The Bulls have spent decades slowly failing in the player-relationship business.
Late Sunday night, the band-aid may have finally been found.
A source confirmed an ESPN report that Marc Eversley will be named the organization’s general manager, as the Bulls continue to reshape and build out a front office that had fallen behind the times.
Not only will the Canadian-born Eversley be working alongside new head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, but is also the first black GM in the franchise’s history.
It’s Eversley’s road less travelled, however, that could start changing the perception of a Bulls front office that had a bad reputation in the eyes of NBA players. A perception that not only seemed to handicap it when it came to landing big-time free agents, but also a front office that didn’t have the best reputation with agents and even coaches from around the league.
Before putting impressive destinations on his NBA resume, Eversley spent 10 years working at Nike.
A source that knows Eversley spoke about the grind that his former job with Nike entailed, especially when it came to establishing relationships with players from around the league.
It’s a job that demands not only building a relationship with the player, but his agent, his family, his friends, and anyone else that is deemed in the camp. Eversley excelled in that department, and stood out enough that former Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo added him to the Raptors mix in 2006.
Eversley not only impressed in his career change, but worked his way to the Washington Wizards as the vice president of scouting, and then landed in Philadelphia, joining a front office that was finally seeing the benefits of its “process.’’
So what exactly can Eversley do for the Bulls?
Considering where the franchise’s reputation has sunk to league-wide? A lot.
Players talk. And the talk about the Bulls was not good. Even before former Jimmy Butler trainer, Travelle Gaines, tweeted out “I met drug dealers with better morals than their GM’’ in referring to the 2017 trade Gar Forman made that sent Butler to Minnesota, the league-wide reputation was one of a front office that wasn’t very trustworthy.
Not just under Forman, either.
As the ESPN documentary, “The Last Dance,’’ is reminding many, before Forman there was Jerry Krause, and his player-relationship skills have been on full display the last few weeks. Forman was a Krause disciple, so the tree and the apple were forever linked.
By COO Michael Reinsdorf going outside the organization in the Karnisovas hire, that has opened a door that seemed long locked.
The Bulls are currently in the midst of a rebuild that was in Year 3 before the league was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, and while there seemed to be a foundation of young players acquired in the draft and the Butler trade, it was also a rebuild headed nowhere under the former regime.
Even former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson knew that eventually a superstar had to be added for the rebuild to become championship-caliber, but never offered a clear-cut explanation of how exactly that would be done considering all the misses they’ve had over the years in that department.
Karnisovas, and now with the addition of Eversley, could be game-changers.
So now what?
Karnisovas has his GM, his cap specialist in J.J. Polk, and his player personnel guru in Pat Connelly. The departments will continue to be built out as the league decides what it will do with the remainder of the season, and then the new regime will likely decide if Jim Boylen and the rest of the coaching staff will stay or go.
