Arturas Karnisovas stood on the baseline of the United Center floor, his arms folded as he watched his team warm up for that evening’s game. His 6-foot-8 frame typically towered over the non-players on the floor, but perhaps more so on this day.
The Chicago Bulls were at their lowest point of the season on Nov. 30, with a record of 5-14 following a 27-point drubbing by the Boston Celtics.
Aside from the few times the schedule mandates -the beginning and end of the season, and at the trade deadline — Karnisovas, the team’s vice president of basketball operations, rarely makes public comments.
But days earlier, Karnisovas had voiced his displeasure during a pregame availability session to a small contingent of local media in Boston.
“We see what everyone is seeing and are just as frustrated. We’re disappointed, but I’m not running from it,” he told the group.
The ensuing blowout loss had only heightened his frustration. Karnisovas had remade the Bulls’ roster in the summer of 2021 and entered this season with optimism Chicago could compete for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
He had not imagined the Bulls plummeting to the bottom of the standings like this, but he told ESPN before the Nov. 30 game it was time to go into evaluation mode.
Chicago would snap a five-game losing streak with a win in overtime over the Milwaukee Bucks on the 30th, the kind of frisky win that would become routine for them. From that point, the Bulls salvaged their season, going 34-29.ESPN News
