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Jamal Collier
multiple authors
Chicago– bulls CEO and team president Michael Reinsdorf on Tuesday outlined the qualities he is looking for in a new head of basketball operations, including a key requirement — retaining Billy Donovan as head coach.
“If I interview somebody and they’re not sold on Billy, they’re not sold on a Hall of Fame coach,” Reinsdorf said during a video call Tuesday, “They’re not sold on a guy who won championships in college, who went far in the playoffs with Oklahoma City. … If Billy wants to be our coach and nobody’s interested in him, they’re probably not the right candidate for us.”
Donovan is scheduled to meet with ownership the day after Sunday’s season finale to discuss his future, Reinsdorf confirmed Tuesday. Reinsdorf said he did not expect Donovan’s decision to take much time, but reiterated that he wanted Donovan to remain coach and even planned to push him to become more involved in personnel decisions.
A day after the Bulls fired vice president Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Mark Eversley, Reinsdorf explained his decision to move on with the duo after six years, and addressed fans in his opening statement about building “real and sustainable winners.”
“Over the last few months, I started to look at where we were and I thought to myself, ‘How do we get out of this mess?'” he said.
With one week left in the regular season and the Bulls at 29–49, Reinsdorf made a change. He cited the Bulls’ abundance of cap space this summer and potential lottery selections, including an extra first-round pick for Chicago if Portland reaches the playoffs, as a blank slate for a new direction.
“I felt like now was the time,” he said. “We tried another approach. It didn’t work. We failed and now we’re in a position to get this right – clean slate.”
Reinsdorf confirmed an ESPN report earlier Tuesday that the team was planning to engage a search firm to work with himself, senior advisor John Paxson and the current basketball operations team to find Karnisova’s replacement. When the Bulls hired Karnisova in 2020, they didn’t use him. Reinsdorf recalled resigning over video call at the beginning of the pandemic during that process, and acknowledged Tuesday that he had not met Karnisova in person until she got the job.
However, Reinsdorf vowed to cast a wider net during the search. He listed the qualities he was looking for in the next top decision maker, including being process oriented and “not being afraid to pull the trigger.” He also wanted someone who follows trends and is a better communicator both internally and externally to fans and the media, which Reinsdorf acknowledged was not Karnisova’s strength.
“I want someone who is really strong at communication,” Reinsdorf said. “What are we trying to achieve? What is the plan? Our fans have a right to understand what we are trying to achieve.”
But Reinsdorf also has another requirement for his potential hire. He expressed his displeasure with tanking as a tactic on Tuesday, saying, “That’s not who we are as an organization.”
“It’s unfair to the coaches. It’s unfair to the players. It’s really unfair to our fans,” Reinsdorf said. “Sure, there are some fans, many fans who might, say, lose games on purpose, tank, do whatever you can for hopes of winning the lottery. But there are a lot of fans who go to games who aren’t there to see us lose every game and who want to see us compete.”
However, Reinsdorf also criticized Karnisova’s approach of chasing short-term wins, such as when, during a span of a few months in 2021, the team achieved demar derozan, Nikola Vucevic And lonzo ball.
“Moving forward, it’s about sustainability,” Reinsdorf said. “We want to make it for the long term. I don’t want to just be good for a year or two. I want it to be good year after year, for us to have a chance to be competitive and win.”
