Luke Walton admits it would've been fun to coach Kobe in All-Star Game

If Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had come back from his health hiatus 10 days later, then it might all have been different.

Then, and only then, would the most accomplished coach of the NBA’s first half – Warriors assistant Luke Walton – be leading the Western Conference All-Star team in Toronto this weekend. As injustices go, this is hardly Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. But even the great Gregg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs coach who will instead lead the team, would likely agree that it would have been a cool midseason story.

Not only would Walton have been able to enjoy the festivities with Warriors All-Stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, but he would have been reunited with an old friend in the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant during the biggest stop yet on his goodbye tour.

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“How fun would that have been?” Walton, who won two championships while with the Lakers and Bryant, told USA TODAY Sports. “He’s a guy who I played with for eight years. That would have been awesome, to run (the Triangle offense play) ‘Center Opposite’ for him, and stuff like that. It would have been incredible.”

Not that anyone should feel sorry for Walton, who has fast become one of the hottest names in the coaching game and is expected to receive consideration for all sorts of vacancies this summer. And truth be told, it beats being David Blatt.

The former Cleveland Cavaliers coach was fired despite having the best record in the Eastern Conference at the time, meaning his replacement, Tyronn Lue, was given the awkward nod. Still, Walton admits that he had dared to dream.

“This was obviously uncharted territory with what was happening,” Walton said of the Warriors’ unique situation. “The way that I decided to treat it was, ‘You have enough to worry about. Don’t stress about (the All-Star selection). And whatever they decide (is fine).’

“To me, it was a win-win. You either coach the All-Star game, which is an honor and you’re coaching the best players in the world. …But if they went in another direction, then I’ve got to go home (to Manhattan Beach) and recharge the batteries, and get away for a week and get ready for the last half of the season, so I just told my mind that and then I stopped thinking about it.”

By the time Walton’s Warriors welcomed Kerr back to the bench on Jan. 22, his seven-month struggle caused by complications from offseason back surgery having finally come to an end, Golden State was 39-4 and the Spurs were 37-6. The NBA, with its commissioner in Adam Silver who is always open to an outside-the-box idea, had been strongly considering the notion of having Walton, and not Popovich, coach the West team to that point.

There was a loophole of sorts that could have been cited, as the league rules mandate only that the same coach, as opposed to the same team’s coach, can’t head an All-Star team two years in a row. But there was also the deadline date of Jan. 31, when the respective records of the best teams in the Western and Eastern Conferences determine the coaches at the league’s annual extravaganza. In essence, the looming decision by the NBA never had to be made because Kerr was back well before that time arrived.

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But if ever there were a coach who would take something like this in stride, it’s the 35-year-old who grew up with one of the most legendary laidback personalities in the history of sport, Hall of Famer Bill Walton. The apple doesn’t fall far from this tree.

“I’m sure there will be part of me that (wishes he was there), but if I was there coaching (at All-Star weekend) there would be part of me thinking, ‘Dang, it’d be nice to be on the sand of Manhattan Beach right now too,’” Walton said. “I’m more excited that we have three of our players playing in the game. I think that’s more of an honor, and to be honest our coaching staff coached it last year so … there will be no hard feelings come All-Star weekend. I’m going to watch the game. I’m going to cheer for our guys. I’ll be in Manhattan Beach with the hot tub on for when the game is over.”