Lakers: Luke Walton on ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’
By Eric Yee
Lakers’ new coach, Luke Walton was on ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq’ where the two shared some intimate stories and insight on the upcoming season
Shaquille O’Neal has always had the outspoken, larger than life personality even before coming to the Los Angeles Lakers, so it should come as no surprise that this quality permeates his current production, “The Big Podcast With Shaq.”
Posted Monday morning, though apparently recorded during Summer League, Shaq’s guest was none other than Lakers’ coach, Luke Walton and the big fella decided to start off the interview with a bang revealing that he used to call Luke, “Lukey Dookie,” during his rookie year because he used to always get him the ball and it was the “s**t.”
“No, seriously. He’d come in and penetrate, wouldn’t look to shoot, he was only looking for one person and that person was me.”
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Shaq truly knows how to start an interview.
Something that often gets lost in the Golden State Warriors’ 73-9 record is the fact that it was Luke Walton who lead the team to a 39-4 record, 24-0 to start the season, before Coach Steve Kerr returned from back surgery.
Though many will forget this, Luke hasn’t taken his time in The Bay for granted, telling Shaq that without this experience and success, he likely wouldn’t have received the head coaching offers and interest that he did last season.
"I probably wouldn’t have been ready without that experience either, at least right now. With those 40 plus games I coached, I really learned a lot that I didn’t know from what it was like to be a head coach. You learn how to make the tough decisions, how to have talks with players that aren’t happy that they’re not playing. You know, all these little things that you’ve never done before, you get to do"
All of last season, the ongoing joke among Lakers’ fans was the desire for the Warriors to lose so LA could finally have their coach, but in all seriousness the experiences Luke received during last year’s Playoffs will only help the Lakers going forward.
‘It’s about playing the right way’
In terms of expectations, Coach Walton continued to distance himself from the coaching philosophies of his predecessor, Byron Scott.
"The expectations for me aren’t gonna be wins and losses right now, at least. The expectations are gonna be the way we play… It’s about having an edge when you play. It’s about competing every single time, offense and defense. It’s about playing the right way."
More over, he talked about the importance of building “a foundation for the future,” and that he knows it’s going to be a process, but it’s exciting that he gets to start anew.
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You can listen to the whole interview here as it starts right around the 17 minute mark.