Question: During the 2017-18 season, the Denver Nuggets appointed which former player to general manager?
Context: Pete Babcock is a retired NBA executive, serving as general manager with three franchises; the San Diego Clippers, Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Hawks.  He also worked in a variety of capacities from scouting to coaching to player personnel with the New Orleans Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers over a 42-year period.  He also served as president and minority owner in his final two seasons with the Denver Nuggets.  His Nuggets and Hawks teams appeared in the playoffs 14 out of 15 seasons.  Babcock also directed the NBA Pre Draft Camp for over twenty years, served on the competition and rules committee and steering committee for the NBA and was a member of the USA basketball men's selection committee picking the 1996 Olympic team and head coach. The 1999–2000 NBA season was the 54th season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association.  During the offseason, the Celtics signed free agent Calbert Cheaney while acquiring Danny Fortson, and former Celtics forward Eric Williams from the Denver Nuggets.  In the third year of the Rick Pitino era, the Celtics played around .500 for the first few months, but then struggled suffering a ten-game losing streak between March and April.  Fans and the media began to show their impatience with the struggling franchise, who finished out of the playoffs again with a 35–47 record, fifth in the Atlantic Division.  Second-year star Paul Pierce had a stellar season averaging 19.5 points per game, second on the team in scoring.  Following the season, Dana Barros was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, who then traded him to the Detroit Pistons two months later, Cheaney was traded to the Denver Nuggets, and Fortson was dealt to the Golden State Warriors. The 2004–05 NBA season was the 29th season for the Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball Association, and their 38th season as a franchise.  During the offseason, the Nuggets acquired Kenyon Martin from the New Jersey Nets.  Coming off their first playoff appearance in nine years, the Nuggets got off to a shaky start at 13–15.  Head coach Jeff Bzdelik was fired and replaced with Michael Cooper as the team lost 10 of their next 14 games.  Cooper was then replaced with George Karl, who then led the Nuggets with a 32–8 record for the remainder of the season, including a ten-game winning streak in April.  The Nuggets finished second in the Northwest Division with a 49–33 record.  Second-year star Carmelo Anthony led them in scoring with 20.8 points per game. The 2015–16 Philadelphia 76ers season was the 77th season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA).  It was also the second straight season that Joel Embiid, their third pick in the 2014 NBA draft, would not suit up for the 76ers due to a leg injury.  Philadelphia broke the record for the longest losing streak in American professional sports history with 27 straight losses over this season and last season with a 114–116 loss to the Houston Rockets.  The losing streak would reach to 28 games (with the 18 straight losses tying the record for longest opening season losing streak with the 2009–10 New Jersey Nets) before getting their first victory at home against the Los Angeles Lakers, which was also Kobe Bryant's last game against the 76ers in Philadelphia.  Philadelphia would also hire former Phoenix Suns owner, coach, general manager, and four-time NBA Executive of the Year winner Jerry Colangelo on December 7, 2015 as their Chairman of Basketball Operations.  Eleven days later, former Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks, and Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni would join the team as an associate head coach.  Near the end of the season, general manager Sam Hinkie would announce his resignation from his position, being replaced by Jerry's son Bryan Colangelo before the end of the season.  Jerry would also announce his personal demotion from his original position afterwards.  They finished just one game shy of tying the NBA record for most losses in a season set by themselves during their 1972–73 season when they went 9–73.  However, it would be the season where Sam Hinkie's goal of "The Process" came into full fruition since they'd later earn the #1 selection in the 2016 NBA draft. The 2017–18 Denver Nuggets season will be the 42nd season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA).  On June 15, 2017, the Nuggets officially promote both Artūras Karnišovas and Tim Connelly to become the team's newest general manager and president of basketball operations respectively. Artūras Karnišovas (born April 27, 1971) is a Lithuanian professional basketball executive and former player.  He is currently the general manager of the Denver Nuggets of the NBA. The 1976 ABA All Star Game was the 9th and final American Basketball Association All-Star Game, played at McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado on January 27, 1976.  This time, the league abandoned the usual East vs. West format it used from the 1967-68 season onward and instead had the league's first place team at the All Star break face off against a team of ABA All Stars.  At the All Star break the Denver Nuggets were in first place, which was convenient as the Nuggets had also been selected to host the game in McNichols Arena.  Kevin Loughery of the New York Nets coached the All-Stars while Larry Brown led the Denver Nuggets.  This was the second year in a row that Loughery and Brown coached against each other in the ABA All-Star Game.  (The Nuggets went on to finish the regular season in first place at 60-24 (.714), but after beating the Kentucky Colonels 4 games to 3 in the ABA Semifinals the Nuggets lost in the 1976 ABA Finals to the New York Nets, 4 games to 2.) The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado.  The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division.  The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association (ABA), but changed its name to Rockets before the first season.  It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974.  After the name change, the Nuggets played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the New York Nets. The 2009–10 Denver Nuggets season was the 43rd season of the franchise, its 34th in the National Basketball Association (NBA).  After their trip the Conference Finals last season, the Nuggets started the season 35-18 before the All-Star break.  Coach George Karl and Carmelo Anthony were the only Nuggets to represent the Western Conference in the 2010 NBA All-Star Game.  During the break, Anthony sported a new haircut.  However, not long after the break, dark clouds gathered around the team as coach Karl was diagnosed with neck and throat cancer.  Adrian Dantley took over and the team struggled in the second half of the season, finishing with a 53-29 record and earned the number 4 seed in the West.  Denver's season ended in the first round with a defeat to the Jazz in six games. Pete D’Alessandro (Born June 17, 1968) is an assistant general manager with the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association.  Prior to joining the Magic, D’Alessandro was the general manager for the Sacramento Kings and an assistant general manager with the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets twice.
Answer: Artūras Karnišovas