If you haven’t already, you’re going to hear a bunch of labels attached to Mitch Kupchak as the next general manager of the Charlotte Hornets: “Old school.” “Chapel Hill guy.” “Big-market GM.”
Here’s a label that could prove to be more important than any of that in projecting how Kupchak will work out here: “Connected.”
Kupchak worked in the Los Angeles Lakers’ front office from the mid-1980s until he was fired as that team’s general manager in February of 2017. From the little I’ve been around him, and more importantly from the conversations I’ve had with some of his peers, he is liked and respected by agents, players and other general managers.