Why Chicago Bulls Potential Hiring of Arturas Karnisovas Is Being Criticized

Getty Arturas Karnisovas is an early target for Bulls new front office position

The NBA season is suspended due to the spread of COVID-19, but the Chicago Bulls haven’t stopped working to find a new top executive to make basketball decisions for the organization.

According to a recent report, that search could be coming to an end soon, and the decision might be upsetting to some.

Arturas Karnisovas is Moving into the Final Interview Stage

Unless something unexpected takes place, it looks as if the Chicago Bulls will be hiring Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas as their new top executive.

According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Karnisovas has already met with COO Michael Reinsdorf and his dad, the majority owner, Jerry Reinsdorf.

As NBC Sports’ K.C. Johnson mentions, if the owner is involved, we’re certainly in the final stages of the hiring process:

While many in Chicago will be happy to see a potential change in the Bulls’ front office, there are reasons for concern with the team’s approach to finding someone to replace Gar Forman and John Paxson as the top decision-maker in the organization.

The Chicago Bulls Didn’t Interview a Single Black Candidate for the Job

According to a report from Marcus Spears of The Undefeated, the Bulls didn’t interview a single African-American candidate for the position. In fact, of the known candidates who were under consideration, only Toronto Raptors general manager Bobby Webster, whose mother is Japanese-American, wasn’t a white male.

“It’s clear there is an underlying hypocrisy telling us the NBA is diverse, but when an opportunity comes, the process isn’t,” one black assistant NBA general manager told The Undefeated. “All we want is a chance. As a black man, all we want is a fair opportunity to show we are just as qualified.”

The NBA is widely viewed as the most progressive and socially conscious professional sports organization in the world. However, it does strike a chord when an NBA team has an opening for its general manager position and the organization goes through the process of interviewing several candidates and not one of them is black.

The NBA is a league with a player base that is predominantly African-American. There are currently six black general managers in the league, and a host of assistant general managers, but many others are finding it difficult to get an interview for some opportunities, and the Bulls’ job is apparently one of them.

The following quote from Spears’ article is particularly concerning because it comes from someone who is already a general manager in the league.

“They are not even hiding what they are doing,” one black NBA general manager said of the Bulls.

The following is equally as damning. It comes from former Brooklyn Nets general manager, Bobby Marks, who is white. Marks pulled no punches in taking Bulls ownership to task for omitting African-Americans from its search.

“It’s an embarrassment that the Bulls elected not to interview a minority candidate in their search for a new head of basketball operations,” Marks said. “You will never know what you have or could have hired, unless you sit down with them and have a face-to-face conversation.”

We cannot speak definitively about the priorities of Bulls’ ownership, but the lack of diversity makes it appear as though the team may be moving forward in the way of new leadership, but backward in some other more important areas.