Photo: Getty
Let’s get this out of the way first: Antoine Walker was a very good NBA player. It takes a special kind of talent to average over 20 points a game in the Association over a full season, a feat Walker accomplished six times over the course of his 12-season career (including a memorable ’00-’01 campaign that saw him drop 23.4).
But when news comes that Walker wants to coach the Boston Celtics in the wake of Doc Rivers’ departure, it’s difficult to hide our skepticism. The rumor comes from not Chris Broussard or Stephen A. Smith, but straight from the horse’s Twitter.
Boston fans I think it's time for me to the celtics coach !!!!!
— Antoine Walker (@WalkerAntoine8) June 24, 2013
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
TSS fans, I think its time for me to date Miss Ohio! Then I’ll get drafted by the Cavs with the first overall pick! Then, I’ll be an astronaut.
Call me a hater, but it just strikes me as funny that Antoine Walker – hardly the cerebral kind of guy you’d want running your local Five Guys, much less an NBA squad – thinks he belongs in one of the most exclusive fraternities in sports. He wants to talk about coaching? Let’s talk about that .414 career field goal percentage. Or those reckless spending habits that essentially forced him to play basketball in Puerto Rico for scratch. Or those profiles of him just being a general sketchy dude and waste of talent.
I can think of 10 (20, even) ex-NBA players who would be worse head coaches than Walker, but then I can probably think of 100 who would be better.