On the night of the NBA’s trading deadline, the Chicago Bulls were in Memphis, Tenn.
Arturas Karnišovas, the franchise’s chief basketball executive, held a video conference call with reporters that afternoon to answer why he did nothing to improve the Bulls roster at the deadline for the third straight season.
Hours later, from a cramped interview room before tipoff against the Grizzlies, Bulls coach Billy Donovan was offered a chance to share his view on the state of the franchise.
He was asked about the team again standing pat and stubbornly sticking with continuity. He was asked about the team’s maddening mixed results — how the Bulls have admirably chosen to chase nightly competitiveness but remain undeniably mediocre. Donovan even was asked about accountability and whether the team’s performance might impact his job.
If ever there was a window for Donovan to voice his displeasure with the direction of the Bulls, that second Thursday in February would have been the opportune time. The Bulls, bruised and battered with season-ending injuries to Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams by then, neither secured sufficient replacements or pivoted to sell assets in the name of building for the future. And here was Donovan, at the start of a four-game road trip leading into the All-Star break, tasked with making the most of this season.
A respected, two-time college championship-winning coach at the University of Florida, Donovan could have expressed confusion and exasperation that every effort isn’t being made to give the Bulls the best chance to win. Because of his way with words, Donovan could have pulled it off without coming off as directly criticizing his boss. But he never came close to critical. Instead, Donovan played the role of company man.
“The group’s gotten better,” Donovan said on Feb. 8. “Is it at the level we want it to be? Absolutely not. Do we want to (have) a losing record? No. But I think the team, after that (5-14) start has performed and played better.”
It was nothing like the fiery, no-nonsense coach college fans remember Donovan being at Florida. Long gone is that youthfully exuberant coach chasing the next win, the next championship, the next thrill.
But a true measure of Donovan’s feelings about the Bulls could be coming in the next couple of weeks now that Kentucky basketball has an opening.
Donovan has been listed as a candidate to replace John Calipari with the longtime Kentucky coach finalizing a deal to leave for Arkansas. Given his college résumé, Donovan’s name is a natural connection whenever major college jobs become available. He also coached at Kentucky under his mentor, Rick Pitino, for five seasons from 1989-94. Donovan won back-to-back national titles with the Gators in 2006 and ’07. He owns a .709 winning percentage in 708 career games coaching at Marshall and Florida.
Donovan coached the Oklahoma City Thunder for five seasons before joining the Bulls, winning 60.8 percent of his 400 regular-season games and making the 2016 Western Conference finals. The Thunder made the playoffs in each of Donovan’s five seasons but fell in the first round after the 2015-16 success.
On the other hand, the Bulls have had only one winning season in Donovan’s tenure. They’ve won just one playoff game. The team’s regular-season record is 154-160 under Donovan.
But pinning the blame solely on Donovan would be misguided. For the past two seasons, Donovan has coached ill-fitting and injury-prone rosters to near .500 finishes. He molded the league’s fifth-ranked defense last season against long odds caused by clear personnel deficiencies. He also had a hand in developing Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, although Donovan is quick to credit both players and cite their work ethic.
One could argue that Donovan has done what he was brought to Chicago to do, which was lift the Bulls back to respectability. Remember, the Bulls went 112-199 in the four seasons preceding Donovan. Remember too that few anticipated Donovan leaving the Thunder for the Bulls.
When the Bulls played at Oklahoma City the night before Thanksgiving this season, Donovan detailed his decision to leave the Thunder. His answer then offers a possible peek into his thought process with Kentucky’s opening.
“To me, it was more about who am I working with? The vision,” Donovan said on Nov. 22. “Who am I connected with? Who am I sharing every single day with? Those kind of things. Those were my decisions. It wasn’t necessarily always about the team because that can always change. Things can always happen. But it was more, for me, sitting down with Artūras (Karnišovas) and Marc (Eversley) and getting a chance to meet them and know them and hearing from them.“
Donovan lasted at Florida for 19 years in large part because of his tight-knit relationship with Jeremy Foley, now an emeritus athletic director.
After four seasons in Chicago, the question might not be whether Donovan has taken the Bulls as far as he can take them but rather have the Bulls done all they plan to do to maximize Donovan?
It was clear after the Bulls fell in five games to Milwaukee in the 2022 playoffs that changes were needed. Yet the front office, led by Karnišovas, has run back virtually the same roster twice more. No one is surprised at the results, which have left the Bulls clawing to get into the playoffs through the Play-in Tournament last season and again this season. Chicago won its first Play-In game last season but lost its second and missed the playoffs.
“It’s the same thing that I dealt with in college,” Donovan said on Feb. 8. “You want to be able to advance in the NCAA Tournament. You want to be able to advance in the playoffs. And our group had gotten into the playoffs the year prior to last and last year was a Play-In. And we want to be able to advance. We have not done that.”
Despite the Bulls’ shortcomings, Donovan’s job by all indications is safe. He signed a multi-year extension before last season, and he maintains strong working relationships with Karnišovas and Eversley.
But the Bulls won’t get in a bidding war for Donovan, and Kentucky easily could raise the ante. Donovan has earned a reported $24 million over his initial four-year contract. Calipari reportedly was set to earn $8.1 million next season and $8.6 million each subsequent season through 2029.
However, more money with the Wildcats would mean substantially higher expectations for Donovan. The pressure to win in Lexington dwarfs the pressure in Chicago. Little about Donovan today suggests he’s willing to step into that fire. Try trumpeting a 14-9 stretch at Kentucky. Down there, anything short of the title is a disappointment. BetMGM released its 2025 men’s college basketball championship odds on Monday. Kentucky and North Carolina have the fifth-best odds at +1800.
Donovan dropped his win-at-all-costs mentality back at Florida in the mid-2000s. Also, much has changed since Donovan paced college sidelines.
Recruiting and rigged rules already had worn Donovan ragged by the time he jumped to the Thunder in 2015. Three years later, the NCAA launched the transfer portal, granting student-athletes the ability to transfer between member institutions. And over the past five years, sweeping changes have arrived in college athletics permitting student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL). One agent likened the new landscape to the “wild, wild west.”
Donovan would have to adapt. The options don’t exactly align with the coach at his core. But the choice, if he must make one, is clear.
Donovan would be choosing between the challenges of the college game, including championship-or-bust pressure at a heavily scrutinized program like Kentucky and staying in his current comfort zone: the competitive but content Bulls.
(Photo of Billy Donovan: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)
