Joe Kopicki

Joe Kopicki was the only Macomb County native to play in the National Basketball Association as of 2012 and was considered the county's best ever. He began his basketball career at Warren Fitzgerald High School, where he scored 51 points in a single game, still a Macomb County record. He was named to the First Team Class A-All State squad, and his number 34 was retired by his high school alma mater. He then played four years at the University of Detroit, scoring 1,410 points and collecting 771 rebounds, totals that ranked in the school's top ten all-time when he graduated in 1982 and helped earn him induction into the Detroit Titans Hall of Fame in 2010. Drafted in the third round of the 1982 NBA Draft, he played three seasons with the Washington Bullets and Denver Nuggets before choosing European professional basketball. He starred for four years in Italy and four more in Spain, and during the 1986-87 season he was named the Spanish League's MVP. After his playing career, he returned to Warren Fitzgerald High School as head basketball coach. He was honored by the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 and inducted into the Macomb County Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

Mount Clemens, Michigan · United States