Rich Cho

Rich Cho enters his second season with the Memphis Grizzlies as vice president of basketball strategy. Cho assists General Manager & Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Zachary Z. Kleiman in various aspects of basketball operations, including salary cap matters, basketball analytics, player contracts and player acquisitions.

A native of Myanmar who immigrated to the United States with his family in 1968 when he was three years old, Cho became the first Asian-American general manager in American major league sports when he served as general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers in 2010-11. He then worked seven seasons (2011-18) as general manager of the Charlotte Hornets, where he served as the franchise’s lead basketball operations executive. Prior to his stint in Portland, Cho spent 10 seasons (2000-10) as assistant general manager of the Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder. He entered the NBA in 1995 as an intern with the SuperSonics while earning a law degree from Pepperdine University School of Law. After serving as a part-time consultant for the SuperSonics in 1997, Cho was hired as the team’s

director of basketball affairs in 1998 before being promoted to assistant general manager in 2000.

A member of the Washington State Bar, Cho also served as vice president of legal for the SuperSonics from 2005-07 in addition to his duties as assistant GM. Following the team’s move to Oklahoma City, Cho also oversaw the Thunder’s NBA G League affiliate, the Tulsa 66ers, and their run to the championship game in 2009-10.

Cho earned an engineering degree from Washington State University and worked as an engineer at Boeing in Seattle from 1989- 94 before leaving to enroll at Pepperdine in order to pursue his passion in professional sports. His law degree from Pepperdine includes an emphasis in sports law, contract negotiations and dispute resolution.

During his internship with the SuperSonics, Cho, along with two Microsoft programmers, helped design and implement one of the NBA’s most advanced and comprehensive college and professional player evaluation systems that integrates player statistics, scouting information and contract details.

An avid explorer of restaurants and cuisine, Cho founded an interactive food blog site called Bigtime (bigtimebites.com) to bring basketball fans and food lovers across the country together. Cho also enjoys staying active by playing basketball, tennis, ping pong and pickleball in his spare time. During the 2017 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Cho won the NBA Summer League Table Tennis Challenge Benefitting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for the second time (previously won in 2013). As a competitive pickleball player, Cho is sponsored by Onix Pickleball. In 2018, Cho won the Thailand Open and U.S. Mid-Atlantic Regional Pickleball Championships and has played in both the U.S. Open and U.S. National Pickleball Championships. Cho and his wife, Julie, have two daughters, Miranda and Annika.