Portal:Chicago/Selected biography/51

Robert Todd Pelinka, Jr. is an American lawyer, sports agent and former college basketball player from Lake Bluff, Illinois (suburban Chicago). As a sports agent he is best known as NBA MVP Kobe Bryant's agent and President and CEO of The Landmark Sports Agency, LLC. He is the agent for the seventh overall selection in the 2008 NBA Draft, Eric Gordon. He has also been the agent for NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, which has been controversial. He currently represents thirteen National Basketball Association (NBA) players, five of whom play for Los Angeles teams. As a basketball player he is former high school All-American who was overlooked by many scouts and recruiters at the Division I-level entering his senior season, but his MVP performance in a four-game tournament where he made all 42 of his free throws and impressive senior season statistics propelled him to a highly recruited status. He eventually went to the University of Michigan where he has the distinction of having been a member of three NCAA Final Four entrants: the 1988–89 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Champion University of Michigan Wolverines as well as both the 1991–92 and the 1992–93 national championship runners up that were best remembered as the Fab Five teams. Pelinka holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School and B.B.A. Business degree (BUS: BBA 1993) from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Pelinka was also named the 1993 NCAA Male Walter Byers Scholar Athlete of the Year.