Bulls Fire GM Gar Forman After 22 Years With Franchise

The Bulls have fired longtime general manager Gar Forman.

The Bulls have fired longtime general manager Gar Forman, the team announced Monday.

Forman first joined the Bulls as a scout in 1998 and performed a variety of roles throughout his two decades before being named GM in 2009. He was named the 2011 NBA Executive of the Year and led the Bulls to the playoffs in seven of his 10 years as general manager.

Forman's firing comes after Arturas Karnisovas took over as the team's new Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations on Monday.

Earlier this month, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Bulls started a search for a new top executive, and it appeared the team would be moving on from Forman and longtime executive vice president John Paxson during its rebuild. Chicago began interviewing candidates shortly thereafter to find a new executive vice president of basketball operations. Bryan Colangelo, Wes Wilcox, Karnisovas and Justin Zanik were among the candidates who interviewed for the position. 

Chicago has reached the Eastern Conference playoffs just once since 2015-16 and has made just one conference finals appearance since Forman was hired.

The 2019-20 Bulls were 22-43 before the league suspended play indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic.