The Chicago Bulls have fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley, the team announced Monday.
Karnisovas and Eversley were hired to run the Bulls front office at the start of the 2020-21 season and went 224-254 across six seasons. Chicago achieved only one winning season under Karnisovas’ leadership, in 2021-22, which is also the only year the team made the playoffs — a five-game, first-round exit to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2022.
Chicago is currently 29-49 and sitting in 12th in the Eastern Conference, missing the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.
“These decisions are never easy, especially when they involve people we respect both personally and professionally,” Bulls owner Michael Reinsdorf said in a statement. “We are grateful for their dedication and the work they’ve put in over the past six years. At the same time, we have not had the success our fans deserve, and it’s my responsibility to go in a new direction.
“This move is about positioning our team for sustained success moving ahead.
“I want our fans to know that I hear you and understand your frustration. 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.”
Karnisovas overhauled the roster upon his arrival with a bold trade for Nikola Vucevic at his first trade deadline before adding Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan in the summer of 2021. But after the Bulls raced out to a 38-21 start before the All-Star break during the 2021-22 season, injuries to Ball derailed the team’s future.
Chicago then got small returns as it offloaded that core, including Zach LaVine fresh off a supermax contract extension, which failed to restock the team for the future. Still, the Bulls began this season 5-0 and won six of their first seven games for the first time since the Michael Jordan era. Yet, they began to plummet in the standings due to injury issues. They got back to .500 at 23-22 in January but have endured four losing streaks of at least five games this season and are 6-27 in their past 33 games.
At the trade deadline, Chicago flipped over a large portion of its roster, dealing away seven players, including fan favorites such as Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, in an effort, as Karnisovas deemed it, “to get out of the middle.” One of the players the Bulls acquired, Jaden Ivey, was dismissed last week after several social media posts on topics including religion, anti-gay sentiments and depression.
Chicago’s deadline moves did not dramatically improve its lottery odds or gain any players the team sees as part of its future, sources told ESPN. And after losing in the play-in tournament for three consecutive seasons, the Bulls’ decision to pivot came too slowly, sources told ESPN, with ownership making the decision to give the Bulls a chance at a fresh start during the offseason.
The Bulls don’t change their leadership at the top very often. Before Karnisovas got the job in 2020, John Paxson had served as president of basketball operations since 2009. Chicago will enter the offseason with flexibility in how it builds its roster. The Bulls will have their own lottery pick and nearly $60 million in cap space to use in free agency on a roster that includes Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Tre Jones and Noa Essengue, who was drafted in the lottery last season but played only two games before season-ending surgery in December.
The Bulls also remain high on coach Billy Donovan, who has been with the team since April 2020, and will have a meeting with him after the season to see how they can retain him, team sources said.
