Bulls Hire Bryson Graham as EVP After Karnisovas Firing, Everything to Know About New Exec

The Chicago Bulls have found their replacement for Arturas Karnisovas as executive vice president of basketball operations.

Per ESPN's Shams Charania, the team is hiring former Atlanta Hawks senior vice president Bryson Graham for the role. The Bulls confirmed the report on Monday.

Karnisovas took over in Chicago in 2020 and hoped to expedite the team's rebuild, but the Bulls made the playoffs just one time during his tenure and faced a first-round exit.

After Chicago appeared on its way to being a play-in team once again this year, Karnisovas and the Bulls' front office blew things up at the trade deadline, making seven total trades.

"Play-in is not the goal. Championship is," he told reporters in February. "We have made a meaningful shift in terms of roster building."

Ultimately, the Bulls fired Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley in April as the team finished 31-51, so he won't get to execute his rebuild plan.

Graham played college basketball at Texas A&M before briefly serving as a graduate assistant for the Aggies. He joined the NBA ranks as an intern in 2010-11 with the New Orleans Pelicans before serving as the team's player development director, video coordinator/player development coach, scouting coordinator and director of college scouting. He was named the Pelicans' assistant general manager in 2019.

He joined the Atlanta Hawks front office last summer as the team's senior vice president of basketball operations.

Graham will have his work cut out for him as he tries to turn things around in Chicago. At the top of his priority list will be finding a new head coach after Billy Donovan's departure.