Springfield native Geoff Petrie is arguably the greatest athlete Delaware County has ever produced.

The two-time NBA Executive of the Year and former general manager of the Sacramento Kings excelled not only in basketball, but also in football and baseball at Springfield High School in the mid-1960s.

Petrie was drafted by the Washington Senators for his pitching prowess, but chose to play hoops at Princeton. He later became the first-ever draft pick of the expansion Portland Trail Blazers, and was named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 1970-71 season.

The Delco product, who ran the Kings’ front office from 1994-2013, is back in the news, after having taken umbrage with comments made by the team’s owner to USA Today.

“I walked in, and there was nobody who wanted to be here,” said Vivek Ranadivé, who bought the franchise in 2013. “There was no coach, no G.M. It was a ghost town.”

The Kings, however, did have a coach (Keith Smart) and a general manager (Petrie). And Petrie, who was under contract at the time, doesn’t appreciate Ranadivé saying otherwise.

In an e-mail to Deadspin, Petrie called Ranadivé’s comments a “sophomoric attempt at revisionist history” and that the “representations regarding Keith Smart, myself, and our professional staff” were “an ugly lie.”

Petrie also said, “I only had about an eight- or ten-minute little meeting with him (Ranadivé). I found him to be a very arrogant and dismissive little chap.”

Click here to read more of Petrie’s interview with Deadspin.