The Bulls have found their new top executive in Arturas Karnišovas, making him their vice president of basketball operations, according to multiple reports.
Karnišovas has spent the last seven seasons in the Nuggets organization and is one of the most respected and coveted executives in the NBA, but Bulls fans can be forgiven if they know little about him. Karnišovas has been the Nuggets general manager for the last three seasons, working under president of basketball operations Tim Connelly.
It has been well-documented how Karnišovas helped build the Nuggets through the draft, was instrumental in the selection of two-time All-Star Nikola Jokic in the second round in 2014 and how much he is respected after his time as a player and international scout and years as an executive.
Karnišovas has built a lengthy resume during his ascension through the basketball ranks with a long track record of success as one of the most qualified executives available.
Here are seven things for Bulls fans should know about Karnišovas:
1. He played basketball at Seton Hall for P.J. Carlesimo.
Karnišovas was the first player from the former Soviet Union to play college basketball in America, requiring approval from the KGB to play. When he arrived, he didn’t speak much English, but he began teaching himself by watching “The Price is Right” and “Family Feud.” Eventually he became one of two players in Big East history to win two scholar-athlete of the year awards.
On the court, he was a key contributor to teams that won two Big East Tournaments and appeared in four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, finishing his career 14th on the all-time scoring list at Seton Hall. He also overlapped with former Bulls assistant coach Adrian Griffin for two seasons.
2. He has a decorated Olympic career, playing against the Dream Team in 1992 and serving on Team USA’s coaching staff in 2014.
Karnišovas returned to his native Lithuania in summer 1992 after his sophomore season at Seton Hall to play in the Olympics, a little more than one year after the country gained its independence. During a podcast with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Karnišovas recalled the trepidation he had returning to his homeland for the first time, not knowing whether police would be waiting for him when he got off the plane.
Then he participated in one of the wildest and most memorable summers of his career. He played against the Dream Team in 1992 and by the second half of a 127-76 U.S. rout, he was snapping pictures on the bench.
“They’re still my heroes,” Karnišovas said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “It doesn’t matter that we played against them. I know we’re not on the same level. They are the stars of stars.”
Karnišovas helped lead Lithuania to back-to-back bronze medals in the 1992 and ’96 Olympics and was an assistant coach for Team USA during their run to the gold medal in 2014.
3. He never played in the NBA — but he played against the Bulls once.
In the finals of the 1997 McDonald’s Championship — a club competition featuring a team in the NBA against champion club teams from Europe, Australia and South America — Karnišovas was the leading scorer for the Greek club team in their matchup against Michael Jordan and the Bulls. The final score was not close, a 104-78 Bulls blowout, but it would have been hard for him to imagine that a little more than two decades later he would be leading the charge for the Bulls.
4. He’s a huge fan of electronic dance music.
This comes from 11-year NBA veteran Jared Jeffries, who spent four years working alongside Karnišovas in the Nuggets front office and told the Denver Post about how they would work out to their favorite EDM DJs, including Calvin Harris, Kaskade and Armin van Buuren.
“When me and him used to work out in the gym, we would always play that,” Jeffries said. “Everyone would play hip-hop and stuff like that, but me and him would always go in and steal the radio and play like hardcore EDM.”
5. He spent five years in the NBA league office.
The Bulls will count on Karnišovas to help them make strides in their global scouting department, which was one of his areas of expertise during his five years in the league office. There he worked extensively with Basketball Without Borders to help identify and develop top talent around the world.
It’s one of the main reasons multiple people have offered the compliment that Karnišovas would be “respected in every gym in the world.”
6. He has worked under some of the brightest minds in basketball.
One of the things that should provide Bulls fans with optimism is how much time Karnišovas has spent working under some of the most respected executives in the NBA.
That includes working with Connelly during his seven seasons in Denver, first as assistant general manager and then the past three years as general manager after Connelly became president. It also extends to Karnišovas’ working relationship with Rockets general manager Daryl Morey — who tweeted his congratulations when news broke of Karnišovas getting the job with the Bulls — and Timberwolves President Gersson Rosas.
7. He keeps a low-key approach that was crucial to the Nuggets’ front office running smoothly.
Connelly was the leading man in Denver, but Karnišovas’ style complemented that of his boss.
While the Denver Post described Connelly as “imaginative and energetic,” it painted Karnišovas as the more organized executive and someone who is stoic in his approach. It’s potentially why Karnišovas was so comfortable in his role, able to remain in the background while allowing Connelly to be the front-facing member of the front office.
It offers a window into his style. Consider this anecdote, also from Wojnarowski’s podcast, about Karnišovas’ scouting of Jokic.
He could see Jokic’s skills were there, from passing to shooting with great hands. So although Jokic’s athletic ability was lacking, Karnišovas searched to see if there was a path forward, watching footage of a young Marc Gasol at 18 and 19 years old to see how Jokic could improve and how his body would work.
His assessment paid off.
