Arturas Karnisovas tells story of how he took pictures of the Dream Team with his team losing in the 1992 Olympics
If you think the Chicago Bulls' executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is nothing more than a suit-wearing front office employee it is time for a basketball history lesson. During the 1992 Olympics, Karnisovas was a 21-year-old forward for Lithuania's national team, and his team had the misfortune of playing the Dream Team—arguably the greatest collection of basketball talent the USA has ever assembled—in the semifinals of the tournament.
Rock stars
Karnisovas was just a sophomore at Seton Hall, and he drew the assignment of defending forward Charles Barkley. The experience, he says, was surreal.
“Those were rock stars,” Karnisovas said on the Bulls Talk podcast. “I’m a sophomore in college and had to guard Barkley.”
So, how did he do?
“Did not go well. I fouled out,” Karnisovas recalled of the game that ended with the USA winning, 127-76, to advance to the gold medal game.
With your team down by such a wide margin while basketball's greatest squad is just a few meters away from you, what would you do? Well, Karnisovas did something that few can claim they've ever done—and surely no other player in the game did: he took pictures of the Dream Team.
"And I’m sitting on the sidelines like, ‘Nobody is taking pictures.’ So I’m sitting there with like 2 minutes to go, and we’re down by 45. I start taking pictures. The funny thing is we got the film back, and there were pictures of me in those pictures, so somebody else obviously took some pictures while we were playing. I was just caught on film doing that."
Not embarrassed by it
Some might think that Karnisovas would be embarrassed by his actions in the middle of a game, but he's not. In fact, it remains a cherished memory.
"Absolutely not embarrassed because those were our idols at that time, and the separation between NBA players and internationals back then was so huge. The margin of victory was so great. And then, year by year, it got closer. At that time, it was still surreal," said Karnisovas.
While Karnisovas never got to play in the NBA, he had a successful career overseas, and was even named FIBA European Player of the Year in 1996. He then worked his way through numerous front offices in the Association before landing in Chicago.
The story of Arturas Karnisovas' photo shoot may not have grabbed many headlines back then, but it's a reminder of how much has changed since 1992—and an interesting detail about one of the Bulls' top front office executives.
