Luke Walton Won't Get Credit for Warriors' Wins After NBA Examines Policy
The Golden State Warriors are in the midst of a historic run, having won their first 19 games of the season. They're getting things done without head coach Steve Kerr, who has not been able to join the team due to two offseason back surgeries.
In his absence, Luke Walton has taken over as interim head coach, but none of the team's wins have been credited to him. Instead, they've gone to Kerr.
That fact won't change after the NBA announced Kerr will be credited with the victories, but Walton can be named NBA Coach of the Month, per David Aldridge of NBA.com.
On Nov. 27, a source told Bay Area News Group's Diamond Leung the NBA was "looking into the long-held custom of wins not being credited to interim coaches, but rather to coaches on leave."
With Walton's record officially at 0-0, Kerr didn't take too kindly to the interim coach's not being rewarded with wins, as he told ESPN.com's Ethan Sherwood Strauss before the Warriors' win on Nov. 24 over the Los Angeles Lakers:
"I think it's ridiculous. I'm sitting in the locker room and watching the games on TV, and I'm not even traveling to most of the road games. Luke's doing all the work with the rest of the staff. Luke is 15-0 right now. I'm not. So it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, to be honest with you. I don't even understand it.
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Walton, meanwhile, has remained humble, telling Strauss, "Steve's done a lot for me. It's the least I can do to add a couple wins on his total for him with all he's done for me."
Two years removed from a 10-year career as a player, Walton joined the Warriors coaching staff last season as an assistant following a brief stint in the NBA D-League as a player development coach. While he hasn't traveled the most conventional road to becoming an NBA head coach, he's certainly producing results in Kerr's absence.
The league can quibble all it wants about who's getting the wins in the record books, but there's no denying that the Warriors are starting to mount a charge at the title of greatest team in NBA history, regardless of who is on the bench.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com
