LOS Angeles Lakers legend Michael Cooper might have retired from the NBA, but he’s never quit the basketball world.
The five-time NBA champion has even returned to the City of Angels to keep making Los Angeles basketball proud, serving as the coach of Culver City High School’s boys’ varsity team.
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Coop won five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in the Showtime eraCredit: 2020 Getty Images
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Cooper turned to varsity basketball having served as an NBA assistant and after head coaching stints in the WNBA.Credit: AP
Cooper, 67, hardly looks like the 6-foot-7 shooting guard who anchored the Showtime Lakers’ defense over 30 years ago.
He was a slender but athletic man with a recognizable thin mustache as he earned eight All-Defensive honors and the 1987 Defensive Player of the Year.
But the NBA icon still breathes competitive basketball.
Cooper led the Culver City Centaurs to a regional Division III championship game in 2022-23.
There, his side fell 81-78 to Buena High – but only after triple overtime.
“We’re so lucky to have him,” Culver City’s athletic director Tom Salter told the Los Angeles Times.
“He’s so energetic. He leads rallies at the school.”
Cooper took over at Culver City after spending two years as coach of Chadwick School in Palos Verdes Penninsula, California.
He turned to varsity hoops after head coaching stints with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks and Atlanta Dream as well as the USC women’s basketball team.
Coop also worked as an assistant on the Lakers and Denver Nuggets, serving as an interim head coach for the latter in 2004-05.
He never received an All-Star honor and spent his 12-year NBA career playing as the sixth man for the Purple and Gold.
Nevertheless, Cooper played a major role in the success of the Showtime Lakers.
“Coop could’ve started for any team in the league,” Magic Johnson said earlier this year.
“He decided the sixth-man role was great for him.
“Whoever the highest scorer was on the opponent’s team, he would take him and really shut him down.”
Cooper averaged 8.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.2 steals for the Lakers.
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