The old front office regime had a very definite way of conducting business.
One of the many reasons it was failing the Bulls as an organization.
Sure, former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman would at times have a difference of opinion on a player or a trade, but as the Sun-Times reported, Forman made it a point to surround himself with “yes men’’ in a department that was already considered tiny by current NBA standards.
Basically, different in every way from how new head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas wants to operate.
Karnisovas wants to be challenged by his GM, and wants the GM to be challenged by his assistants in each of the still-expanding departments. Checks and balances in hopes that the best decisions are being made for the franchise, not the ones that are simply agreed upon to keep Forman happy and jobs secure.
So of course Marc Eversley was the perfect choice to be Karnisovas’ GM, taking over the office that a fired Forman occupied for far too long.
“I set out to find a General Manager who complemented my vision and values, and who could help implement them at the Bulls in a fresh way,’’ Karnisovas said in a statement on Friday, with Eversley officially being named to the post. “Marc’s background and skills do exactly that.’’
Considering the road the Canadian-born Eversley took to now becoming an NBA GM? There’s a reason the hire is being applauded not just from within by the Bulls, but league wide.
“He has a history of building strong relationships across the board, identifying talent at organizations that have had success during his time there, and the necessary insight for building a network that will be an asset to our program,’’ Karnisovas said. “He’s ready for this next step in his career, and I’m looking forward to working with him to build the Bulls back into a perennial contender.”
Eversley’s broad job description is obviously reporting to Karnisovas, but is responsible for overseeing the implementation of all elements of the basketball operations.
Specifically, Eversley’s strength has always been building relationships with players, their camps, their families and their agent. A talent he excelled at and crafted in his days with Nike.
That’s what caught the eye of then-Toronto Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo, who hired Eversley to join his staff in 2006. A decade later, Colangelo and Eversley were reunited in Philadelphia.
It was with the Sixers that Eversley was promoted to senior vice president of player personnel, spending the last two seasons in that role.
And rebuilds, such as the one the Bulls have been stuck in the mud with for three years and counting? Eversley knows rebuilds.
He was with Philadelphia when the team selected Ben Simmons first-overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, and since then had a hand in acquiring such players as J.J. Redick, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris.
At some point for the Bulls to start being taken serious again, they will need to land a big-name free agent. It was that aspect of roster building that the old regime failed at time and time again.
