Former Chicago Bulls executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has a new gig.
The 55-year-old will join commissioner Adam Silver as the NBA's consultant for building NBA Europe, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic (subscription required), though the move has yet to be officially announced.
After a tumultuous (at best) six seasons in Chicago — in which the Bulls made one playoff appearance and won a grand total of one playoff game — the organization fired Karnisovas in April.
It was the first in a series of way-too-late moves that kicked off a way-too-late rebuild, although one that's admittedly off to a hot start.
And Karnisovas seems far better suited to his new role than his previous one anyway, so it appears this is a win-win-win move for him, the Bulls and the NBA.
Former Bulls executive Arturas Karnisovas hired to help build NBA Europe
Karnisovas, who starred as a player for Lithuania in the 1990s and won a pair of Olympic bronze medals, is set to reportedly play a significant role in helping the league build its ambitious NBA Europe project.
Per Vardon, Karnisovas will advise Silver on "governance and game rules for NBA Europe, how to identify and recruit talent, how to create pathways for players into the new league and potentially from the new league to the NBA, and how to expand the continent’s already strong youth player development model."
Perhaps most critically, he'll act as a middleman between the NBA and FIBA, the international governing body for basketball, as the two parties join forces to create new opportunities to grow the NBA brand and potentially join forces with the more established EuroLeague.
As it stands, NBA Europe is expected to have 12 franchises and could add more each season after it tips off.
With his decorated international playing career and time as an executive with the Denver Nuggets in addition to his role with the Bulls, Karnisovas is uniquely suited to bridge this gap. He can bank on his knowledge of both international basketball and NBA basketball, and help Silver figure out how to mesh the two into a top-tier product.
It's not unfair to say Karnisovas failed miserably during his time in charge in Chicago. The Bulls were right to move on from him and should have done it sooner.
But things seem to have worked out OK for everybody: Karnisovas seems like a good fit for this position, which will benefit both him and the NBA, and the Bulls appear to be in more competent hands now under Bryson Graham.
Add us as a preferred source on Google