NBA
Former Knicks PG Joins Hornets Staff
Former New York Knicks point guard Kemba Walker is one day removed from announcing that he is done playing basketball. However, he isn’t leaving the basketball world behind completely.
“After retiring from a 12-year NBA career, four-time All-Star Kemba Walker is rejoining the Charlotte Hornets on new coach Charles Lee’s coaching staff as a player enhancement coach,” The Athletic insider Shams Charania tweeted.
Walker, 34, played with the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets from the beginning of his career in 2011 until 2019. Then, he played for the Boston Celtics, Knicks and Dallas Mavericks to close out his NBA playing career. He spent this past season in the EuroLeague with AS Monaco, which ended up becoming the final chapter of his playing career.
Lee spent this past season as an assistant for the Boston Celtics, who won the NBA Finals against the Mavericks last month, before being hired by the Hornets to be their new head coach to replace Steve Clifford.
Walker and Lee never crossed paths in Boston, but the coach has been around as an assistant for a decade with the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks, so both have been inside similar circles.
Now, Walker gets to return to the place he called home for nearly a decade in hopes of bringing the franchise back into the playoff picture.