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Golden State's undefeated head coach, technically, doesn't have a win to his name
Chris Jent’s career record as NBA head coach is 5-13. He took over for Paul Silas as an interim head coach late in LeBron James’ last postseason-less campaign in 2005, and that’s been his number for over a decade.
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Magic Johnson? He’s at 5-11. Terrible situation, Laker legend, but he was the interim and that was the team’s record. Tyrone Corbin’s two stints as an interim coach resulted in a 14-41 record. Alvin Gentry had two interim appearances before someone gave his 31-42 career record a chance. They’re all interim marks, usually on teams that had given up on their seasons, but they all stuck.
Golden State hasn’t given up on its season. They’re undefeated, cruising seemingly miles ahead of the rest of the NBA, and interim head coach Luke Walton would appear to be nine wins short of tying Lawrence Frank for the best record to start an interim head coach’s career.
Save for the part where Luke Walton, who took over the Warriors as head coach Steve Kerr recovers from two significant back surgeries, won’t get to keep those or any other wins. Not even the losses. For some reason, his 5-0 stint goes right on Steve Kerr’s ledger.
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We were reminded of this, following a spot-on Jeff Van Gundy rant on the subject from Wednesday night, by Ray Ratto at CSN Bay Area on Thursday:
This is the way the NBA decides such matters. Interim coaches are invisible by league fiat, because it makes the bookkeeping easier. All those stray 1-0 and 0-1 and 1-1 and 0-2 records that dot other record books do not mar the NBA’s. And BasketballReference.com, which is more meticulous and does have interim coaches listed, from Ley Heyman with the 1947 Toronto Huskies to the present day, does not list Walton as anything other than a player.
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This must be a difficult blow for Walton, to learn that he still has no resume despite seemingly living in the same three-dimensional space as the rest of us, all of whom are painfully and even revoltingly real. He won’t say so, of course. He likes Kerr, Kerr likes him, and this isn’t their fight anyway.
But reality gets cheated enough, and no matter what the NBA says, Luke Walton is 5-and-freaking-0. At least in the universe in which we all have agreed to reside.
Ratto contacted the league, who to their credit were apparently a little sheepish about it, not exactly knowing how to proceed.
That’s a bit of a copout, though. Because this sort of stuff isn’t unprecedented.
When Paul Westhead took over the Lakers (away from an ailing Jack McKinney) on what was supposed to be an interim basis in 1979-80, his 50-18 mark became the stuff of legend, as the Lakers went on to win the title in Magic Johnson’s rookie year. Pat Riley was hired as an associate coach of sorts two seasons later prior to Jerry West moving to the front office full time, and he cobbled a 50-21 record on the way to a win.
To the NBA, it only seems as if they’ll let you carry over your win total if you’re eventually hired as head coach, and then all those wins become yours. Luke Walton won’t be taking over as head coach for Steve Kerr, as Kerr has already proven to be one of the league’s top masterminds, but he shouldn’t be denied what he’s helped lead the Warriors to thus far in Golden State just because the Warriors won’t fire his predecessor.
(And we should dismiss the “1-0” and “0-2” excuse, NBA. Whether it was because teams in the league’s leaner years didn’t want to pay too many coaches, or because teams – outside of Sacramento, of course – don’t want to treat their billion buck franchises like toys, most interims tend to have records like the coaches listed above.)
It’s a silly thing, but important distinctions that we should argue for can also be silly things. For evidence of this, check your Twitter feed’s seemingly weekly “Hot Dog: Sandwich or Menace?” standings.
As should be the case, Walton’s true recognition will come in the form of the reaction to the atmosphere he creates. He may, unfortunately, have at least half a season to guide these Warriors as Steve Kerr recovers from what must be an incredible amount of pain, and thus far Walton has approximated Kerr’s brilliant work from 2014-15, as the W’s start off another season with a 5-0 record.
That group went on to win 67 games and a title, and it looks every bit the championship favorite this season as well. Walton is the son of an NBA champion and a two-time champ as a player, and he’d gladly have 0-82 affixed to his record if it meant taking these Warriors (in whatever role he could help with) back to the top of the heap.
That’s fine for him. For us, though, could we get this right?
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
