{"id":598651,"date":"2026-04-22T01:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/598651\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:18:13","slug":"bulls-at-crossroads-as-billy-donovan-steps-down-after-front-office-firings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/598651\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls at crossroads as Billy Donovan steps down after front office firings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bulls are \u201cat a critical turning point\u201d as coach Billy Donovan on Tuesday stepped down, which follows the April 6 firings of EVP\/Basketball Operations Art\u016bras Karnisovas and GM Marc Eversley<\/a>, according to Julia Poe of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Donovan signed a multiyear contract extension last July, and Bulls President & CEO Michael Reinsdorf \u201cemphasized the team\u2019s desire to retain\u201d him after Karnisovas and Eversley were fired. Ownership saw Donovan as a \u201ccrucial building block to its vision for the team.\u201d But as Donovan leaves after six seasons, Reinsdorf will work with senior adviser John Paxson and Assistant GMs JJ Polk and Pat Connelly to \u201cseek a new top executive and a new coach — a massive undertaking for a team in flux after missing the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.\u201d Bulls Chair Jerry Reinsdorf in a statement said, \u201cWe wanted Billy to continue as our head coach — that was never in question. But through honest conversations, we all agreed that giving our new head of basketball operations the right to build out his staff was the most important thing for the future of this franchise.\u201d Poe notes this \u201cisn\u2019t the end of coaching for Donovan,\u201d who \u201cfigures to be a top candidate for openings around the NBA\u201d (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 4\/21<\/a>). <\/p>\n

CLEAN SLATE: In Chicago, Joe Cowley writes if the Bulls were \u201clooking to operate with a clean slate, in Donovan\u2019s mind it should be a completely clean slate.\u201d Also playing a \u201cfactor in the decision was that the Bulls still felt like a fixer-upper.\u201d Donovan stressed several times that he \u201cmissed the idea of coaching meaningful NBA games in May and June rather than having exit meetings in April.\u201d Cowley notes while the Bulls are \u201cin a really good spot with cap space, two first-round picks, and two solid foundation pieces in Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis, it is still a roster with a lot of holes and possibly being at least three years away from becoming serious, and that\u2019s if everything is done right by the new front office\u201d (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4\/21<\/a>). <\/p>\n

GET IT RIGHT: In Chicago, Paul Sullivan writes the Bulls will \u201cneed another version of Billy Donovan, perhaps a younger and cheaper model.\u201d The Reinsdorfs \u201cdesperately need to get this right.\u201d The hiring of Donovan \u201csent a message that the status quo was no longer acceptable, and for a while, it wasn\u2019t.\u201d But now the Bulls are \u201cback to being a franchise living off its 1990\u2019s aura\u201d (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 4\/21<\/a>). Also in Chicago, Steve Greenberg writes the Bulls have \u201cbeen so baffling, blundering and bizarre and, worse still, so numbingly far from anything resembling relevance.\u201d The Bulls have not won a playoff series since 2015, have not been to the Eastern Conference finals since 2011 and have not played for a championship since 1998. Overriding factors include \u201cownership that isn\u2019t committed enough to winning or principled enough about the right things\u201d and \u201cfront offices with absurdly long leashes.\u201d In the end, Donovan was \u201cpowerless against it\u201d (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4\/21<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bulls are \u201cat a critical turning point\u201d as coach Billy Donovan on Tuesday stepped down, which follows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[402,355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-598651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}