Hornets GM, former UNC basketball player Mitch Kupchak spoke at Fetzer Hall on Friday

Mitch Kupchak spoke to a group of North Carolina students on Friday discussing his career as an NBA player and executive.

The lanky 6-foot-9 former power forward and current Charlotte Hornets general manager looked relaxed in his black gym shorts and matching Hornets polo as he familiarized the audience gathered in Fetzer Hall with a quick personal history.

Kupchak played basketball at UNC from 1972 to 1976 and spent 10 years as a player in the NBA. He was drafted No. 13 overall by the Washington Bullets following his ACC Player of the Year campaign in the 1975-1976 season and spent five years in Washington.  After a solid 1980-81 season for the Bullets he became a free agent, and his combination of size and skill made him a valuable commodity.

“The Lakers needed a power forward and I was recruited to Los Angeles,” Kupchak recalled. 

He would go on to sign with the Lakers, a team that gave him one of the most lucrative contracts in the league at the time.

“That lasted until Kareem found out,” he joked, referring to NBA legend and teammate, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Kupchak’s time in Los Angeles was derailed by knee injuries, but he took advantage of his time away from the court by taking business classes at UCLA. He continued to enroll in courses after he returned to the court, taking a class or two during the season and a couple more over the summer.

After undergoing surgery in 1986, Kupchak was offered a position in the front office by Lakers General Manager Jerry West and his second career officially began. He remained in the Lakers front office until 2017.

Kupchak was recruited to Charlotte by another UNC legend, Hornets majority owner Michael Jordan. It was not a job he immediately knew he wanted, but he decided to take it.

“I wasn’t sure they were going to reach out,” he said. “One or two jobs open up every year, and there are so many qualified candidates, you just don’t know.”

The Hornets are a much different task for Kupchak as he shifts from one of the NBA’s biggest markets to one of its smaller ones. One of the most significant challenges he faces is overcoming the economic disparity between small and large market franchises. Unlike the NFL, the NBA is not a full revenue-sharing league. This means that not all of the money it makes goes to the league as it gets redistributed amongst the teams.

While some of this goes on in the NBA, teams do not have to share money made from expenses such as advertising and ticket sales. This hurts the smaller market teams because they simply cannot charge the same amount of money. 

“I think the floor seats in Los Angeles go for about $3,500, in Charlotte we sell them for around $700,” he said. “That money goes directly to the team, so there is a huge financial difference.”

Given the time he has dedicated to basketball in his life already, and the tall task he faces in turning the Hornets from pretenders to contenders in the Eastern Conference, one might wonder why he would take on the job. For Kupchak, there is a fairly easy answer.  

“I love the game,” he said. “I love sitting with the coaches and players, I love watching training camp and practice. All the negative stuff is outweighed by the positives.” 

He also said in his year off (after being fired by the Lakers in 2017) he wasn’t bored, but he felt like something was missing. 

“The wins and losses are addicting,” he said. “When you lose a lot it’s hard on everyone, but I love to watch something grow and to compete. I just like being in the hunt.”

Kupchak did not only reflect on his own career while speaking to students, but also offered advice to others beginning theirs. If there was one message he could get across to aspiring general managers its was to get out there. 

“Get involved,” he said simply. “You’re at the right school with a huge athletic department, just do something and make connections.” 

The Hornets begin their preseason slate in Chapel Hill on Friday, taking on the Boston Celtics in the Smith Center.

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