San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Sports Nation: An interview with Jim Larranaga.
It was one of the few ways Jim Larranaga wanted to give back and show his appreciation for Lonnie Walker’s commitment to the University of Miami.
The men’s basketball coach scheduled a game against La Salle University in Reading, Pennsylvania, where Walker is a native. With about five minutes remaining in the second half, the local crowd at Santander Arena started to get a bit antsy.
Turns out the guy they came to see, Walker, was not in the game.
“The crowd was going crazy,” recalled Larranaga. “We want Lonnie! We want Lonnie!”
One of the assistant coaches came over to Larranaga to inform him of the crowd’s tune. Larranaga, who wasn’t fully aware that Walker wasn’t in the game, called his name immediately.
“The real sense was the crowd was not there to see Miami or see LaSalle play,” Larranaga said. “They were all there to see one person — Lonnie Walker IV.”
Walker came back in, made a few key plays and helped the Hurricanes secure a 57-46 win.
That moment only heled Larranaga further understand how vital Walker is to the Reading community.
In this week’s Off Topic, Larranaga discusses the Spurs 2018 first round-pick, inform fans of Walker’s personality, what makes him unique on the court and off, and the moment he realized Walker was ready for the NBA.
What do you think fans are going to love most about Lonnie that maybe isn’t talked about enough?
Well, Lonnie is a people person. He likes interacting with people. He’s very willing to give his time. I know the Spurs are very community oriented, so Lonnie is going to be very receptive to anything the Spurs will ask him to do in the community; whether it’s work with young kids or speak to the homeless or children with cancer. He’s just got a real deep sense of responsibility to people less fortunate than himself.
Do you find that maybe it makes a guy like Lonnie a better player because of his actions off the court? Perhaps he’s able to appreciate being where he is a little more.
One of the things we’ve always emphasized is we like our players to be well-balanced. We want them to be good students, good citizens as well as good basketball players. The kids that don’t have balance in their life, who are just so focused on basketball, often times they don’t want to give of themselves. They’re not as committed academically; they would not want to do anything in terms of community service. They think that is for somebody else. Lonnie has got very good balance in his life. I think that is going to help him because in the NBA, there is so much time that is devoted to basketball and then there is so much free time. So, I think it’s very easy, especially for a young guy, to get caught up in hanging out in the wrong places. They go on the road and go out to the clubs after games. They basically spend their money and have a good time, but it impacts the way they perform on the court. I don’t think Lonnie will fall into that category. I think he’ll be very responsible.
I’m expecting his name to be all over the membership walls of local museums in San Antonio.
Yeah. You’ll see that.
Do you remember the most fascinating thing he’s ever taught you about science or something involving nature?
One of the things he mentioned, and I should’ve Googled it after we had that conversation, but I was really busy and never got to it, he told me there is some asteroid that’s been circling the Earth and in the Earth’s gravity. And I said, “Well, how long has that been going on?” He said over 100 years. I said, “What!” He said, “Yeah. It’s almost like we have another moon.” Now I don’t think it’s big like the moon or anything. I think he was just using that as an analogy that there is something that circling us, or us circling it, that I’m not aware of. I’m sure scientists have given it a name, but I don’t know what it is.
You’re scaring me a little coach. You said asteroid. I almost thought we were on the verge of being destroyed.
(Laughs) Yeah, it’s not like Armageddon, the movie with Bruce Willis where the asteroid is about to hit the earth. This is something that is circling around us.
In a previous conversation, we spoke before about how you were recruiting Lonnie and what that process entailed. Do you remember the first pitch you ever made to him about coming to Miami?
You know, honestly, I don’t pitch Miami as much as I inform recruits about Miami.
And not only do I inform them what Miami is, I spend a lot of time telling them what it isn’t. So, for example, one of my first conversations with him, I always ask the question, “Where do you think the University of Miami is?” Invariably, I don’t remember Lonnie’s response, but everybody says Miami, Florida. And I say, “No, it’s not. We’re not on South Beach. We’re not a city school in downtown Miami.” The University of Miami is in Coral Gables, Florida, a beautiful college town about a 30-minute drive from downtown Miami and about an hour from the beach.” And my guess is, and I don’t know this, never asked Lonnie this, but if you asked him if he’s ever been to South Beach, on the beach, in the ocean, my guess is the answer is no. I think a lot of our players the really spend all their time, or 95 percent of their time, either on campus on in our own community.
