Glen Grunwald (born June 13, 1958) is an attorney and basketball executive who serves as the Executive Advisor of

Canada Basketball Canada Basketball (CB) is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in Canada. ...

and as a Senior Advisor of the

Memphis Grizzlies The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference ...

. He previously served as President and CEO of Canada Basketball and as general manager of the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games a ...

and

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Early life

Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, Grunwald was a high-school All-American basketball player from

East Leyden High School East Leyden High School is a secondary school located in Franklin Park, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago) which educates grades 9-12. Together with West Leyden High School in Northlake, Illinois, they serve the suburban communities in Franklin ...

Franklin Park, Illinois Franklin Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,467 at the 2020 census, up from 18,333 at the 2010 census. It was named for real estate broker Lesser Franklin who bought acres of the area when it was a maj ...

. He is the only player selected All-Chicago area four times, and was player of the year in the state his senior year, 1976. He was injured prior to his

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

year at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, and although he was a team captain in 1981 when Indiana won the national title, and was drafted by the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

in the 5th round of the NBA Draft, he never played professional basketball. Grunwald returned to college, earning a J.D. at

Northwestern University School of Law Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the law school of Northwestern University, a private research university. It is located on the university's Chicago campus. Northwestern Law has been ranked among the top 14, or "T14" law scho ...

, and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from Indiana University.

NBA

Denver Nuggets

Grunwald was a corporate attorney before returning to basketball as vice president and general counsel of the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

in 1990.

Toronto Raptors

From 1994 to 1997 Grunwald was vice president for legal affairs and assistant general manager of the expansion

, working with college teammate and general manager Isiah Thomas. He became general manager in 1997 after Thomas failed in his attempt to become majority owner and ended his connection to the team. He oversaw some of the Raptors' greatest years of success, including orchestrating a trade for

Vince Carter Vincent Lamar Carter Jr. (born January 26, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who serves as a basketball analyst for ESPN. He primarily played the shooting guard and small forward positions, but occasionally played Powe ...

and team's first trip to the

conference semi-finals. The Raptors managed three straight playoff berths from 2000–2002. The injury-plagued Raptors missed the playoffs in the 2002–03 season, and Grunwald shook up the roster. During the 2003–04 season, despite inconsistency, they went 25–25 and were on track to return to the playoffs. Grunwald traded away starting center

Antonio Davis Antonio Lee Davis (born October 31, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, and New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also playe ...

in December, which led to tension with coach Kevin O'Neill, who publicly complained about the lack of a starting center and roster depth. On April 1, 2004, Grunwald was fired with two weeks left in the season, and replaced by

Jack McCloskey John William McCloskey (September 19, 1925 – June 1, 2017) was an American basketball player, coach and executive. He served as the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and general manager of the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves. A ...

as interim GM. The Raptors missed the playoffs by three games. Rob Babcock was later appointed as the permanent replacement.

Toronto civic activism

Grunwald later became the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

Toronto Board of Trade The Toronto Region Board of Trade is the principal local business community organization in the City of Toronto. It is the largest Chamber of Commerce/board of trade in Canada and one of the largest in North America. Its primary contemporary focu ...

, the largest local business organization in Canada, and is heavily involved in both the business and social communities of Toronto. In addition to his work at the Board of Trade, he sat on the board of governors at George Brown College, the board of directors at the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance, and the board of the Toronto City Summit Alliance. He was further involved with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, as well as Canada Basketball.

New York Knicks

On September 28, 2006, Grunwald accepted a job as vice president for Basketball Operations for the

, again working with Isiah Thomas. Grunwald was named interim GM for Knicks on June 4, 2011, taking over from

Donnie Walsh Joseph Donald Walsh, Jr. (born March 1, 1941) is a front office adviser of the Indiana Pacers and a former professional basketball coach. He is also the former President of Basketball Operations for the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers. Early li ...

. On April 24, 2012, the Knicks promoted Grunwald to (permanent) general manager and executive vice president of

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

operations. In September, 2013 Grunwald was replaced as general manager by Steve Mills, and reassigned by the Knicks to serve as an advisor to Mills.

McMaster University

On August 7, 2014, he was named Director of Athletics at

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

. He left the position in August 2018 to take a role with the

.Toronto Star
Ex-Raptors GM Glen Grunwald quits McMaster to take job with Memphis Grizzlies
August 20, 2018.

Personal

Grunwald came to Toronto in 1994 and obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1999. He is married and has three children named Gabe, Emma and Willis.

References

External links

Glen Grunwald's blog

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grunwald, Glen 1958 births Living people American emigrants to Canada American expatriate basketball people in Canada American men's basketball players Basketball players from Chicago Boston Celtics draft picks East Leyden High School alumni Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players National Basketball Association general managers New York Knicks executives Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Sportspeople from Chicago Toronto Raptors executives