By Michael Gkioulenoglou/ info@eurohoops.net
The headlines focused on becoming the player with the most points in a single game of the Basketball Champions League. His story is much stronger than the highest-scoring game in league history.
After pushing Promitheas Vikos Cola to a double-overtime win against FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets with 54 points in Tectake Arena on Wednesday, the New York native opened up to Eurohoops.
“When I think about it, I really just think, ‘Thank God’. Second, I just have to thank my teammates and coaches. They put me in the right position,” he talked about a record-breaking showing in Gameday 5 of the Round of 16, “My teammates find me when I am hot. They allow me to be me. Sometimes a lot of players, I guess want players to do good but never better than them, but my teammates are not like that. I feel like we are definitely like a family. We are missing a lot throughout the year, but I feel like all of them are like my brothers. And I think they feel the same about me. So, they allow me to be me and that allows me to play to the best of my abilities. Same with the coaching staff, they allow me to be me and they know, ‘OK, sometimes I will make mistakes now and then’, but they know for the most part I will do the right thing and I will give us the best chance to win.”
Walker, 25, tucked in 12/19 field goals over 42 minutes. Connecting 9/13 from beyond the arc, he was the seventh player with at least nine triples in a single game. He also made 21/22 free throws, emerging as the first player with at least 20 successful attempts from the charity stripe. A team total of 40/44 for the Patras outfit was also a new record.
“I think I noticed I had 40, but after that, I didn’t really notice anything,” he confessed to Eurohoops, “When it comes to scoring, it’s just like I just know I am very good at it. So, I feel like I can get hot in an instant. I can go 0/10 and then end up going 8/10 in the next five minutes.”
Tallying seven rebounds and seven assists, he also became the first player to combine a 40-point display with at least five rebounds and five assists.
“He said to me, ‘I knew you were really good, I knew you were nice, but you are really one of the best’,” Walker picked teammate Simi Shittu as the most inspiring reaction to his 54-point showing.
Another bonus was a nod for the BCL Team of the Week.
The promise
The discussion went to struggling with the murder of his brother, Jamal, when he was in high school.
“It was November of 2016. He was shot and killed. But yeah, It definitely made me want to quit basketball, for sure. I didn’t care about nothing after my brother died,” he said on dealing with the loss, “I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to play basketball. I didn’t want to do anything like that.”
“My mom told me that if he was alive if he could say something about you not playing, you know that he would tell you that he wants you to play. And the last time me and my brother spoke, we made a promise and I promised him I would make it to the NBA. That was the last time we spoke, our last conversation. Jokingly, obviously, but we made that promise,” Walker revealed his motivation, “After a week or two weeks, I remembered that promise and I was like, ‘Now I can’t ever stop playing basketball until I make it’.”
Via Michael Jordan and New York
Jordan is a key name in the basketball world and far from a coincidence for the Promitheas guard.
“My mom loves Michael Jordan. He was her favorite player ever. She named me Jordan because of that, for sure,” he talked to Eurohoops about how his mother, Daphne, picked his name.
A huge Walker family includes sibling Ahmad being a loyal basketball tutor of Jordan.
“He was always training me since I was little. And as I got older, I just took what he taught me and just ran with it, just kept getting better and better,” he recounted early basketball progress.
“I have always played in parks my whole life, for real. I didn’t start actually training in a gym, until I was in high school. I would always train at the park. But we definitely know the parks, especially in New York City,” he said, “My brother would be on the court with the older guys and then I would want to play. My brother would let me play with them. And I would just kill them. And they just started letting me play from then on, since I was little. I wasn’t able to get on the court at first, I had to wait for my turn.”
Wrapping up the Champions League campaign in Gameday 6 of the Round of 16, Walker and Promitheas welcome AEK Betsson in Patras next Wednesday.