The Chicago Bulls fired executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley on Monday, ending a forgettable era for the franchise.
Chicago hired Karnišovas in April 2020 and Eversley shortly thereafter. The two have presided over a team that has gone 224-254 in the six seasons since. The Bulls made the playoffs just once in their tenure, in 2022, and lost their first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks in five games. In each of the three seasons that followed, they lost in the Play-In tournament. At 29-49 this season, they are now in 12th place in the East with four games remaining on the schedule.
The official statement from CEO Michael Reinsdorf:
Artūras and Marc have led with a deep commitment to the Chicago Bulls. These decisions are never easy, especially when they involve people we respect both personally and professionally. 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.
Chicago has more or less been in the wilderness since Tom Thibodeau’s relationship with the franchise deteriorated more than a decade ago. Karnišovas and Eversley inherited a roster that had gone 22-43 the previous season under coach Jim Boylen, and their first move was one of their best: replacing Boylen with Billy Donovan. They followed that up, however, by using the No. 4 pick in the 2020 Draft on forward Patrick Williams, a decision that, to put it charitably, has not worked out for the franchise. The five-year, $90 million extension Williams signed four years later wasn’t exactly a home run either.
In fairness to Karnišovas and Eversley, they have had some hits. Alex Caruso was an awesome signing in 2021, the same summer that they nabbed guard Ayo Dosunmu with the No. 38 pick in the draft. Matas Buzelis, drafted No. 11 in 2024, looks like a keeper. The jury is out on Noa Essengue, drafted No. 12 in 2025. Generally speaking, though, the Bulls of the last few seasons serve as a cautionary tale. The Nikola Vučević trade at the 2021 deadline was the first in a series of win-now moves that turned a bad team into, ultimately, a sad and mediocre one.
The Karnišovas-Eversley era peaked in December of 2021. Caruso and Lonzo Ball wreaked havoc defensively, Zach LaVine was a terror in transition and DeMar DeRozan made just about every jumper he took in crunch time. After Ball’s knee betrayed him, though, the team was never the same. Chicago was not sturdy enough to withstand Ball’s absence, and the next few years saw Karnišovas continually bring up this setback in press conferences while failing to reimagine the roster.
Eventually, the Bulls pivoted. Caruso, LaVine, DeRozan and even Vučević are now gone. They took way too long to move on, though, and didn’t get nearly as much in return as they could have. Dosunmu and Coby White, two success stories for their player-development staff, were moved at this year’s deadline too, and Chicago didn’t get a single first-round pick back for either of them.
To the Bulls’ credit, they’ve spent the last year and a half making future-focused moves and no longer seem content to make the Play-In every year. The teardown was long overdue, though, and the execution hasn’t been particularly impressive. It makes sense that the team would want a new front office to build this thing back up.
