No one lasts 17 years running an NBA front office without acquiring some significant talent. And just as certain, no one goes 17 years in the same general manager position without making moves he’d love to have back.
Mitch Kupchak ran the Los Angeles Lakers from August 2000 (when Jerry West left the front office) until February of 2017, when the Lakers let Kupchak go. Now, Kupchak has been offered the Charlotte Hornets’ general manager job, where he would work for owner (and fellow former North Carolina star) Michael Jordan.
For nearly all of Kupchak’s time with the Lakers, his job was to build a team around superstar guard Kobe Bryant, who West acquired from the original Hornets in a pre-arranged draft-rights deal in 1996.