Top 5 New Mexico Lobos basketball players of all time
2. Michael Cooper
After transferring to UNM from Pasadena City College prior to his junior season, Cooper became a two-time first-team All-Western Athletic Conference player with the Lobos. He averaged 16.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists in his senior season when he led the Lobos to the WAC title and earned All-American status.
The Los Angeles Lakers selected the 6-foot-5 shooting guard in the third round (60th overall) of the 1978 NBA Draft and Cooper would spend all 12 of his NBA seasons with the team that drafted him and became known as one of the best defenders in the league. He earned a spot on the NBA All-Defensive First Team five times and the All-Defensive Second Team three times. The 1987 Defensive Player of the Year won five NBA titles with the Showtime-era Lakers of the 1980s before retiring after playing one additional professional season in Italy in 1991.
Cooper has since had a successful coaching career, having led the Los Angeles Sparks to back-to-back WNBA titles in 2001 and 2002. He鈥檚 also had other coaching stints in the NBA (Lakers and Denver Nuggets), the WNBA (Atlanta Dream), the NBA D-League (Albuquerque Thunderbirds), college (USC women) and high school. He鈥檚 currently the head coach of Culver City High School鈥檚 boys varsity basketball team in Culver City, Calif.