CHICAGO (AP) — Arturas Karnisovas finally decided he'd seen enough.
The Chicago Bulls' top basketball executive took a wrecking ball to the roster leading up to Thursday's trade deadline, dealing Nikola Vucevic to Boston, Kevin Huerter to Detroit, Coby White to Charlotte and Chicago product Ayo Dosunmu to Minnesota in an effort to shake up a franchise mired in mediocrity.
He made it clear the Bulls plan to build with Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey. And with cap room to make some big moves, they expect to be players this offseason.
“Being in the middle is what we don't want to do,” Karnisovas said Thursday. “I think we’ve seen that for the past four years and we want to change that.”
The Bulls have mostly been in the middle since they hired Karnisovas out of Denver's front office in April 2020, with just one playoff appearance. He said the team traded good players who were unable to break the cycle in Chicago. The Bulls are 11th in the Eastern Conference with a 24-28 record after a 123-107 loss at Toronto on Thursday night.
“Those guys were really good for us, but we just couldn’t get over the hump,” Karnisovas said. “And I think those decisions have to be made and the timing was good for us to make those moves. We’ll see how those work out because ... we just couldn’t get consistency — consistently good and consistently healthy.”
Karnisovas was reluctant in the past to launch a rebuild and give the Bulls a better shot at winning the lottery, stressing patience and not skipping steps while frustrated fans called for a do-over. But he was busy in the days leading up to the deadline, making seven trades.
Among the players the Bulls acquired were Jaden Ivey from Detroit, hoping the former No. 5 pick in the 2022 NBA draft can regain the form he showed before knee surgery, and Anfernee Simons from Boston. They loaded up on second-round draft picks, but didn't get any first-rounders in these deals.
“Second-round picks are currency in our industry and you cannot operate and acquire players and trade players,” Karnisovas said. “I think we addressed it during the trade deadline and hopefully they’re going to contribute to ... the draft, during free agency and trying to build this team.”
As for the timing of the rebuild, Karnisovas insisted he has no regrets. He dismissed the idea that he should have dismantled the roster a year ago, when Giddey was in his first season in Chicago and Buzelis was a rookie.
“I do not,” Karnisovas said. “I think we were at that stage as well (where) we continue evaluating our young guys and, you know, Josh, it was Matas’ first year. So I think right now it’s good timing and we addressed it.”
Karnisovas said chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and president Michael Reinsdorf were “supportive” and “involved” leading up to the trade deadline. He also said the front office is in “lockstep” with coach Billy Donovan.
The Bulls were quiet last offseason after getting knocked out of the play-in tournament by Miami for the third year in a row. Their most recent All-Star was DeMar DeRozan in 2023, and their lack of a franchise cornerstone player is glaring.
Karnisovas said the Bulls will stick with an up-tempo style. He also expressed concern about cohesion down the stretch with so many new players. But he also acknowledged it was time to make big changes.
“We just stayed in the middle,” Karnisovas said. “You know, we’d get to 500, then we'd get two or three games under. I mean, look at our standings. We’re going to be again in the ninth, 10th spot. It’s not good enough.”
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Chicago Bulls' Ayo Dosunmu gets past Milwaukee Bucks' Pete Nance during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Chicago Bulls' Coby White shoots over Milwaukee Bucks' Jericho Sims during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic, center loses control of the ball as Miami Heat forward Simone Fontecchio (0) defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
MILAN (AP) — Italy has ramped up security ahead of the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Friday, with thousands of agents protecting athletes, spectators and global leaders at locations spanning from Milan to the Dolomites.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Cabinet on Thursday approved a security decree including stricter measures to counter violent protests, just ahead of fresh demonstrations planned around the opening ceremony. Opposition lawmakers criticized the measure, saying it muzzles freedom of expression.
While some preliminary hockey and curling events started on Wednesday, the Games officially kick off with the opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro Stadium on Friday evening, featuring global music stars and high-profile guests.
Around 6,000 security personnel will be deployed across the Olympic sites during the Games, including bomb disposal experts, snipers and counter-terrorism units, Italian authorities said.
Security at the Milan Games are particularly complicated because this is the most geographically dispersed in Olympics history, with events spread across Milan to three clusters in the mountains.
Italian police will rely on a network of operations centers to manage security and react to alerts quickly, and share information between them. The Associated Press on Thursday toured the main operations center in Milan, where dozens of police officers sat in front of computers and giant screens and kept eyes on various locations.
“The aim is to monitor in real time, in an absolutely timely and immediate manner, what is happening across the territory,” Sabrina Pane, Milan's deputy prefect, told the AP. “We can do this thanks to a very fast, constant flow of information.
Other centers are located in Bolzano, Trento, Venice, Verona, Belluno, Sondrio and Varese, where some Games venues are located.
Foreign police officers, as well as personnel from security agencies Interpol and Europol, will work with Italy’s public security department to quickly handle critical situations requiring international cooperation.
On Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani revealed that Italian police had already foiled a series of Russian-linked cyberattacks targeting several foreign ministry offices, as well as websites linked to the Winter Olympics and hotels in Cortina.
Interforce teams are operating around the clock to monitor both the territory and the internet in an effort to prevent further cyberattacks.
“We are committed to a dual approach,” said chief police commissioner Luisa Massaro. “The first is the protection of critical computerized infrastructure. The second is web monitoring."
Last week, news that a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be present during the Winter Games set off concerns and protests across Italy, where people expressed outrage at the inclusion of an agency that has dominated headlines for leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within ICE that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. HSI officers are separate from the ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there was no indication ERO officers were being sent to Italy.
Hundreds of protesters gathered on Saturday in Milan to voice opposition to the security force — both the entry of its agents to Italy and their deportation actions in the U.S. Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told parliament this week that ICE agents would only have an advisory role and would not operate on Italian territory. ICE’s unit will function solely within U.S. diplomatic missions, he said.
That hasn't completely quelled discontent. At least three rallies were set to take place in Milan on Friday before the opening ceremony, including two targeting ICE's deployment during the Games.
Dozens of students gathered Friday morning at Milan’s Leonardo da Vinci plaza to protest, blowing whistles and shouting “We don’t want ICE in our city!” as they marched under drifting clouds of pink smoke.
“It’s not only that I don’t like what they are doing to immigrants, I also don’t like what they are doing to protesters,” said Andrea Cucuzza, 18. “That’s why we are protesting. They don’t like manifestations, protests? Then we are doing one.”
Under the new security rules introduced by the government decree, police are allowed to detain people for up to 12 hours when there are reasonable grounds to believe they may act as agitators and disrupt peaceful protests. The decree takes immediate effect upon publication in the government’s official gazette.
Center-left opposition lawmakers strongly criticized the measure, saying they impose dangerous limitations to freedom of expression and exploit security worries around the Olympics to toughen state control over ordinary citizens. But the government holds a majority in parliament, ensuring the decree’s ratification before the 60-day deadline.
The move also comes several days after violent clashes between police and demonstrators erupted in the northern city of Turin. Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday to protest the December eviction of a community center that had been occupied by leftist activists for three decades.
That peaceful demonstration turned violent when a small group of masked protesters started attacking police officers, pushing Meloni's conservative government to speed up approval of a security package that had been discussed for months.
Zampano reported from Rome. Associated Press writer María Teresa Hernández reported from Milan.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
France's Nils Alphand speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men's downhill official training, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Bormio, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Protesters walk with signs during a demonstration against ICE organized by students at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
An athlete from Japan trains inside the speed skating venue at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
