Typically, as the dust settles following a major NBA personnel change, a heavily sourced piece pops up from ESPN or The Athletic. Dubbed by The Ringer’s Bill Simmons as a “Now They Tell Us” exposé, the article usually tries to cast shade on the outgoing party from the purview of their former team.
When our Chicago Bulls finally canned their inscrutable front office “brain trust” (we use the term loosely) of president Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley in April, no major behind-the-scenes intel came out — for a while.
COO Michael Reinsdorf held a refreshingly candid post-mortem press conference after he fired Karnisovas and Eversley. But for months and months, there was no “Now They Tell Us” reveal unpacking the true nature of that disastrously dysfunctional front office.
Finally, we have our story.
Jamal Collier of ESPN spoke with over 20 “current and former employees and others with intimate knowledge of the team’s operations” about Chicago’s meandering run under the AKME regime … and some takeaways from the start of the Bryson Graham era.
Former Bulls president Arturas Karnisovas. © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn ImagesArturas Karnisovas Regime Insanity
As anyone with two eyes could have told Karnisovas and Eversley, the most enticing prospect left on the board when it came time for the Bulls to use their No. 4 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft was Tyrese Haliburton. Collier reports that several members of Chicago’s front office advocated for selecting Haliburton. AKME apparently was skeptical of “Haliburton’s funky jump shot,” per Collier, and enamored with Patrick Williams — a player who wasn’t even good enough to start on his college team.“Being the first draft that those guys ran and having [the pandemic] circumstances I think was a recipe for disaster,” an ex-staffer informed Collier. “That being said, they way over-indexed on Pat’s potential. It was just a really bad misevaluation.”
Botching their first draft pick wasn’t ideal, sure, but staffers asserted after the fact that they were more concerned when Karnisovas and Eversley doubled down on Williams instead. Ahead of his restricted free agency in June 2024, Chicago locked him up to an insane five-season, $90 million that apparently took multiple Bulls AKME underlings by surprise. The deal looks even worse now than it did at the time. And at the time, it was already an egregious overpay.“It took probably three or four years for them to come off of the, ‘Well, he could be Kawhi,’ statements,” the ex-staffer told ESPN. Those things continued to linger even after Patrick pretty demonstrably proved that he was not going to be Kawhi.”
Karnisovas and Eversley seemed to be staunchly opposed to completely tanking.“It was always communicated that we had to compete and that tanking was not an option,” a current Bulls executive told Collier. “Even the word ‘tanking’ or the word ‘rebuild’ — that word was never uttered.”
The Bulls staffers interviewed were divided on whether or not AKME’s reticence to rebuild was a mandate from the Reinsdorf family.“There was always some sort of ownership pressure in terms of competing and winning games,” the current exec continued. “That was always a thing. So while they can talk about how it’s been the VP or GM’s decision, that hasn’t really been the vibe.”
Collier counters that a former executive believed ownership was relatively hands-off, deferring to AKME on whether or not to engage in a full-throttle rebuild during their interminable six years in charge. Had they made the case for a complete teardown, this source suggested the Reinsdorfs may have been amenable.“The reality is, the best thing about working for the Reinsdorfs is that they are going to hire somebody and they’re going to let that person do the job,” the executive noted.
Stubbornness seems to be a recurring trait for Karnisovas and Eversley. Both appeared to dig in on their anti-tanking approach, which netted Chicago exactly one quick playoff series loss, three fruitless play-in tournament berths, and two missed postseasons. AKME claimed that the Detroit Pistons, who had missed the playoffs for five straight seasons, were somehow proof that tanking didn’t work. Apparently, AKME didn’t take stock of the team’s leveling up behind former lottery picks Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren in 2024-25 and 2025-26. Last season, Detroit won 60 games and snagged the East’s No. 1 seed. So… tanking worked, in other words. The Bulls’ obnoxious one-for-one deal of Alex Caruso for Oklahoma City Thunder cast-off Josh Giddey apparently came at the expense of other trade proposals that includes “multiple first-round picks.” Multiple first-round picks! Yikes. Chicago had a very clear hierarchy that often covertly cut out lower-level staffers from the decision-making process. Karnisovas and Eversley would hold meetings with their entire front office, then hold meetings with only assistant GMs Pat Connelly and J.J. Polk. Stunningly, even after their abject failure with AKME, Polk and Connelly are sticking around to work under Graham.“We would come in for these supposed group meetings, and it was very obvious that the choices had already been made,” one ex-front office staffer told ESPN. “You’re not doing me any favors by having me sit in the passenger seat with my own fake steering wheel.”
This apparently is how the Bulls wound up shipping out a future first-round draft pick to the San Antonio Spurs in their sign-and-trade free agent acquisition of DeMar DeRozan in 2021 and inked Nikola Vucevic to an insane three-season, $60 million contract extension in 2023. Several Bulls staff members were surprised by the news, and only found out from ESPN alerts. Under AKME, multiple Chicago front office folks apparently were never even given access to the team’s draft boards. So… the Bulls were so secretive when they made their (usually bad) draft selections, they even hid it from themselves? Brilliant stuff, no notes.Signs of Hope(?) for the Bulls Under Bryson Graham
Graham and his team have made their drafting process more transparent, Collier asserts. That feels like the bare minimum when it comes to upgrading internal communications, but we’ll take it! Still, all of us got flashbacks when Chicago surprisingly moved off both its second-round selections in the 2026 NBA Draft. Graham defended the decision to Collier, claiming his board had actually dried up in the second round. John Paxson and Karnisovas have both used that tune before.“If you feel good about the guys that you’re going to be looking at postdraft for two-ways and you don’t feel good about rostering guys that are in the earlier part of the second round, then you need to find a way to move off, maybe move a pick,” Graham informed Collier. “Maybe add value in other ways. Yeah, that’s completely on me.”
Still, the covert meetings have apparently stopped now! Graham actually, you know, trusts the people he’s hired to do their jobs, and listens to others. Again, that feels like the bare minimum, but it’s nice that we’ve arrived here. I guess.“There’s a very, very, very different vibe,” an anonymous basketball operations staff member said. “Everybody feels it. We’re meeting. A group. Beyond four people. Talking about the draft, free agency, hiring a coach. It’s not under a cloak of secrecy. We’re not finding out from an [ESPN alert].”
Collier suggests that Paxson has become a “more active” member of Chicago decision-making, as has longtime staffer Brian Hagen. Hagen was an assistant under Paxson and Forman during the Bulls’ ill-fated GarPax era. Now, it should be said that Paxson did do some good things for Chicago as an executive, but he and Gar Forman fell off mightily around the 2011-12 season in terms of the draft, trades, and free agent signings. So… uh-oh?Hence then, the article about must read espn paints scathing portrait of bulls under arturas karnisovas was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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