Robert Todd Pelinka Jr. was born on December 23, 1969. Many know him as the man at the helm for the Los Angeles Lakers, serving as the organization's Vice President of Basketball Operations and general manager. There is much more to Rob Pelinka, however, and today we try to shed some light on the life of the Lakers top executive.
Pelinka was born in Chicago, Illinois. He went to Lake Forrest High School in Illinois, and this was where his basketball career started. He was actually pretty good, earning All-American honors as a teenager. Pelinka led the team to its first ever conference championship as a junior.
Pelinka, a 6-foot-6 point guard, was heavily recruited in college, and he ended up committing for the University of Michigan. Not many know that he was actually part of the famed Fab 5 from Michigan consisting of Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson.
Pelinka was part of the 1989 NCAA championship of Michigan as a freshman. He was the first player in school history to participate ion three Final Four tournaments. However, the last two were revoked because of a cheating scandal.
Pelinka was no more than a role player during his time with the Wolverines, however. In four seasons with the team, he averaged just 2.6 points and 2.1 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per contest. Needless to say, he did not develop into an NBA-caliber player, and his playing career pretty much ended when he graduated from college.
Pelinka was an excellent student-athlete, however. He took up Business Administration and managed to accumulate a very impressive 3.9 GPA. Instead of pursuing a basketball career after college, he went to Michigan Law School, where he eventually earned his Juris Doctor cum laude in 1994. He knew that he was not cut out to be a professional athlete, and as early as his college days, he already realized that his calling was in sports management.
By 1998, Pelinka joined SFX Management as a legal counsel. After two years, he became a sports agent. This was when his professional and personal relationship with Kobe Bryant started, with the firm representing Kobe from early on in his career.
A few years later, Pelinka started his own sports agency named The Landmark Sports Agency in Los Angeles. He, of course, took his number one client with him, and with Bryant at the top of his clientele list, he was able to sign on a number of prominent NBA stars through the years including James Harden, Andre Iguodala, Buddy Hield, Chris Bosh, and Eric Gordon, to name a few. Pelinka and his company also once represented Kevin Durant prior to his move to Jay-Z's Roc Nation Sports. As of 2018, Forbes lists Pelinka's agency to be worth $13.8 million, with $216 million worth of contract values under their management.
There's no denying, however, that he was closest to Kobe. So much so, that Pelinka literally stood by the side of Bryant during the latter's infamous sexual assault case in 2003. This was perhaps when their unbreakable bond was fortified. They got so close that Bryant asked Pelinka to be the godfather of his second daughter, Gianna, who sadly, also passed during the helicopter crash in January 2020.
In 2005, Pelinka married Kristin Schwarz. She is a pediatrician who earned her MD from UCLA in 2003. The couple have two children — a son named Durham, and a daughter named Emery. The couple and their children are members of a Christian group out of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach.
After years in the sports agency business, Pelinka made his move up to being a league executive. He was part and parcel of Lakers team owner Jeanie Buss' overhaul of the team's front office in 2017, which included the dismissal of Mitch Kupchak as the team's GM as well as Jeanie's own brother, Jim Buss, as the Vice President of Basketball Operations. Along with Magic Johnson, who served as the replacement of Jim Buss, Jeanie brought on Pelinka as Kupchak's successor as the team's new General Manager. The fact that Pelinka built a strong relationship with Jeanie in the years he represented Bryant certainly played a role in his hiring.
The Johnson-Pelinka regime in LA did not last long, however, with Magic deciding to step down after just two rather unsuccessful years at the helm. It could not be denied, however, that Johnson played a pivotal role in the signing of LeBron James in 2018. In the aftermath of Johnson's resignation, though, he attacked Pelinka, stating that Pelinka “backstabbed” him and had an incessant desire to takeover his position.
As of 2019, Pelinka is estimated to have a net worth of $25 million. A big chunk of that is represented by his four-year, $20 million deal with the Lakers, which commenced in 2017.
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