Category: Chicago Bulls

The NBA moves fast and that’s why Bryson Graham went from new kid in the classroom to voted “Most Popular” in a matter of days. The Bulls hired Graham to be their executive vice president of basketball operations on May 4, and six days later Graham went from holding two kings to three-of-a-kind thanks to […]

Josh Giddey had a lengthy list of offseason priorities he wanted to work on, including his shooting. “Off the bounce stuff is probably going to be the next step that I want to get into more,” Giddey said last month when discussing the holes in his game he wanted to continue to patch up. “It […]

The list for Michael Reinsdorf was a long one. In discussing why he and the others atop the Bulls organization opted to fill the vacant executive vice president of basketball operations chair by hiring Bryson Graham, “elite talent evaluator” came out of Reinsdorf’s mouth more than once. With good reason. The team president witnessed a […]

Arturas Karnisovas resided in the ambiguous. The Bulls’ former executive vice president seldom provided specifics, whether it was his plan for building a roster or the type of players he was looking for. It was often unclear and seemingly ever-changing. One day on the job, and newly hired Bryson Graham already showed his hand . . . […]

Bryson Graham’s words on Wednesday were profound. Then again, they often are in prepared introductory press conferences. Bulls fans, however, are at the point where they deserve more than the decades-long distraction of the Michael Jordan statue in the United Center atrium representing their only recent positive history. They deserve more than words and promises […]

It was the hire that few in the league expected. That’s because it was so un-Bulls-like. Passing on the obvious by staying in the family and hiring onetime Bulls employee Matt Lloyd, team president Michael Reinsdorf went sleight of hand, instead landing on Hawks executive Bryson Graham to take over the executive vice president of […]

The Bulls haven’t won a playoff series since 2015. They haven’t had a No. 1 overall draft pick since hitting on Derrick Rose in 2008. The last time they even had a winning record was in 2021-22, when they went 46-36. It was the only time in the last decade they posted a better-than-.500 record. […]

Last month, when Bulls president and CEO Michael Reinsdorf was rattling off what he wanted in his next head of basketball operations, he included the term “process-oriented” without hesitation. “I think [one of] the biggest mistakes we have made over the years is we have not followed a process,” he said. It was a definite […]

The G.O.A.T. debate in pro basketball will never end, as most hoops experts have narrowed the list down to two players: Michael Jordan and LeBron James. James was asked about the debate and Jordan’s influence on his game. “I never have compared myself to MJ because our games are totally different,” James said to ESPN.com. […]

MINNEAPOLIS — For months, every entry in Ayo Dosunmu’s journal included the same five words: “We will make the playoffs.” It might be at the beginning as he was first jotting down his thoughts. It might be the closing line. But starting last September during Bulls training camp, Dosunmu didn’t miss a day, almost hellbent […]

The Bulls have no front office, having belatedly kicked executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley to the curb. They have no real roster, having thrown together a who’s-who of ‘‘who?’’ to go through the motions of another regular-season fade-out. And now, with Billy Donovan having rescued himself from […]

Don’t hand out minutes to rookies just because. Don’t let others make decisions that you should make for yourself. Don’t stand in the way of progress. This is the code of honor that Billy Donovan operated by, and the latter was the primary reason he walked away from the Bulls’ head coaching chair after six […]

Michael Reinsdorf admittedly wasn’t working with the widest of nets back in March of 2020. There was a global pandemic to deal with, the team president didn’t have the longest list of names in his contacts, and the interview process was old school, done on phone and Zoom calls because of what was going on […]

The comments from Anfernee Simons were somewhat surprising. Not only that an NBA free agent-to-be was insisting that he wanted to return to his current team — that’s just smart business — but also how many times Simons said it. If he were trying to sell the media on his happiness while playing in a […]

NEW YORK — The numbers are in, and the NBA says Year 1 of its new television deals were a hit. The league released numbers for the regular season on Wednesday, showing that 170 million people in the U.S. watched NBA games across the league’s four primary broadcast platforms this year — those being ABC/ESPN, […]

It might prove to be the best move of the Arturas Karnisovas Era, and it took 1,691 days to show itself. Thanks to the Lauri Markkanen three-way trade to Cleveland on Aug. 27, 2021, Karnisovas — the recently fired Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations — acquired a first-round pick from Portland that was […]

It might prove to be the best move of the Arturas Karnisovas Era, and it took 1,691 days to show itself. Thanks to the Lauri Markkanen three-way trade to Cleveland on Aug. 27, 2021, Karnisovas — the recently fired Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations — acquired a first-round pick from Portland that was […]

Billy Donovan is go-by-the-gut type of guy. It’s more than worked for him, whether it was to stay at Providence and continue playing for a young coach named Rick Pitino, walk away from a Wall Street job right out of college and pursue coaching, or turn down an Orlando head coaching job 15 years ago […]

Billy Donovan is go-by-the-gut type of guy. It’s more than worked for him, whether it was to stay at Providence and continue playing for a young coach named Rick Pitino, walk away from a Wall Street job right out of college and pursue coaching, or turn down an Orlando head coaching job 15 years ago […]

DALLAS – Emotions and relationships will always carry weight for Billy Donovan. The Bulls coach has discussed that in length when he retraces a journey that started under mentor Rick Pitino as an assistant coach some 37 years ago, eventually leading him to Springfield, enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. So when he […]