CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bulls fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley on Monday, ending a six-year run that produced just one playoff appearance.
The Bulls gutted their roster before the trade deadline. But Karnisovas and Eversley won't be around for the next phase of a revamp.
Chicago was 224-254 during their tenure. The Bulls entered Monday sitting in 12th place in the Eastern
Conference at 29-49 and missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
President and CEO Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement that Karnisovas and Eversley “led with a deep commitment to the Chicago Bulls” and that the change is “about positioning our team for sustained success moving ahead.”
“I want our fans to know that I hear you and understand your frustration," Reinsdorf said. "I feel it as well. I know this will take time, and I am fully committed to getting this right. At the Chicago Bulls, our focus remains on building a team that can compete at the highest level and ultimately contend for championships. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to move the Bulls forward in a way that makes our fans proud.”
The Bulls tore up their roster leading up to the trade deadline in February, dealing Nikola Vucevic to Boston, Kevin Huerter to Detroit, Coby White to Charlotte and Chicago product Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota in an effort to shake up a franchise mired in mediocrity. They hung on to Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey with the idea of building around those two. The Bulls have the salary-cap room to make some big moves this offseason.
“Being in the middle is what we don’t want to do,” Karnisovas said at the time. “I think we’ve seen that for the past four years and we want to change that.”
That's mostly where the franchise has been since Karnisovas was hired out of Denver's front office in April 2020. The Bulls brought in Eversley from Philadelphia a few weeks later and hired coach Billy Donovan that September. Donovan's future is uncertain.
The Bulls' lone playoff appearance during Karnisovas and Eversley's tenure came during the 2021-22 season, when they finished sixth in the Eastern Conference at 46-36 and got knocked out by Milwaukee in the first round. The Bulls lost point guard Lonzo Ball to a knee injury during that season, and he missed the next two years.
Chicago's most recent All-Star was DeMar DeRozan in 2023. The lack of a franchise cornerstone player was glaring, and Karnisovas' reluctance to launch into a major rebuild was a big source of frustration among Bulls fans. Rather than give the team the best shot at winning the lottery, he stressed patience and not skipping steps.
That changed this year when Karnisovas made seven trades before the deadline. The Bulls mostly loaded up on second-round draft picks and didn't get any first-rounders in return.
Among the players they acquired were Jaden Ivey from Detroit, hoping the No. 5 pick in the 2022 NBA draft could regain the form he showed before knee surgery. But the Bulls waived him last week following anti-LGBTQ+ comments about religion he made in videos posted on his Instagram account.
Ivey had been sidelined since Feb. 11 and appeared in just four games for Chicago. His contract was set to expire at the end of the season.
Donovan, meanwhile, got a contract extension last offseason. But he could seek another NBA coaching job or return to the college game if he doesn’t remain in Chicago.
Donovan has a 467-411 record in 11 seasons as an NBA head coach. He was arguably the top candidate on the market when the Bulls hired him in September 2020 to replace the fired Jim Boylen following a five-year run in Oklahoma City. He led the Thunder to a 243-157 record and playoff appearances each season while working with stars such as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Chris Paul.
Donovan previously coached for 19 seasons at the University of Florida and won back-to-back NCAA titles. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in September.
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