Woj Bomb: Rob Pelinka in talks to become Lakers GM
Lakers are finalizing a multi-year agreement with agent Rob Pelinka as general manager, league sources tell @TheVertical. He'll start soon.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) February 21, 2017
February 21st, 2017 at 6:43 PM ^
Told by one of Rob Pelinka’s clients that he believes a deal to make the prominent agent GM of the Lakers is done.
— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) February 21, 2017
February 21st, 2017 at 6:53 PM ^
Am I weird for not knowing who either of those people are?
February 21st, 2017 at 6:54 PM ^
...so yeah.
February 21st, 2017 at 6:57 PM ^
Well, I was 6 years old when they got to their first Final 4, and since I'm not WD, I can't recite every roster of every sport in Michigan athletics history.
February 21st, 2017 at 7:14 PM ^
+1 for not being WD
February 21st, 2017 at 9:14 PM ^
exactly what one of WD'S alt accounts would say...
February 21st, 2017 at 9:48 PM ^
The long con is a game well played by those only of the utmost cunning.
February 22nd, 2017 at 2:02 AM ^
a linguist.
February 22nd, 2017 at 6:13 AM ^
James
February 21st, 2017 at 7:17 PM ^
He's a very famous/successful Michigan alum who was also an athlete. It's not bad that you don't know him, but it is a little weird.
February 21st, 2017 at 7:26 PM ^
from the "Fab Five" era, I would guess that Pelinka was probably about the 2nd or 3rd man in off the Michigan bench back then, getting minutes in nearly every game, occasionally even substantial minutes.
But Hail Yeah! IT'S GREAT TO SEE A MICHIGAN WOLVERINE... Succeed!!!
February 21st, 2017 at 11:51 PM ^
Webber called the timeout. The weird part is that Pelinka told a story about a dream he had the night before the game. In the dream UM was down by 2 and he hit a corner 3 to win the game.
I remember that shit like it was yesterday.
February 22nd, 2017 at 11:29 AM ^
Rob Pelinka 'Bass'
James Voskuil
Michael 'Turnover' Talley
All players who were ultimately benched for the F5 and Pelinka was an upperclassman.
Remember him well - far more successful in his agent role than as a player. Wish him the best.
February 22nd, 2017 at 10:44 AM ^
.....
February 21st, 2017 at 9:11 PM ^
Generally very well known
Would describe as prominent
February 21st, 2017 at 11:23 PM ^
Most of the board is made up by your peers, so no, there is nothing weird. Simply before your time!
February 22nd, 2017 at 11:40 AM ^
Informed fans know who Neil Snow was.
February 22nd, 2017 at 9:38 AM ^
and pretty thin. A designated gunner with nothing else much to his game.
Smart guy who, IIIRC, went to work for an IMG-like organization and then came back to A2 and got a law degree. Obviously a smart guy (think he got a BBA as an undergrad).
Played ball with/against him at CCRB a number of times during his law school days.
February 22nd, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
He went straight to law school after undergrad. Then he became an agent after law school.
He was a regular at the IM Building on Friday afternoons. He was ridiculous for a guy playing pick up games at a rec building.
February 21st, 2017 at 6:59 PM ^
I could be wrong, but he's the only person to have been on all four of those teams, if I am not mistaken, and indeed, he also got his JD from Michigan as well. He's represented quite a few NBA stars as an agent too - Carlos Boozer comes to mind first for some reason, but he had several clients.
February 21st, 2017 at 7:09 PM ^
He was a freshman on the 89 National championship team, redshirted the next year, and played the following 3 years, including the two trips to the final. I believe he's the only mens ncaa d1 player in history to play in 3 final fours.
February 21st, 2017 at 7:30 PM ^
UCLA won 7, yes 7, consecutive NCAA championships. Do you think that they may have had at least 1 player play in 3 final fours. Dumb ass.
February 21st, 2017 at 7:42 PM ^
drinking coffee.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:01 PM ^
And mixing it with meth
February 21st, 2017 at 8:20 PM ^
Dumb ass.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:17 PM ^
Well, UCLA's run of 10 straight final fours was from 1967-1976. Freshman werent eligible to play NCAA D1 bball until 1972. So none of the players from 1967-1972 would have been able to go to more than 3 Final Fours in a row.
UCLA didnt make another Final 4 until 1980, so only the Freshman in the 1973 season could've played in four final fours (73,74,75,76).
Casey Corliss and Ralph Drolinger were the FR that season. Corliss didnt play out his full eligibility. Drollinger was the first player in NCAA history to go to 4 final fours, though he didnt play in it his freshman year.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:27 PM ^
Only player to play in 3 final fours. That is ludicrous. Like, "MSU football is going to rock the world next year," ludicrous.
