Woj Bomb: Rob Pelinka in talks to become Lakers GM

Submitted by jimmyshi03 on

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

UNCWolverine

February 21st, 2017 at 7:20 PM ^

It really is a shame that you don't know who he is. The reason I say that is because he had a dream the night before the loss to Carolina that Webber passed him the ball for the winning 3 to win the game. And when Webber called the infamous TO, Pelinka was indeed spotting up cross court to hit the winning 3 had Chris passed him the ball. Kid could really shoot and I always believed that he would have indeed made the shot if given the opportunity.

He hits that shot, they win the national championship, and you would definitely have known his name today. Sigh......

xtramelanin

February 21st, 2017 at 9:44 PM ^

school.  the club was in downtown L.A.   he was with a few other guys and i let them in.   one of the other bouncers walked over and said, 'do you know who that was?'   i said of course 'no'.  and he told me.  i still didn't know him, but there's the story.  this was late '80s and he was just starting to get famous. 

Mr. Yost

February 21st, 2017 at 6:54 PM ^

Not a shocker, he's been rumored as the name since the Magic news broke. Congrats to a Michigan man running one of the proudest franchises in sports!

Edit: And getting the job after a disater, so the only way is up from here!

TruBluMich

February 21st, 2017 at 7:00 PM ^

As an agent and the owner of a sports agency how exactly is this going to work.  Does he negotiate with himself? /s kind of, but does anyone know how that works?

CommodityTrader

February 21st, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^

not sure if this is legend or fact. but after the 89 natl championship game, Fischer was asked if Glen Rice was the greatest shooter he'd had ever seen. he responded, he's not even the best shooter on our team. the media scoffed and asked who was, he responded Rob Pelinka. we tracked Pelinka during warm-ups. he was always the first one out. I am not sure if it was his goal or not but he finished 100/120. mostly 3's. many from as far away as 25 feet. the dude could shoot.

ST3

February 21st, 2017 at 10:41 PM ^

Yeah, good ol' Rob Voskuil. I saw James play hoops at the IM building. He was clearly a division 1 athlete. Jason Bossard was also playing in that game. I think I could have taken Bossard. j/k

MichiganTeacher

February 21st, 2017 at 8:55 PM ^

I admit I never watched Pelinka warm up. Should have because this is interesting to me. I mean, if he was really a better shooter than Glen, that would be amazing. I did watch Glen warm up a lot, in Ann Arbor and when he was with the Knicks, and he was one of those guys who made you feel like he was a different sort of entity altogether. Just not human, his shooting.

There are only 38 guys ahead of Glen on the all-time NBA career 3P% list. He's at 40% over a 15-year career. A lot of those guys benefited from teammates that really helped pump up their 3P% in a way Glen didn't. So, yeah, if Pelinka was a better shooter... nah. I don't believe it.  This had to be Fisher going into his screw it mode and not really thinking about what he was doing or saying.

kehnonymous

February 21st, 2017 at 7:42 PM ^

More to the point, Rob Pelinka was Kobe's agent so if nothing else he knows NBA salary bylaws like the back of his hand.  To stay on Kobe's good side for all his career and be a well-regarded agent is no mean feat so this makes me feel a lot better about the team Magic will be bringing in to helm the Lakers.

Rodriguesqe

February 21st, 2017 at 8:02 PM ^

Awesome news. For some reason I've always been a Laker fan. Loved the shaq / kobe era with Jack on the sidelines. Sports will never be buzzier to me. 

Jim Buss is exactly the type of guy I can do without. Having a guy like Pelinka replace him is going to be night and day.

Ty Butterfield

February 21st, 2017 at 8:38 PM ^

Remember Pelinka. Dude could hit the 3 ball. Actually have his autograph somewhere. Need to find that.

Fishbulb

February 21st, 2017 at 9:36 PM ^

He does have a ring--he was a frosh on the 89 team, wearing #25. Redshirted the next year, played the following year for a not good team, then the Fab Five arrived. He got quality minutes off the bench. Good shooter. Hustled. I would say he was like a poor man's Duncan Robinson on offense but was a better defender. He and James Voskiul were the subject of some goods-natured jokes due to their GPA's being higher than their PPG. Tore it up in high school--30 PPG. His HS later produced Matt Vogrich, who was like a poor man's Rob Pelinka.

Communist Football

February 21st, 2017 at 10:05 PM ^

When Michigan BB was in the top 5 every year.  Yes we often underperformed in the tourney, but still...we're still trying to get back to that level of performance.  I took it for granted at the time.

jmblue

February 21st, 2017 at 10:58 PM ^

Top 5 every year?  We didn't make the tournament at all from 1980-84.  

After that we picked it up (though 1985 and 1986 were probably the only actual top-5 teams entering the tourney) but Frieder was awful in the tournament - five wins in four appearances.

 

 

 

 

 

Lampuki22

February 22nd, 2017 at 6:56 AM ^

think of Webber don't diminish his NBA career too much due to college like local sparty talk radio hosts did the other day. NBA averages: 20.7 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals, 1.4 blocks per game Accolades: NBA Draft 1st overall pick (1993) 1993-94 NBA Rookie of the Year Five-time NBA All-Star 1st Team All-NBA (2001) NBA Hall of Fame Finalist

Lampuki22

February 22nd, 2017 at 7:01 AM ^

love Pelinka has done but to say his NBA career was more successful than Webber Howard Rose because he's been a successful agent now maybe a GM is a stretch. Howard has a rings and played for almost 20 years. Rose had a good career and is in the studio with several hosted shows now.

seegoblu

February 22nd, 2017 at 8:46 AM ^

Took him to Good Time Charlies and then Ricks. He was not interested in the usual things recruits wanted to see (i.e., girls), only wanted to talk about majors and JD/MBA programs, etc.

Most focused recruit I met. TOTAL difference in the approach of other recruits like Eric Montross, who were only interested in the basketball and the women.

Not even slightly surprised by his success.