Minnesota Timberwolves executive vice president of basketball operations Sachin Gupta is leaving the team for a “prominent position” with Chelsea FC, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

Gupta joined the Timberwolves in 2019. Prior to then, he worked for the Houston Rockets in Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s front office from 2006-2013.

He then served as the Philadelphia 76ers’ VP of basketball operations (2014-16) under general manager Sam Hinkie before spending another year (2017-18) as Morey’s special advisor.

Chelsea has endured a disappointing run in the English Premier League of late, most notably falling to 12th in the 20-team table in 2022-23 with a record of 11 wins, 11 draws and 16 losses. The club improved to sixth last season (18-9-11) and has gone 2-1-1 thus far this season. It’s ultimately been a difficult stretch under American chairman Todd Boehly, who assumed power in June 2022.

The 42-year-old Gupta, who notably created the NBA Trade Machine while with ESPN in 2006, is also an MIT and Stanford Graduate School of Business graduate.

He enjoyed great success last year with the Timberwolves, who finished with 56 wins, upset the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals and reached the conference finals for the first time since 2003-04.

Gupta helped oversee that success, though, and was successful even earlier during his Minnesota tenure, per Krawczynski and Liam Twomey of The Athletic.

“Gupta came to Minnesota from Detroit to serve as the No. 2 in command under Gersson Rosas. He ushered in a more robust strategy and analytics department with the Timberwolves, building one of the larger staffs in the league. Rosas was abruptly fired just before training camp in 2021, and Gupta was elevated to lead the front office. He provided stability during a chaotic moment and helped lead the Timberwolves to their second playoff appearance in the previous 18 seasons.”

Gupta stayed aboard after the Timberwolves hired former Nuggets executive Tim Connelly to run the team in 2022. But he’s now taking on an entirely new challenge after a near two-decade run in the NBA.