Mitch Kupchak

Mitch Kupchak

Kupchak visits the White House with the Lakers in 2010.
Personal information
Born	(1954-05-24) May 24, 1954 (age 62) Hicksville, New York
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)
Listed weight	230 lb (104 kg)
Career information
High school	Brentwood (Brentwood, New York)
College	North Carolina (1972–1976)
NBA draft	1976 / Round: 1 / Pick: 13th overall
Selected by the Washington Bullets
Playing career	1976–1986
Position	Power forward, center
Number	25, 41
Career history
1976–1981	Washington Bullets
1981–1986	Los Angeles Lakers
Career highlights and awards
3× NBA champion (1978, 1982, 1985) NBA All-Rookie First Team (1977) Consensus second-team All-American (1976) ACC Player of the Year (1976) 2× First-team All-ACC (1975, 1976)
Career statistics
Points	5,202 (10.2 ppg)
Rebounds	2,730 (5.4 rpg)
Assists	377 (0.7 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals Men's basketball Representing  United States Olympic Games Montreal 1976 Team

Mitchell Kupchak (born May 24, 1954) is an American former basketball player and the former general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Kupchak played for Brentwood High School in New York. He was an All-American on the North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team, and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in his senior season. Kupchak played on the gold medal-winning team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Kupchak was drafted by the Washington Bullets in 1976 and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team. He had four productive seasons with Washington and was part of the team that won the NBA championship in 1978. He signed a long term contract with the Lakers in 1981 at the behest of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, who told owner Jerry Buss, "If we could get Mitch Kupchak, I know we could win", after the team's playoff upset. Unfortunately, 26 games into the season, Kupchak injured his knee and did not play again until the 1983–84 season.

However, Kupchak played a key role in the Showtime Lakers' 1985 championship team against the Boston Celtics, who had intimidated them in the prior year's Finals. Kupchak retired after the 1985–86 season, having played 510 regular season and 68 playoff games, with regular season averages of 10.2 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game (7.7 points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game in the playoffs). During his final game, Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, a brawl broke out between the Lakers and the Houston Rockets, which saw Kupchak and Hakeem Olajuwon ejected.