The Center of L.A.

Former Carolina basketball All-American Mitch Kupchak '76 is accustomed to a high standard of excellence. Although he never won a national championship at UNC, the team competed for it every year. As a center in the NBA, Kupchak won three world titles with the Washington Bullets ('78) and the Los Angeles Lakers ('82 and '85). He has since won three more championships while working with the Lakers ('87 and '88), with the most recent coming this year, when he was general manager.

Kupchak is still general manager, but as of Aug. 7, he also is the executive vice president of basketball operations, replacing the legendary Jerry West as the top basketball executive of the team and overseeing all player personnel matters.

Kupchak, who was ACC Player of the Year in 1976 and the first freshman to play varsity basketball at Carolina, always has been a step ahead of the game.

"I've always felt that the goal of each team is to contend for a world or national championship," Kupchak said. "I think the challenge is clear—over the past 18 or 19 years, it's the standard of excellence that I feel is the message. In the '60s and '70s, the standard of excellence began, and going forward, my hope is to continue to be able to compete and put [the Lakers] in the position to advance in the playoffs."

But the job will not be easy.

Kupchak, who has been with the Lakers' management since 1986, when he was named assistant general manager of the team, must emerge from behind a very large shadow in West. The former All-American played a role in seven of the team's championships, dating back to the early 1970s, when he was a player. West, who was named head of basketball operations in 1982, also was general manager until 1995, when Kupchak assumed the role.

"I've assisted West, and my hope was that my assistance enabled him to do his job better and with more ease—that's what I hoped my contribution would be," Kupchak said. "Anything this team did, it was designed by West and [owner Jerry Buss]. Certainly, I had a hand in all those things, but they didn't look at me when a decision had to be made."

Despite his role of secondhand man for 14 years, Kupchak remained committed to the Lakers team and to West, his mentor—much like the relationship between former UNC head basketball coaches Bill Guthridge and Dean Smith. Kupchak, a political science major who played for the Tar Heels from 1973 to 1976 and earned team MVP honors his senior year, consulted Guthridge on the one occasion when he was considering leaving the Lakers.

"I talked to Guthridge about it, and he did the same thing—working with one person—and he chose to wait," Kupchak said. "At the end of the day, I looked back on it and felt I made the right decision."

Like Guthridge, Kupchak eventually got the job he wanted; but he hesitates in calling it his "dream job."

"I can't say I've ever dreamed about being in this position," Kupchak said. "But throughout my whole life, I've wanted to grow and advance. I like responsibility and challenges, so to me, eventually, to grow into a position like this, I just thought would happen and [is something] I'd like to do."

Buss, owner of the world champion Lakers, is certain Kupchak, 46, will continue the winning tradition West began.

"I have the utmost respect for and confidence in Mitch Kupchak," Buss said when he promoted Kupchak. "He is Jerry West's hand-picked successor and was trained by the best. Mitch has become, and will continue to be, one of the best front-office executives in the NBA in his own right."

And as long as Buss and the Lakers will have him, Kupchak, who occasionally returns to North Carolina for basketball games and golf outings, plans to stay in California.

"When you wake up, you have to ask yourself, 'Do you want to go in to the office and are you challenged?'" he said. "Five, eight, 10 years—if they'll have me for that long, why not? I enjoy the city, and my wife and I are raising a family here. You don't plan that far out—certainly not in this business."

—Worth Civils