C'mon. Let me feel like I have enough living brain cells to feel like I can still win an argurment (even though I am picking it). I have not won an argument with my wife in more than 1.5 decades. Let me feel good for once for God's sake. Downvoting me for a valid counterexample is not cool. I feel violated.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:33 PM ^
Dumb ass is what you were most likely getting down voted for.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:34 PM ^
I didnt downvote you bro.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:53 PM ^
I'm shocked you argue that much with your wife.
February 21st, 2017 at 9:00 PM ^
And even if I had, your "counter example" was super valid. You called the guy a dumbass for taking a guess, then said something about UCLA that only turned out to be true of one person.
February 21st, 2017 at 9:08 PM ^
being a needlessly combative prick.
February 22nd, 2017 at 6:09 AM ^
WALTER.
February 22nd, 2017 at 8:28 AM ^
Francis
February 22nd, 2017 at 8:49 AM ^
You realize that people often talk about the NCAA tourney and notable accomplishments in terms of certain eras/evolutions of it right? When UCLA was winning left and right, there were less than 32 teams in it. When Pelinka was making it to 3 final fours, it was during what would be considered the modern 64+ team era. Thus, I believe the statement you freaked out about absolutely holds true.
Now settle down there champ.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:47 PM ^
...you'll see a young Eric Riley during his redshirt season. I assume he got a ring since he was on scholarship.
February 21st, 2017 at 11:25 PM ^
I have Michigan basketball cards from 1989 and Riley was absolutely perfect no the team.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:57 PM ^
Well, he is (I'm pretty sure) the only Michigan player to see game action in 3 Final Fours.
But yeah, UCLA, Kentucky, Duke . . . there have been others. Christian Laettner played in four in a row.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:56 PM ^
Way to bury the lede bigtime—the more impressive stat is that he played in three CHAMPIONSHIP games.
Whether or not other players have matched or exceeded that is another question.
February 21st, 2017 at 10:31 PM ^
won 3 championship games.
February 21st, 2017 at 9:28 PM ^
Christian Laettner Played in 4 final fours, was runner up once and won two championships.
February 21st, 2017 at 11:13 PM ^
Patrick Ewing and Georgetown went to 3 finals from 1982-85.
February 21st, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
Pretty sure he is the only player that was on the 89 team and both years of the Fab-5. Kobe Bryant is his biggest client.
February 21st, 2017 at 8:48 PM ^
Eric Riley and James Voskuil were also on the team that whole time. But they redshirted in '89 - Pelinka was the only one to play on all three of those Final Four teams.
February 21st, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
I remember him playing about one minute in one of the 1989 NCAA tournament games in Atlanta, guessing the Xavier game, when there is a bit of foul trouble. It's been almost 30 years, but I have a vivd memory of Pelinka having no interest in having the ball in his hands.
Interesting that Magic would make a three-time Michigan guy his GM. I'm wondering if Magic even knows Pelinka is a Michigan guy.
February 22nd, 2017 at 1:56 AM ^
they really don't give a shit about which school a person attend as long as he's good.
February 22nd, 2017 at 6:55 AM ^
I don't know for a fact, but I'd imagine he played in the '89 Virginia game where we won by 37.
February 22nd, 2017 at 12:35 AM ^
Right. In 89 we needed him for depth especially after Kirk Taylor blew out his knee. Sad, dude was a baller and was never the same. Anyway, Pelinka played a bit role, pretty minor. The 1990 team returned basically everybody except Glen Rice (huge exception obviously) and so there wasn't much playing time. We also added Michael Talley and Tony Tolbert who were more highly regarded recruits than Pelinka had been. Especially Talley, who had been Mr. Basketball in Michigan. Pelinka had a knee issue or something too so anyway he didn't play in 89-90 and redshirted. Pelinka played some (based on my 25 year old memory) in 90-91 which was the team w/o much talent led by Demetrious Calip that was in between the guys from 89 and then the Fab 5 but even on that relatively talentless NIT team he was a role player at most. About the same during the Fab 5's freshman year but he was more effective as a role player who could spot up. By 92-93, was was really the top perimeter sub during the Fab 5 sophomore year where he played real minutes. Could hit a 3 and good FT shooter.
Completely different skillset as a 2, so this is probably a bad comparison. But maybe in terms of performance, talent and impact to a Final Four team, you could kind of equate his role in 93 to maybe 2013 Jordan Morgan. More famous for his agent stuff but still worth remembering as a player if you've been following M basketball for that long.
February 21st, 2017 at 9:46 PM ^
Pelinka very publicly dumped Boozer as a client, though Rob didn't come out of it unscathed.
February 22nd, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
Boozer is the one that I remember as well. In particular, they pulled something off that got Boozer free agency earier from Cleveland and he moved to Utah and got a big salary bump.