Mike Dunleavy Sr.

American basketball player and coach who won an NBA championship as a player with Philadelphia 76ers in 1983 and coached multiple NBA teams over two decades.

Michael Dunleavy was born on 21 March 1954 in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Nazareth Regional High School before playing college basketball at the University of South Carolina. The Philadelphia 76ers selected him in the sixth round of the 1976 NBA Draft, and he went on to play nine NBA seasons as a guard for the 76ers, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, and Milwaukee Bucks. Dunleavy transitioned into coaching in 1987 as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, before becoming head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1990, leading the team to the NBA Finals in his first season. He went on to coach the Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers, and Los Angeles Clippers across a coaching career spanning over two decades. Dunleavy was named NBA Coach of the Year in 1999 with the Trail Blazers, and later served as both head coach and general manager of the Clippers, guiding the franchise to some of its most successful seasons in team history during the mid-2000s. Dunleavy's son, Mike Dunleavy Jr., played 15 seasons in the NBA before becoming general manager of the Golden State Warriors, and Mike Sr. closed out his own coaching career with a stint at Tulane University from 2016 to 2019, extending a basketball legacy that has now spanned three generations of his family.

Versatile forward with good basketball IQ, team-first mentality

Respected figure who transitioned from solid playing career to accomplished coaching career spanning over two decades

• NBA Champion (1979)
• Coached multiple playoff teams