nori was a four-year starter and captain of the 1996 Big Ten Championship team. He finished his career with a .305 batting average and 127 RBIs, ranking in the top-20 in IU annals in several offensive categories. He went on to receive a Master's Degree in Sports Organization from Miami (OH) University.

In a related move, the Kings also hired Bill Pope as an advance scout. Pope spent the previous eight seasons as an assistant coach and scout for the Detroit Pistons after originally joining the team in 2004 as an assistant coach and video coordinator.

Prior to his time with Detroit, Pope spent 15 seasons as a college coach. Before serving the 2003-04 season as an assistant at Youngstown State, he spent six years as head coach at NCAA Division II Lincoln University in Missouri, where he was responsible for a dramatic turnaround for the program, including a 2001 Heartland Conference Championship and Coach of the Year honors. Additionally, the program was named NCAA Division II's Most Improved Team by virtue of winning 20 games following a two-win season as an independent.

Pope graduated from Kansas in 1988 with a Bachelor's Degree in education, where he also served as a manager for the Jayhawks basketball team and Head Coach Larry Brown for five seasons. His time at Kansas included five NCAA Tournament berths, a Final Four appearance in 1986 and a National Championship in 1988. He later joined Brown's staff with the San Antonio Spurs in 1989.