Career
Born in Klaipėda, Karnišovas started his early career in Lithuania, with Statyba Vilnius, while in high school, and played there until 1990. Expressing an interest in playing and studying in the United States, Karnišovas earned an invitation to play college basketball at Seton Hall University following a recommendation of Šarūnas Marčiulionis to Seton Hall coach P.J. Carlesimo during the 1990 International Basketball Federation World Championship. Karnišovas was the first player from the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics to play in an American college, and arrived there without knowing a single word of English.
After trying and failing to draw interest from an National Basketball Association team, Karnišovas began playing overseas.
His former coach Carlesimo attributed his lack of play in North America due to insufficient scouting and guaranteed financial return in Europe. Karnišovas is one of the few players to have been in Europe"s four strongest championships, Spain (for Football Club Barcelona), Italy (Fortitudo Bologna), Greece (Olympiacos), and France (Cholet).
He reached the Euroleague"s Euroleague Final Four 3 times, and he led the 1998-1999 Euroleague in free throw percentage (896%). Karnišovas helped lead the senior men"s Lithuanian national basketball team to consecutive Bronze medals at the Summer Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996.
He was also a first-team All-Star in the 1998 International Basketball Federation World Championship.
Karnišovas worked for the National Basketball Association"s Basketball Operations office from 2003 to 2008, and afterwards became an international scout for the Houston Rockets for five years, while also directing the adidas Eurocamp – a preparation tournament for European players picked in the National Basketball Association draft – in 2011 and 2012. On July 16, 2013, it was announced that he became the assistant general manager of the Denver Nuggets. Karnišovas was considered as one of the candidates for the place of general manager of the Brooklyn Nets.