Tag: Marc Eversley

New Bulls GM Marc Eversley shares player-first mentality

The Bulls have a new front office. It’s a new era in Chicago. Okay, the start of one. Possibly. It’s all about results. Anyway, here’s the Chicago Sun-Times reporting:

“One of my mottos is ‘players first,’ ‘’ new GM Marc Eversley said on Friday, when he was officially introduced to the media via Zoom. “I think you have to create a players-first mentality. And I agree with you – we were the second-youngest team in the NBA last year, and I really believe it starts with a foundation of player development. True player development, that’s really when we can see what kind of players we have on our roster.’’

Develop the players to their fullest potential and then actually have a real selling point to a superstar?

Sure, former GM Gar Forman and vice president of basketball operations John Paxson spoke about that often, but had very little idea on how to execute it.

The best player developer Forman and Paxson had was one-time coach Tom Thibodeau, who was so adept at bringing the best out of players, he covered up a lot of the mistakes his bosses made both in the draft and free agency.

And here’s NBC Sports Chicago:

It seemed telling that Karnisovas answered a question on division of labor with a collaboration-focused response. Whether it’s internally or in inter-organization dealings, Karnisovas and Eversley will work in concert. For, say, a trade negotiation, one of Karnisovas or Everlsey might have a stronger relationship with an executive to leverage. In a different scenario, one might share a strong connection with an agent for a free agent pursuit. Even externally, Karnisovas said they will share duties like meeting with reporters to detail the team’s vision and actions.

“The luxury that we have with our current hires is that we’re coming from a lot of different programs. And we can take the best scouting practices and how we look at evaluating players, how we look at player development,” Karnisovas said. “We’re going to share our responsibilities. We’re going to hear each other out and make a decision at the end of the day.

First up will be the draft, which is scheduled for late June, but with May’s draft lottery and draft combine postponed, it’s possible the actual draft date might change as well.

Chicago Bulls hire Marc Eversley as new general manager

The Chicago Bulls have hired Marc Eversley to be the team’s General Manager. In this role, Eversley will report directly to Executive Vice President – Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas and primarily be responsible for overseeing the implementation of all elements of the basketball operations process.

“I set out to find a General Manager who complemented my vision and values, and who could help implement them at the Bulls in a fresh way. Marc’s background and skills do exactly that,” said Karnisovas. “He has a history of building strong relationships across the board, identifying talent at organizations that have had success during his time there, and the necessary insight for building a network that will be an asset to our program. He’s ready for this next step in his career, and I’m looking forward to working with him to build the Bulls back into a perennial contender.”

Eversley comes to Chicago with 14 years of NBA experience, working for the Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers. In his latest role as Senior Vice President of Player Personnel with the 76ers, he not only oversaw player personnel and talent evaluation, but was also involved in Philadelphia’s recruiting and decision-making process. He was promoted to Senior Vice President after serving the first two seasons as Vice President of Player Personnel. He also oversaw Philadelphia’s scouting department on the collegiate, NBA and international levels.

“Becoming a General Manger in the NBA and joining the Chicago Bulls family is a dream come true,” said Eversley. “I’m grateful to be working with someone like Arturas who shares my level of passion and commitment to winning basketball, and having both come from successful programs, we will put in the work and all it entails to become a sustainable and winning team. I want to thank Arturas, as well as Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf, for trusting in my leadership abilities to move this iconic franchise forward.”

Here’s the Chicago Tribune:

It’ll be hard not to notice Eversley when he walks into a room, considering he stands at 6-foot-8 and is a former NAIA college basketball player at Urbana University in Ohio, which recently closed. Eversley played 95 games in his career and averaged 11.3 points per game. Although neither Eversley nor Karnisovas ever played in the NBA, they both come to the Bulls front office with some basketball experience.

Eversley was on the 76ers staff when the team selected Ben Simmons first-overall in the 2016 NBA Draft, and he helped Philadelphia transition from a team that won 28 games his first season in 2016-17 to one that won 50-plus games the next two seasons. This year’s team was on pace for 50 wins again before the NBA went on hiatus during the 2019-20 season. He had a hand in acquiring such players as J.J. Redick, Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris to fortify a roster that included Simmons and Joel Embiid.

And more from the Tribune:

The Bulls do not overhaul their front office often, so when their search for Karnisovas started and finished without successfully interviewing any black candidates — in a league where about 70 percent of the players are black — they drew criticism from African American executives around the league. Chief Operating Officer Michael Reinsdorf said they were denied permission to interview the people of color on their list. Regardless, Karnisovas said he would make it a point to change that and emphasized diversity within his candidate pool.

Prior to joining the 76ers, Eversley spent three seasons with the Washington Wizards as Vice President of Player Personnel. He began his NBA career with the Toronto Raptors where he spent seven seasons as an Assistant General Manager responsible for player development, then personnel scouting and evaluation, and he played a lead role in drafting DeMar DeRozan ninth-overall in the 2009 NBA Draft. Eversley concluded the final two seasons of his Toronto tenure as the Vice President of College Scouting.