North Carolina Tar Heels: Mitch Kupchak Out as Lakers GM
Former North Carolina Tar Heels forward Mitch Kupchak was fired from his job in the Los Angeles Lakers front office.
The North Carolina Tar Heels have a number of faces doted in the NBA. They play on the court and operate behind board room chairs. There is even an owner of one of the league’s franchises who is a former Tar Heel player. Their number grew smaller today as Mitch Kupchak was fired from his duties as the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers went through a brief transition to bring in Magic Johnson into their leadership. Johnson used his influence to boot the front office team of the Lakers. That would be Jim Buss, son of deceased owner Jerry Buss, and Kupchak.
Kupchak was with the Tar Heels in the 70s and then in the NBA until 1986. He joined the Lakers front office at that point and became full general manager in 2000. In the early 2000s, the Lakers were the league dynasty and won three straight titles.
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Kupchak’s first big move was the attempt to bring in Karl Malone and Gary Payton to get the Lakers to their fourth title. That attempt failed in the Finals against the Pistons. The Shaq-Kobe rivalry then forced Kupchak to trade O’Neal, which he did to the Miami Heat. He made the best of a bad bargain with Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, and Brian Grant. Odom would become a fixture on the next Kobe centered contender.
Kupchak brought in Trevor Ariza in 2007, but his best deal was bringing in Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies via trade. The Kobe-Gasol tandem was good for two more NBA titles. That team included Kupchak draftee Andrew Bynum and signee Ron Artest. Kupchak was denied the ability to bring in Chris Paul from the New Orleans franchise by the NBA.
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The problem that the Lakers franchise was having to deal with was Kobe’s last years. The team aged out and Kobe’s final seasons were wasted as a result. The youth movement could not arrive fast enough for the aging superstar. Without Kobe, the Lakers are still in the wilderness and developing their young talent. Johnson made the determination that things were not going well enough and axed Kupchak.
There is an argument that Kupchak was very successful in his time as general manager. The team won five titles, and the last two were with a team that Kupchak had constructed on his own. Yet he probably became a victim of the Lakers image, and he was not well regarded by Kobe Bryant during his tenure.