Luke Walton has a proud papa today, but he also hopes that father doesn’t know best.
Bill Walton’s body didn’t enable him to become the heart of an NBA dynasty, but the legendary center lasted long enough to win NBA titles for different teams in different decades. Luke Walton’s father appreciates the long view — not because of his first title with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977, but because of the aches and pains and miserable experiences which cluttered his life ever since.
Bill Walton was robbed of many years because of the injuries which shredded his body as a player and brought him to the edge of existence as a man. He knows that every moment counts, and that there’s a time and place for everything.
Bill, in his heart of hearts, did not want Luke to leave the NBA champion Golden State Warriors — not just yet.
He told ESPN the following a month ago:
“It doesn’t get any better than what he’s got right now ever in life, and money will not make that happen again. It’s there now. Head coaching jobs, they’re open for a reason, and what he’s got, just stay there.”
Yet, the heart wants what the heart wants. The son felt it was time to go from the assistant’s chair on a championship team to the big chair in Los Angeles.
A father doesn’t have to agree with his son to be immensely — and rightfully — proud of him:
https://twitter.com/BillWalton/status/726425657224253442
Luke Walton, an NBA champion player as a member of the Lakers, will now coach the same franchise in a fascinating twist of history.
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Walton’s move is an entirely expected turn away from Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks. Yet, by turning away from Phil on one level, Walton has chosen to follow in Jackson’s footsteps in another. He wants to lead the Lakers to NBA titles after Jackson did the deed in five separate seasons.
As the Jackson-Walton teacher-mentor relationship becomes a legend-and-successor relationship in L.A., one must consider the boss Walton will soon leave behind in Oakland with the Golden State Warriors. Steve Kerr knits together the coaching triangle formed by Jackson and Walton.
Like Kerr himself, Walton will draw from Jackson as a former mentor as he begins his career as an NBA head coach. Walton will surely recall Phil’s advice in his first season and countless points beyond that first voyage as the leader of an NBA ballclub. Kerr’s people skills on an NBA bench weren’t shaped by any one person to the exclusion of others, but Jackson very much mastered the art of connecting with his players, and Kerr has demonstrated the same talent in a very short period of time. Kerr certainly applied lessons Jackson gave to him, even if those lessons might have been unspoken ones more than anything which can be expressed in an easy sound bite.
Walton was once a player Jackson instructed, so he’ll remember aspects of the Zen Master’s methods as he begins his professional relationship with D’Angelo Russell. Luke Walton might have turned away from Phil by staying on the West Coast, but there will be times over the next few years when Jackson — by legacy, not presence — becomes instrumental in showing the Lakers’ new coach how to be as successful as the old one.
Walton and Kerr both count Jackson as a defining and influential voice, but Walton owns the added benefit of his experience with Kerr as a second mentor. It’s not just the different voice which will help Walton; Kerr’s biggest gift to Luke is that he represents a teaching voice in a coaching context.
Jackson taught Walton how to be a better player in relationship to a coach. Kerr taught Walton how to be a better coach as a communicator to his players. The combination of voices is one blessing; the combination of circumstances is even more significant.
The Jackson-Kerr-Walton coaching triangle (pun not intended, if you’re thinking about offensive systems) gives Bill Walton’s son so many of the tools he needs to succeed in today’s NBA, even at the relatively young age of 36.
Luke Walton shouldn’t be worried about his own capabilities. He will be good for the Lakers, and Mitch Kupchak knew this when he made the decision to select the Lake Show’s next coach.
What should Luke Walton be worried about, you might be asking?
It’s not whether the coach will be good for the Lakers; it’s whether the Lakers will be good for the coach.
This is the central drama of the Luke Walton chapter of the Lakers’ existence.
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When the Lakers ask you to become their head coach, you don’t say no.
When the Lakers come calling, you jump at the opportunity.
There’s never a bad time to become the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
These and similar refrains have been sung by many a blogger in the hours since the Walton story was broken by Howard Beck of Bleacher Report on Friday night.
All these statements are perfectly understandable; the Lakers are, after all, one of the most decorated and globally recognized franchises in all of sports. It is immensely flattering — and an indication of your perceived abilities — if you are asked to coach the Lakers.
The Laker name automatically bestows a certain degree of heft and stature upon the people who coach the team. This is akin to being asked to coach hockey in Toronto or Montreal; to coach football in Pittsburgh or Dallas; or to become a manager in New York or Boston (cities where coaching any sport confers supreme respect — and pressure — upon the men in the spotlight).
Every voice, every inclination which says that there’s never a bad time to coach the Lakers, owns a certain degree of fundamental truth when viewed through this lens.
