CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Starting tonight, University of North
Carolina alumni Rick Fox, Mitch Kupchak
and Mike O'Koren are the latest in a long line of former
Tar Heel basketball players to be
involved in the NBA Finals. Fox and Kupchak are seeking
their third consecutive world championships with
the Los Angeles Lakers, Fox as a player and Kupchak as
general manager. O'Koren is in his third
year as an assistant coach with the New Jersey Nets.
Carolina has a long history of involvement in the NBA
Finals. In all, 30 members of the last 26
NBA championship teams have been Carolina alumni.
Fox is the starting small forward for the two-time
defending NBA champs. A former first-round
pick of the Boston Celtics, Fox is an 11-year veteran who
signed with the Lakers prior to the 1997-98
season. He is a valued defensive stopper and outside
shooter for Los Angeles.
Kupchak has served as GM of the Lakers since 1992 and took
over as the top personnel man for the
Lakers after the retirement of former GM Jerry West two
years ago. Kupchak has won seven NBA
championship rings since leaving Carolina ¯ three as a
player and four as a member of the Lakers¢ front
office.
O'Koren has performed a number of duties for the Nets over
the last two decades, working as a
player, assistant coach, broadcaster and in the franchise's
community affairs department in the last
22 years. A member of the staff of head coach Byron Scott
for the last two seasons, O¢Koren helped
guide the Nets to the best record in the NBA¢s Eastern
Conference this season. The Nets defeated
the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals to reach the
NBA Finals.
The Lakers and Nets will play Game One of the 2002 NBA
Finals tonight at 9 p.m. The game will be
broadcast nationally by NBC.