Canadian Eversley makes history with promotion as Bulls’ GM
Marc Eversley has been around the Toronto basketball scene, seemingly forever.
He starred as a high-school player at Cardinal Leger Secondary in Brampton in the late 1980s when Michael Jordan was starring for the Chicago Bulls.
He went on to play at Urbana University in Ohio — and wound up as the 25th leading scorer in school history — before graduating and getting hired by Nike.
While at Nike, he worked retail then marketing and came to represent players on the Raptors and in the NBA, developed relationships and took care of the Canadian national team that featured Steve Nash. Pretty much everybody around the local scene and the national scene came to know Eversley or if not that, knew who he was. At 6-foot-8, he was hard to miss, being smooth and personable and forever well dressed.
You’d look around in basketball places, in the hallways at arenas, and there he was. Part of that small group of Canadian basketball lifers.
Eventually he left Nike to work for Bryan Colangelo with the Raptors and left the Raptors for Washington after Colangelo was let go by Toronto. A Canadian in big NBA circles. From Washington, he made his way back to Philadelphia, again to team up with Colangelo and when Colangelo was fired there, he stayed on and moved up in the organization.
And here is Eversley now, 31 years after getting an OFSAA medal of honour, making all kinds of history at this, the quietest time for professional sports. He’s the first kid from Cardinal Leger to become a general manager in the NBA, the first from the GTA. The first Canadian trained basketball and schooled person to become an NBA GM. In his words, the first British- Canadian.
Now, once the deal is officially signed, he becomes the first African-american to be GM of the Chicago Bulls, an iconic franchise in an iconic city, 54 years and six championships old and now struggling mightily. That’s all kinds of history and a challenge for a man who has worked in and around professional basketball for almost his entire adult life.
Oh, the history books will tell you that other Canadians have been GMS in the NBA, but sometimes history books only tell part of the story. Pete Newell was the first general manager of the San Diego Rockets — who later became the Houston Rockets. He was so Canadian he grew up in Los Angeles and coached the U.S. Olympic team in 1960.
The history books also indicate that Bob Houbregs was a Canadian who was once general manager of the Seattle Supersonics. Like Newell, he was born in Vancouver. Unlike Newell, he grew up in Seattle.
The hiring of Eversley, who grew up in Brampton, is a proud moment for Canadian basketball and one worth celebrating.
“I know him well, obviously, from his time in Toronto and his time with Nike when he was the rep for our basketball team,” said Jay Triano, who understands history himself, the first Canadian to coach in the NBA and the former national team coach. “I’m not surprised he’s risen to this position. He has a great way with people, and when I say people I mean people in the NBA world. That means players, agents, other GMS, you have to be able to do all that. It’s not easy. He’s got a great way about him and he’s always been driven.
“When he was with Nike he really looked after our athletes well. There’s a certain skill in that by itself. What I like about Marc is he’s great with people, he really learned from Nike and built that into something. I thought he was a great hire as Bryan’s right hand man and I think it’s a great hire now.”
I spoke briefly with Eversley on the phone. He thanked me for the call. He wasn’t ready to do an interview, although I’ve known him for years, not until he was officially announced, until everything was finalized. That’s part of who he is, working through the proper channels, making sure of protocol, smooth as can be.
“Marc never made it big as a player but he’s made it big in basketball,” said Raptors analyst Paul Jones, who has been around Toronto basketball about as long as anyone. “There didn’t used to be a bandwagon like there is now (around basketball). At the beginning around here, it was like Noah building the arc. There were people like Mike Katz and (the late) Bernie Offstein and you had to climb aboard. Marc found a way eventually to climb aboard.
“This is a great story. Local kid makes good. NBA GM. How great is that?”