However, life isn’t always that simple. The story can’t always be reduced to a name, a call, and an opportunity.
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Yes, Walton has some exciting talent to work with in Los Angeles, starting with Russell and continuing with Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson. Yes, the Lakers could get a top-two draft pick fairly soon, the product of an appropriate and necessary tank job under Byron Scott. However, when Walton gets beyond those immediate benefits, he must build this team from the bottom up… without the depth he had in Golden State or the proven championship chops of the Warriors’ central cast of characters.
Is this really a good time to coach the Lakers? First of all, will the organization led by Jim Buss command enough respect to lure Russell Westbrook — UCLA product Russell Westbrook — to Southern California next year in free agency? If the Lakers don’t make a splash in the 2017 free-agent pool, just exactly where or when will they be able to create a true championship nucleus?
Players have to respect an organization before they desire to come there, and although the Lakers finally got rid of Scott, who was not a player’s coach, they pushed him out the door several months later than they should have. Scott’s rundown of Russell this past season — a conspicuously shameful example of a coach throwing a young player under the bus without much discernment — certainly had to erode whatever trust the Lakers had established in the minds of various prospective free agents. Hiring Walton will build back some of that trust, but probably not enough to change the landscape for the best free agents on the board.
This leads to the next obstacle in Walton’s path.
Keep in mind that whereas some franchises would kill for a conference finals berth — including the tenant with whom the Lakers share Staples Center — the Purple and Gold expect championships. Walton will receive time to do what he needs to do in Los Angeles, but if a title is indeed the ultimate expectation, it’s hard to think that Walton’s wait will be relatively brief. Even getting the Lakers to the conference finals appears to be a tall order within the next five seasons, based on everything else that’s happening in the league… with one exception.
The one thing which could make the Lakers’ path to a title a lot more realistic in the next five years is a Steph Curry injury bug, something Luke Walton’s father personally experienced in his playing career. If that doesn’t happen, however, the decline of the San Antonio Spurs (it has to happen eventually, right?) will give way to the rise of the Minnesota Timberwolves under Tom Thibodeau. In the shorter run, the Oklahoma City Thunder could potentially retain Westbrook and Kevin Durant, though that’s admittedly a wild card which can’t be viewed with too much certainty over the next 15 months.
Nevertheless, the point is plain: Walton will almost certainly have to walk in the wilderness the next several seasons, playing out the remainder of his 30-something years before he ever gets the chance to coach a team with a real, honest-to-goodness championship window.
Jerry West, who knew a thing or two about coaching and about relating to players, took over as the Lakers’ head coach shortly after his playing career ended in 1974. He guided the team for a few seasons in the latter half of the 1970s, when it was plain that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didn’t yet have the main sidekick he needed to turn the Lakers into a championship team.
West was in many ways the placeholder before the organization entered its next championship window and hired Jack McKinney as the coach who was supposed to lead the team to a title in 1980.
(The fascinating backstory: McKinney was significantly injured in a bike accident in 1979, causing Paul Westhead to become the interim coach. Westhead led the Lakers to the title. A year and a half later, Westhead was fired, and a man named Pat Riley took over. Owner Jerry Buss approached West, the general manager, about becoming coach again, but West didn’t want the job. West hired Pat Riley to lead from the bench. The rest is history.)
West found a home in the front office after his playing days were over. If he ever did harbor a desire to make it big as a head coach, the mid-1970s were most definitely not a good time to coach the Lakers.
One can’t help but think that Luke Walton is entering a very similar situation.
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As a concluding note, simply consider that Luke Walton is just starting his head coaching career. Consider the trajectory of most head coaching careers. How many men get their dream job in their 30s, at or near the very start? How many men are given the keys to a signature sports franchise such as the Lakers at a relatively early age?
For these coaches, success must be spectacular. Otherwise, there’s likely no point of return at age 45 or 53 or 58. If a young coach fails with the Brooklyn Nets, he gains on-the-job training in a difficult situation which prepares him for the next step up the coaching ladder. People around the league would admire a young coach for taking his lumps and paying his dues. They’d come to know that he’s ready for a job where he can win big.
When a young coach fails with the Lakers — if he fails, of course — where’s the next step after that?
Are the Los Angeles Lakers of the belief that Luke Walton will be their answer to Brad Stevens with the Boston Celtics? They must… but will Luke Walton transform the Lakers’ reputation in time for the 2017 free-agent frenzy? Will the Western Conference erode to the point that Walton can build a title contender in the next five seasons? Will Laker fans, in 2021, be patient enough to let Walton continue to learn on the job?
In the short run, Luke Walton will be very, very good for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Bill Walton knows — and his son is soon likely to realize — that the organization might not be able to return the favor to its newest head coach.
