Travis Hansen hasn’t been involved in professional basketball since he retired from playing in 2013, but there’s a chance that could change soon.
On Sunday, veteran NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported that Hansen is a candidate to become the Atlanta Hawks’ president of basketball operations.
The Hawks are restructuring their front office following a 40-42 season and losing in the Play-in Tournament. They have already fired general manager Landry Fields and promoted Onsi Saleh to replace him.
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In Hansen, the Hawks are eyeing a different type of candidate than the others Stein and Fischer reported they are considering. Hansen has worked in private equity for over a decade, while Calvin Booth, Monte McNair and Shareef Abdur-Rahim are longtime fixtures on the NBA’s business side in various capacities.
There is familiarity between Hansen and the Hawks, however, as Atlanta drafted Hansen out of BYU in 2003 and he spent about 10 months with the team before playing overseas for nearly a decade.
For roughly the last year, Hansen has helped Russian Egor Demin as he moved to the United States to play a season for BYU and now prepare for next month’s NBA draft. Hansen played professionally in Russian in two different stints during his career.
The Hawks are slated to pick 13th in next month’s draft if their position does not change during next week’s NBA draft lottery, which is right around where Demin is projected to get selected.
If Hansen gets the job in Atlanta, he would join Hawks head coach Quin Snyder, who was head coach of the Utah Jazz from 2014-2022.
