\u201cThey\u2019ve been wonderful partners throughout this process,\u201d Fertitta said while sitting inside the Toyota Center practice court that will\u00a0be home to the Houston Comets in about 11 months. \u201cThe Sun are a first-class organization. That has been and will continue to be a great transition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whenever there\u2019s an ownership switch of any franchise, change is a given. However, Fertitta praised the Sun front office and gave his stamp of approval for keeping\u00a0the key executive\u00a0pieces there intact. Jennifer Rizzotti, who won two championships as a player with the Houston Comets, has been the Sun\u2019s team president since 2021, so her tenure includes the team\u2019s run to the 2022 WNBA Finals. Morgan Tuck, who played four years with the Sun and won a title as a player with the Seattle Storm,\u00a0has spent the past five years in the front office, moving into the general manager\u2019s role in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are wonderful people coming over from the Sun,\u201d Fertita said. \u201cJen Rizzoti has been there for a long time and done a wonderful job\u2026 Morgan Tuck, who has been there for a few years, has a WNBA championship in her own right and has done a fantastic job on helping build that team and running the team on the basketball side. It starts with people and I couldn\u2019t be more excited, enthusiastic and confident in the people who are going to help run the organization here and the people that are going to transition over.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Comets likely will need a new head coach as Rachid Mezziane, who is in his his second season with the Sun, has accepted the head coaching job with a team in Turkey<\/a> whose season runs October-April. That schedule\u00a0technically wouldn\u2019t interfere with the WNBA season,\u00a0but it would be highly unlikely he would attempt to do both.<\/p>\n As for the business side of the operation, the Comets management plans to meet with the Connecticut side Monday and \u201cwe\u2019re hopeful all of the Connecticut people will have an opportunity to move here,\u201d Rockets president of business operations Gretchen Sheirr said.<\/p>\n The Comets did make one front office hire already, naming Kevin Pelton as the assistant general manager and vice president of analytics just before April\u2019s WNBA draft<\/a>. Pelton is known for his basketball analytics knowledge, putting it to use in ESPN\u2019s coverage of both the NBA and WNBA, but also working as a consultant for the Indiana Pacers from 2010-12.<\/p>\n \u201cKevin has been a great addition and a great resource to Morgan and Jen and their existing front office,\u201d Fertitta said. \u201cIt\u2019s simply that, he brings a different background that we were familiar with and has assimilated well into the organization and I would expect to continue to help them and will be a part of the Comets going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n