It is no secret Golden State Warriors' assistant coach Luke Walton will get more than a few phone calls concerning vacant head coaching jobs. It is also no secret the New York Knicks, whose president used to coach Walton with the Lakers, will have such a vacancy.
Therefore, it is reasonable to believe Phil Jackson will extend an invite to Walton to talk about becoming the next head coach of the Knicks. The big surprise here is who drew the connection between the two.
Alvin Gentry, an assistant coach with the Warriors last year and the New Orleans Pelicans' head coach, spoke highly of Walton and singled out Jackson as being interested in him. Walton filled in for head coach Steve Kerr on an interim basis and led the Warriors to 39-4 start while his boss recovered from surgery.
"The first thing I'll say, it pissed me off for everybody to say that team can coach itself," Gentry said. "Because everybody in the NBA knows, no one has a team that can coach itself."
Numerous teams likely share that opinion as well, particularly Lakers president Jeanie Buss. Jackson coached Walton in Los Angeles, but the Buss family owned the team. Having played for the Lakers from 2003 to 2012, Walton is intimately familiar with the franchise.
Gentry's comments came after his Pelicans beat the Knicks in New Orleans, the 14th loss in Kurt Rambis' 21 games as interim coach. So his allusion to Jackson is not all that random, but he did make the connection nonetheless.
"Luke did an unbelievable job of managing egos, of rotations he played. Everything that happened there, he pushed the right buttons, so I was disappointed when people said anybody can coach that team. That's not true at all," Gentry said. "He has an unbelievable understanding of the game. I think Phil knows that. [Luke] stayed in the league for a long time because of the basketball IQ he has. He gets along great with players. He's going to be a terrific coach in the league - I really do think that."
Walton's father, NBA great Bill Walton, recently said on ESPN's "First Take" that he thinks his son should stay in the Bay Area with the Warriors. He too alluded to head coaching vacancies in the plural. Though that is hardly a confirmation, multiple teams are interested in the younger Walton, it is all but fact.