Is there a moment when you knew he was good enough to go pro?
I can’t tell you the exact date, but it was in July (2017) when we started individual skill development. Lonnie worked out for four days in July. By day three, I told my staff we’re only going to have him a year. This kid is an NBA first-round pick; probably a lottery pick. His speed, quickness, athletic ability, jumping ability; his length, shooting touch. He’s a highlevel NBA talent. We’re not going to have him more than a year. And then the next day, he got hurt and tore his meniscus and was out for three months.
And then he bounced right back and was able to help the team.
Well, the interesting thing is there are a lot of different reactions to injury. Some kids are very reluctant to rehab at a high level. Some kids just kind of go through the motions thinking that surgery corrected the problem. While the surgery corrected the injury, it doesn’t rehab the muscles around the injury, and you’ve got to get those muscles very strong again. And he was so diligent about rehab. Whatever our trainer asked him to do, he did at what I would grade an Aplus level. Some guys will do C-work. Some guys B, or Bplus. But a lot of guys don’t do (A-work), and very few A-plus. We’ve had two guys in that category. Lonnie, who did a fantastic job, and Davon Reed, who had the same injury and our trainers did a great job of bringing him back very quickly.
We talked about comparisons, and you mentioned Danny Green and Donovan Mitchell. Why Danny Green?
Well, there is a couple of reasons I make certain comparisons. I compare (Walker) to Danny Green because everybody with the Spurs know Danny Green. He’s been with the organization a very long time, and he’s a great contributor, and he’s the same size as Lonnie. I could really see him having the same kind of role – now they don’t have David Robinson and Tim Duncan to play with, so that changes things – but I think when you’re asked to be a wing player, a guy that can really shoot, a guy who can create his shot off the bounce, and a guy who is a good defender and a very teamoriented guy, I think Danny Green fits that mold. I compared him to Donovan Mitchell because Donovan is the hot name right now in the NBA. So, in my estimation, at this point of Lonnie’s career, he’s two seasons behind where Donovan Mitchell was this year as an NBA rookie. So, I wouldn’t expect Lonnie just to go in and do what Donovan did. But I would expect him in two years to be where Donovan is.
And Donovan is a special player. He has heart, which you can’t teach. Lonnie appears to have that, too. NBA scouts have told me how Lonnie isn’t afraid of the moment. He wants the ball in his hands. I recall the game against Boston College when he hit the game-winning 3-pointer. Was that designed for him or did he just create what he wanted?
You know, one of our philosophies is let’s do everything we can in practice so that we can prepare ourselves for that moment. But then it’s going to be up to the players to make good decisions. And the guy who threw the ball to Lonnie is our best 3-pointer shooter – Dejan Vasiljevic. So, at the end of the game, Chris Lykes had it, and he’s a very good ball-handler and three-point shooter. He was to create a shot for Dejan, and then if Dejan didn’t have it, get it to Lonnie. And it wasn’t so much designed as just read and react. Once Lonnie got it, as he did in four times throughout the season, he took it upon himself to just create a shot. He created the shot on his own, took on that responsibility and showed again that he was Mr. Clutch.
You’ve known him for years. What advice would you give Lonnie about being coached by Gregg Popovich?
Well, one of the things I most admire about Gregg Popovich is something I don’t see demonstrated consistently by all players, and I think it’s just something must demand, and that is self-discipline. I think the San Antonio Spurs have been a very disciplined team. Our definition of discipline is do what you’re supposed to do. Do it when you’re supposed to do it. And do it to the best of your ability every day. And the thing that I admire about Pop is his team demonstrates that. They seem to always be on the same page, extremely well-organized. They pay very close attention to detail. Their players know their role, execute their role, and don’t go outside those roles. And when you have players that disciplined, who may not be the star of the team, and they want to the star of the team. So, when given the opportunity, they might break things down when they’re supposed to execute a play and take it on their own to try and be the hero.