Glen Grunwald

Glen Grunwald (born June 13, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois) is currently the senior vice president for basketball operations of the New York Knicks of the NBA. He is most notably remembered as the former general manager of the Toronto Raptors, a role he filled from March 1998 until April, 2004.

Grunwald was a high school All-American basketball player from East Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois. He is the only player selected All-Chicago area 4 times, and was player of the year in the state his senior year, 1976. He was injured prior to his freshman year at Indiana University, and although he was a team captain in 1981, when Indiana won the national title, and was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 5th round of the NBA Draft, he never played professional basketball.

Grunwald instead focused on his education, earning a law degree, an MBA and an Honours business degree in marketing. He went on to become a successful corporate attorney for major law firms, business founder and operator, and legal counsel to a television network, before joining the basketball world again as a VP of the Denver Nuggets.

Grunwald was attributed with turning the basement-dwelling Raptors into a Playoff Contender through good drafting and skilled trading. They had three straight playoff berths from 2000-2002, record league attendance, and Grunwald's moves earned praise from NBA Commissioner David Stern.

However, the injury-plagued Raptors missed the playoffs in the 2002-2003 season and Grunwald shook up the roster. During the 2003-2004 season, despite inconsistency, they went 25-25 and were on track to return to the playoffs. It seemed that Grunwald would have a contract extension that the board had hesitated to give him, but then a rash of injuries saw the team go 8-24 to narrowly finish out of a postseason berth. Before the season was finished, as it was apparent the Raptors were going to miss the playoffs, Grunwald was fired on in April, 2004. Jack McCloskey was named interim GM and Rob Babcock was appointed as a permanent replacement.

Grunwald later became the President and CEO of the Toronto Board of Trade, 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 sits 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 is further involved with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, as well as Canada Basketball.

An accomplished speaker, Mr. Grunwald has addressed a wide range of organizations including the Rotary Club, the Canadian Property Tax Association, the Toronto Industry Network, the American Business Awards, and the Canadian Society of Club Managers.

On September 28th, 2006, Grunwald accepted a job as an assistant GM of the New York Knicks under Isiah Thomas. Officially his title is senior vice president for basketball operations.

Grunwald came to Toronto in 1994 and obtained his Canadian citizenship in 1999. He is married and has three children.

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
before = Isiah Thomas
title = General Manager, Toronto Raptors
years = 1998-2004
after = Rob Babcock

External links

* [http://glengrunwald.blogspot.com/ Glen Grunwald's blog]
* [http://www.nba.com/knicks/news/grunwald_060928.html Knicks hire Glen Grunwald]