The man who has coached the Golden State Warriors to 19 straight victories will not receive credit for those wins, the NBA announced Tuesday.
Interim coach Luke Walton has stood on the sideline, motivated his players, called for timeouts, drawn up plays and gotten out of the way to let Steph Curry do his thing, but none of that will show up in the record books. Instead, the historic wins Walton has helped choreograph will go on Steve Kerr’s ledger… as Kerr watches the games from his couch.
At least Walton doesn’t get credit for the losses either… oh wait.
The NBA did generously rule that Walton is eligible for Coach of the Month honors, which means he can (and probably will) become the first guy to win that award with a 0-0 record.
Nothing about this really makes sense, not Walton stepping in with no coaching experiencing and leading the best start in NBA history and especially not the NBA saying he doesn’t earn credit for the wins, even when he’s the one coaching the team. Even Kerr,who is recovering from back-surgery, said last week he thinks Walton deserves the victories.
From The New York Times:
“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,” Kerr said in advance of the team’s 16th win, which came on Nov. 24. “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.”
There’s no word on when Kerr will return, but it looks like he’ll keep accumulating victories in absentia. He owes Walton a very nice Christmas gift.
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About Alex Putterman
Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.