All eyes are on the North Carolina Tar Heels as they attempt to find their new head coach for the men’s basketball program. All eyes are also on the Chicago Bulls, who have had way more of an eventful 2026 than they likely bargained for. In the middle of all of this is Billy Donovan, who will have to choose between one of these teams, or he will choose to just do something else altogether. Things got really interesting for the Bulls, though, and it could play a huge role in how things shake out for UNC.
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Bulls President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf finally put their front office on notice. For those who aren’t familiar with how the Reinsdorfs operate, the family treats the Bulls like a cash cow rather than a competitive franchise, and they are very slow to make any kind of noticeable changes to the front office unless their financials start to suffer. That is why it is notable that in Cowley’s report he stated that back in January the Reinsdorfs told Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas to “pick a lane” when it came to what the actual long-term plan for the team was.
To this point of his Bulls tenure, Karnisovas has been perfectly fine getting into the Play-In Tournament every year, but his tone shifted after getting called out by ownership. Karnisovas proceeded to make a lot of moves before the trade deadline, but aside from adding recently exiled former Piston Jaden Ivey, most of the moves involved picking up expiring contracts in efforts to clear up cap space. For what, though? That is the question, and having to ask the question is the problem.
Because the Bulls are now in a predicament, and ownership is not convinced that Arturas Karnisovas or general manager Marc Eversley can fix it. Here is what Cowley stated in his report:
“Up to that point, the mentality from the Reinsdorfs was very hands off. In their eyes it was Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley who made the mess, and it was on them to fix it.
Less than three months later the stakes have changed.
Now, ownership is weighing if the mess has gotten too large for them to fix, and according to a source everything is on the table in the next 10 days.
First and foremost, coach Billy Donovan could be the most important domino currently standing. North Carolina has had Donovan and Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd in the cross-hairs since the coaching seat became vacant.“
It again must be pointed out that the Bulls saying “everything is on the table” is significant, even if that information came from a source. The Reinsdorfs have had no problem putting up with mediocrity ever since Derrick Rose’s entire career was altered by tearing his ACL during the 2011-12 season, and then suffering a torn meniscus during the 2013-14 season. Now it seems the Reinsdorfs have had enough, and it could impact Billy Donovan’s decision-making process this offseason.
There are four things that could happen: Billy Donovan could find out that the front office is getting cleaned out, they’re actually going to try to build a good team around him, and he stays with the Bulls. He could also hear this new, or instead find out that Karnisovas and Eversley are staying, and he makes his way to Chapel Hill. There’s also a world where Billy Donovan takes the Brad Stevens path and accepts a role in the Bulls front office. Finally, Donovan could just do something that doesn’t involve neither team, whether that’s coaching another NBA team or taking some time away from the game. What is the most likely outcome? Only Donovan knows that, but we do know this: how the Bulls decide to move forward with their rebuild issues could play an important role in what he decides to do.
Focusing strictly on UNC, the question becomes how patient are they willing to be while Donovan sorts all of this out, especially since Dusty May announced that he isn’t interested in leaving Michigan for another college job. One would have to imagine that Donavan ranks higher than some other candidates, but it also sounds like there are some potential candidates that haven’t been named yet. We’ll see how serious the Reinsdorfs are about fixing the mess they allowed Karnisovas to make, and the ball will be in Donovan’s court from there.
