Glen Grunwald

One of the NBA’s most respected and versatile senior executives, Glen Grunwald is in his fifth season as the Knickerbockers’ senior vice president, basketball operations.

Joining the Knicks on Sep. 26, 2006, Grunwald is responsible for all administrative aspects of the team’s basketball operations, including managing the operating budget, salary cap, as well as assisting in all day-to-day operations, player personnel decisions, trades and acquisitions.

Grunwald has played a key role in the vast rebuilding of the Knicks, a decade after facing a similar challenge in Toronto. Few NBA executives are more aware of the risks - and ultimate rewards - of such a plan.

“It’s exciting to look forward to our new team and seeing how they grow and develop,” says Grunwald, 52. “We’ve got a lot of good pieces that we’ve added, and now it’s a matter of bringing them together as one team and hoping that they jell into a winning combination.

“We consciously made a decision that we needed to develop some salary cap flexibility, and to do that we had to trade away some pretty good players and give up some other players in the hopes that the new team will be better than the old team, with a chance to compete in the Playoffs and someday compete for a championship.”

Grunwald joined the Knicks following a decade (1994-2004) with the Toronto Raptors, including seven seasons as general manager, a period in which he built the Raptors into one of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. Helping to preside over another rebuilding effort in New York, Grunwald is hopeful that the Knicks are ready to take the next step toward that same status.

“What’s exciting is to see the potential they have and hopefully they’ll reach their potential both as individuals and as a team,” says Glen. “We’ve got a great coaching staff, a great training staff, great medical staff. All the resources are here for them to be successful. It’s just a matter of us putting it all together.

“Our fans have been great. They’ve been understanding of our plan, they’ve been understanding of the results, and they’ve been supportive of us moving forward. We’re hopeful we can reward them with a winning team.”

Named Raptors general manager on Nov. 20, 1997, Grunwald spearheaded Toronto’s drive toward elite status by acquiring the likes of Vince Carter, Antonio Davis, Morris Peterson and Charles Oakley. Under his direction, the Raptors advanced to the NBA Playoffs for three straight seasons (2000-01-02). In 2001, the Raptors defeated the Knicks in the first round of the Playoffs (New York’s first opening-round loss since 1991), and came within one game of advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals. Grunwald served as Raptors general manager through the 2003-04 campaign.

An original member of the Toronto front office, Grunwald joined the Raptors on Nov. 8, 1994 as vice president, legal affairs and assistant general manager. For the next three years, he helped implement the on- and off-the-court business plan that made the Raptors a model for all expansion franchises. During the Raptors’ formative years, Grunwald was responsible for the administrative, financial and legal aspects of the team’s basketball operations, playing a key role in all areas from the 1995 expansion draft to player personnel decisions. He also served as the team’s resident salary cap expert, and also provided his legal expertise in sponsorship, marketing and contract issues.

Prior to joining the Raptors, Grunwald served four years as vice president, general counsel for the Denver Nuggets, and was responsible for all legal, human resources and administrative matters, while managing the club’s salary cap. Grunwald joined the Nuggets after working as an attorney with the Chicago law firm of Winston and Strawn.

In joining the Knicks, Grunwald left a position with Toronto’s Board of Trade, where he had served as president and CEO since December 2004. A former member of the board of directors of Canada Basketball, he is chairman and part owner of the HoopDome, a multi-court basketball facility at Toronto’s Downsview Park.

Grunwald graduated from Indiana University in 1981, where he played alongside Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas and co-captained the Hoosiers’ 1981 NCAA Championship squad. At Indiana, he was a Rhodes Scholar nominee and a two-time Big Ten All-Academic Second Team selection. He was the Celtics’ fifth-round pick in the 1981 NBA Draft.

Grunwald earned his law degree from Northwestern in 1984 and added a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Indiana in 1986.

The Chicago native and his wife Heather are proud parents of son Will (8). Grunwald also has a son, Gabe (17) and a daughter, Emma (16). The Grunwald family lives in Westchester.