He had uprooted his family of five only a year earlier, carting them from Utah to Wisconsin for a job as general-manager-in-waiting for the Milwaukee Bucks. Then, when the position came open, the door slammed in his face. After interviewing twice more for a GM job many felt he had been groomed for, he was passed over.
It was 2017 and Zanik, who prior to his Milwaukee experiment had spent his entire career as an NBA executive in the Utah Jazz’s front office, had two years left on his contract with the Bucks. He could have stayed in Wisconsin, the home state of his wife, Gina.