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Every offseason, we run historical ranking series focusing on North Carolina basketball and football.
The purpose each spring isn’t to make declarative statements, but to have fun offering a subjective look at the best teams and players ever at Carolina. This effort is to generate discourse, debate, and take UNC fans down memory lane.
This season, we are doing something a little different, combining football and basketball, as we offer our take on the Top 40 UNC football and basketball players of all time. The CRITERIA are quite simple: The process includes playing careers with the Tar Heels and professionally, other relevant impacts they’ve had on their sports, coaching, and championships. We also gave a lean toward all UNC accomplishments.
So, this isn’t a UNC-only list, a pro-only list, or a straight up purely best ever list. Some Tar Heels on this list didn’t have great pro careers but were so good and historic at UNC, they simply had to make the cut. Some on this list weren’t stars at UNC, but had outstanding and/or highly distinguished pro careers, that it warranted their place among these 40 athletes.
We hope you enjoy the list and feel free to disagree, as we know many will.
We continue our countdown with:
No. 32: Mitch Kupchak (1972-76)
Twice averaged a double-double at North Carolina, scoring 18.5 points and grabbing 10.8 rebounds per contest as a junior and 17.6 points and 11.3 rebounds as a senior. Scored 1,611 points and pulled down 1,006 rebounds in his UNC career.
Two-time, first-team All-ACC and was named the ACC Player of the year as a senior in 1976. Was also an All-America in 1976.
Starting center on gold medal winning USA team at the 1976 Summer Olympics. A first-round pick by the Washington Bullets, he was on the first-team NBA rookie team in 1977 and helped Washington to an NBA championship in 1978, a spot in the finals in 1979, and he won two more titles with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kupchak averaged 10.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in 510 career games before suffering a knee injury that led to the end of his career. His totals are 5,202 points, 2,730 rebounds, and 176 blocked shots. He played in 68 playoffs games, averaging 7.7 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest.
In addition, Kupchak has been one of the most successful executives in league history, winning seven NBA championships, which included four during his time as the Lakers’ general manager. He has been with the Charlotte Hornets since 2018.
