Early life

The son of former UCLA and NBA standout Bill Walton, Luke Walton was named after his father's close friend and former Portland Trail Blazers teammate Maurice Lucas. He has three brothers — Adam, Nathan and Chris. Walton attended University of San Diego High School in San Diego, California, graduating in 1998.

College

Walton played basketball at the University of Arizona under coach Lute Olson. His best year statistically was as a junior, when he averaged 15.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. During his senior year he averaged 10.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 0.9 steals per game.

Walton graduated from Arizona in the spring of 2003 after completing work in family studies and human development.

At 6 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing 235 pounds, Walton was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2003 NBA draft with the second pick of the second round (32nd overall).

NBA career

Walton was a favorite of Lakers fans during his nine-year stint as a selfless, hard-working reserve player. In 2006-07, Walton had his best year in the NBA. He scored a career-high 25 points against the Atlanta Hawks on December 8, 2006. For the season he posted career-high per-game averages in minutes, field goal percentage, steals, blocks, rebounds, assists and points. Following the season, on July 12, 2007, Walton was signed by the Lakers to a 6-year, $30 million contract. The Lakers won two NBA championships during Walton's time with the team. On March 15, 2012, Walton was traded along with Jason Kapono and a 2012 first-round draft choice to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga.

Coaching

Walton's first coaching experience was with the University of Memphis, which hired Walton as an assistant coach during the 2011 NBA lockout. He remained an assistant at Memphis until the lockout was over.

Following his retirement Walton was hired as a player development coach by the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League, joining the team in November 2013 for the 2013-14 season.

Golden State Warriors

The following year Walton became an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. Said Walton, "We are gonna run parts of the triangle offense, and I know that thing front and back." Walton joined the Warrior staff July 3, 2014. The Warriors won the 2015 NBA Finals after they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games to give Walton his third NBA championship and first as a coach.

During 2015-16 training camp in October 2015, Walton was appointed as the Warriors interim head coach when Steve Kerr took an indefinite leave of absence to rehabilitate his back that had been bothering him after the NBA Finals. Walton made his coaching debut in the season opener on October 27 in a 111-95 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. Three games later, he presided over the third-largest margin of victory in franchise history when the Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies, 119-69, which was also the largest margin in the league since 1991. The Warriors set a new NBA record by winning their first four games by a total margin of 100 points. With a win over the Los Angeles Lakers on November 24, he guided the Warriors to a 16th consecutive victory to start the season, a new NBA record.

Walton was named the NBA Western Conference Coach of the Month for games played in October and November, after guiding Golden State to a 19-0 start. He received the award despite technically being winless, since the Warriors' record was credited to Kerr. Since Kerr was still the head coach, NBA rules stipulated that the team's record under an interim coach be credited to the head coach, though the league considered altering the rule given Walton's case. However, the NBA permits an interim or acting head coach to be eligible for coaching awards. The Warriors extended their record start to 24-0. They were 39-4, the second-best start in league history, when Kerr resumed coaching full-time on January 22, 2016. Golden State ended the season an NBA-record 73-9, and Kerr was voted the NBA Coach of the Year. The coach had Walton, who coached more games during the season than Kerr (43-39), sit next to him on the podium at the award press conference. Walton finished ninth in the voting, receiving one second-place and two third-place votes.

Los Angeles Lakers

On April 29, 2016, the Lakers hired Walton to become their new head coach, replacing Byron Scott, after the Warriors' season concludes.

Broadcasting

Walton was hired by Time Warner Cable SportsNet in 2013 to join their Lakers on-air broadcast team.

Personal

On his right arm, there is a tattoo of four Grateful Dead-type dancing skeletons, each one with a basketball; the skeletons represent Luke and his three brothers.

In 2006, Walton made a cameo appearance on the television soap opera The Young and the Restless.

In December 2008, a woman named Stacy Elizabeth Beshear pleaded no contest to charges of stalking Walton. At one point, she pulled up to Walton's car and "pretended to fire gunshots at him with her hand." She was sentenced to three years' probation, told to attend weekly counseling sessions for a year and ordered to stay away for three years from Walton's home and from the Lakers' games and practices.

In 2009, Luke and his father became the third father-son duo to both win NBA championships as players, following the Guokases (Matt Sr. and Matt Jr.) and the Barrys (Rick and Brent).

On August 17, 2013, Walton married long-time girlfriend Bre Ladd. The two met at the University of Arizona, she was a standout middleblocker on the university's volleyball team.

NBA career statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

†	Denotes seasons in which Walton won an NBA championship

Regular season

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2003-04	L.A. Lakers	72	2	10.1	.425	.333	.705	1.8	1.6	.4	.1	2.4
2004-05	L.A. Lakers	61	5	12.6	.411	.262	.708	2.3	1.5	.4	.2	3.2
2005-06	L.A. Lakers	69	6	19.3	.412	.327	.750	3.6	2.3	.6	.2	5.0
2006-07	L.A. Lakers	60	60	33.0	.474	.387	.745	5.0	4.3	1.0	.4	11.4
2007-08	L.A. Lakers	74	31	23.4	.450	.333	.706	3.9	2.9	.8	.2	7.2
2008-09†	L.A. Lakers	65	34	17.9	.436	.298	.719	2.8	2.7	.5	.2	5.0
2009-10†	L.A. Lakers	29	0	9.4	.357	.412	.500	1.3	1.4	.3	.0	2.4
2010-11	L.A. Lakers	54	0	9.0	.328	.235	.700	1.2	1.1	.2	.1	1.7
2011-12	L.A. Lakers	9	0	7.2	.429	.000	.000	1.6	.6	.2	.0	1.3
2011-12	Cleveland	21	0	14.2	.353	.438	.000	1.7	1.4	.1	.0	2.0
2012-13	Cleveland	50	0	17.1	.392	.299	.500	2.9	3.3	.8	.3	3.4
Career		564	138	17.2	.429	.326	.715	2.8	2.3	.6	.2	4.7

Playoffs

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2004	L.A. Lakers	17	0	7.9	.345	.385	.700	1.3	1.5	.4	.1	1.9
2006	L.A. Lakers	7	7	33.6	.458	.364	1.000	6.4	1.7	1.0	.1	12.1
2007	L.A. Lakers	5	5	25.6	.389	.417	.750	4.2	2.6	1.4	.2	7.2
2008	L.A. Lakers	21	0	16.8	.454	.423	.722	2.6	2.0	.5	.2	6.0
2009†	L.A. Lakers	21	0	15.8	.427	.313	.611	2.5	2.1	.7	.1	3.8
2010†	L.A. Lakers	16	0	6.0	.304	.222	.500	.5	.9	.1	.1	1.1
2011	L.A. Lakers	1	0	4.0	.000	.000	.000	1.0	.0	.0	.0	.0
Career		88	12	14.6	.420	.360	.701	2.3	1.7	.5	.1	4.3

[ Source: Wikipedia ]