Luke Theodore Walton is an American professional basketball coach and a former player who works
as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors. He played the Small Forward position.
He was known for being a great defender while playing. He currently coaches for the Golden
State Warriors in the NBA. After the 2010 NBA Finals, Walton and his father, Hall of
Famer Bill Walton, became the first father and son to both have won multiple NBA championships.
Bill won in 1977 and 1986, and Luke in 2009 and 2010. His best season statistically was
2006–07 with over 11 points, 5 rebounds, and over 4 assists per game.
Early life Luke Walton is the son of former NBA and UCLA
great Bill Walton, and was named after Bill's close friend and former Portland Trail Blazers
teammate Maurice Lucas. He has three brothers — Adam, Nathan, and Chris. He attended University
of San Diego High School in San Diego, California. College
After graduating from University of San Diego High School in 1998, Walton enrolled at the
University of Arizona and majored in family studies and human development. There, he played
for the Wildcats under coach Lute Olson. In his junior year, Walton averaged 15.7 points,
7.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. As a fifth-year senior,
he averaged 10.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 0.9 steals.
Walton graduated from Arizona at the end of 2003, and was selected by the Los Angeles
Lakers in the 2003 NBA Draft with the third pick of the second round. Walton stands 6
feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 235 pounds. NBA career
In 2006–07, Walton had a career year, with career high per game averages in minutes,
field goal percentage, steals, blocks, rebounds, assists and points. His Player Efficiency
Rating also reached a career high. He scored a career high 25 points against the Atlanta
Hawks on December 8, 2006. Following the season, on July 12, 2007, Walton was signed by the
Lakers to a 6-year, $30 million contract. Walton managed to win two NBA championships
with his time with the Lakers. On March 15, 2012, Walton was traded along
with Jason Kapono and a 2012 first-round draft choice to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Ramon
Sessions and Christian Eyenga. Coaching
On August 22, 2011, the University of Memphis hired Walton as an assistant coach for the
duration of the 2011 NBA lockout. In November 2013, Walton was hired as a player
development coach by the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League for the 2013–14
season. In July 2014, Walton began finalizing an agreement
to become an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. “Being a younger, former
player, being able to still get out there and mix it up with the guys when need be,”
Walton stated. “We are gonna run parts of the triangle offense and I know that thing
front and back so he’s counting on me to be able to help out a lot in that area.”
He was officially hired as an assistant coach for the Warriors on July 3, 2014.
Broadcasting Walton was hired by Time Warner Cable SportsNet
in 2013 to join their Lakers on-air broadcast team.
Personal On his right arm, there is a tattoo of four
Grateful Dead-type dancing skeletons, each one with a basketball; the skeletons represent
Luke and his three brothers. In 2006, Walton made a cameo appearance on
the television soap opera The Young and the Restless.
In December 2008, a woman named Stacy Elizabeth Beshear pleaded no contest to charges of stalking
Walton. At one point, she pulled up to Walton's car and "pretended to fire gunshots at him
with her hand." She was sentenced to three years' probation, told to attend weekly counseling
sessions for a year and ordered to stay away for three years from Walton's home and from
the Lakers' games and practices. In 2009, Luke and his father became the third
father-son duo to both win NBA championships as players, following the Guokases and the
Barrys. NBA career statistics
Regular season Playoffs
Notes
External links Career statistics and player information from
NBA.com Luke Walton at Basketball-Reference.com