Darrell Walker (born March 9, 1961) is an American college basketball coach and retired professional player. He is currently head men's coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Walker played in National Basketball Association (NBA) for 10 seasons, winning an NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls in 1993. He played college basketball for Westark Community College and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Playing career
After graduating from
Chicago's Corliss High School, Walker played college basketball at Westark Community College (now the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith) and the University of Arkansas. He was selected by the New York Knicks with the 12th pick in the first round of the 1983 NBA draft. Over a ten-year career, he played for five teams—the Knicks, the
Denver Nuggets, the Washington Bullets, the
Detroit Pistons, and the
Chicago Bulls. Walker is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.
Walker was selected to the 1984 NBA All-Rookie team, and was among the league leaders during his career in assists and steals. His best season was in 1989–90 with the Washington Bullets when he averaged 9.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game. He won an NBA title with the Chicago Bulls in his final season.
Coaching career
Walker has served as head coach for two different teams—the
Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards. He was the Raptors' second coach, following
Brendan Malone, and led the team for a season and a half. In 2000, he replaced the fired
in Washington for half a season (the first coaching "call-up" in history, having previously been the coach of the Rockford Lightning of the CBA), but was then replaced by
Leonard Hamilton the next year. Later that same year, he was named the interim head coach of the Washington Mystics of the WNBA, replacing
Nancy Darsch who resigned during the season.
He remained in Washington as director of player personnel and later head scout before joining the Hornets as assistant coach.
In March 2012, Walker became an assistant coach with the New York Knicks, where he was on staff until 2014.[
]
Walker was named the head coach at Clark Atlanta University in 2016.
On March 27, 2018, Walker was named the head men's basketball coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Career playing statistics
NBA
Source
Regular season
|-
|style="text-align:left;|
|style="text-align:left;"|New York
|style="background:#cfecec;"|
82*||0||16.1||.417||
.267||
.791||2.0||3.5||1.5||.2||7.9
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|New York
|style="background:#cfecec;"|
82*||66||30.4||.435||.000||.700||3.4||5.0||
2.0||.3||
13.5
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|New York
|81||35||25.0||.430||.000||.686||2.7||4.2||1.8||.4||10.3
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|Denver
|81||25||24.9||
.482||.000||.745||4.0||3.5||1.5||
.5||12.2
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|Washington
|52||0||18.1||.392||.000||.781||2.4||1.9||1.2||.2||6.0
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|Washington
|79||78||32.5||.420||.000||.772||6.4||6.3||
2.0||.3||9.0
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|Washington
|81||
81||
35.6||.454||.095||.687||
8.8||
8.0||1.7||.4||9.5
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|Washington
|71||65||32.5||.430||.000||.604||7.0||6.5||1.1||
.5||7.8
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|Detroit
|74||4||20.8||.423||.000||.619||3.2||2.8||.9||.2||5.2
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|
|style="text-align:left;"|Detroit
|9||2||16.0||.158||.000||.333||2.1||1.0||1.1||.0||.9
|-
|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"|†
|style="text-align:left;"|Chicago
|28||0||13.1||.403||–||.500||1.4||1.6||.8||.1||2.6
|- class="sortbottom"
|style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
|720||356||25.8||.435||.059||.713||4.4||4.6||1.5||.3||8.9
|}
Playoffs
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|1984
|style="text-align:left;"|New York
|
12|| ||16.3||.370||–||.609||2.9||1.7||
2.0||.2||6.8
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|1987
|style="text-align:left;"|Denver
|3||
3||22.7||.324||–||.571||3.3||1.7||.7||.0||8.7
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|1988
|style="text-align:left;"|Washington
|5||0||
31.0||
.407||.000||.688||
4.8||
2.8||1.4||
.8||
11.0
|-
|style="text-align:left;"|1992
|style="text-align:left;"|Detroit
|5||0||13.6||.333||–||
1.000||2.4||.8||.2||.0||2.0
|-
|style="text-align:left;background:#afe6ba;"|1993†
|style="text-align:left;"|Chicago
|9||0||2.4||.250||–||.667||.1||.6||.0||.0||.4
|- class="sortbottom"
|style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
|34||3||14.9||.368||.000||.645||2.4||1.4||1.0||.2||5.2
|}
Head coaching record
NBA
|-
|align="left"|Toronto
|align="left"|
| 82 || 30 || 52 || ||align="center"|8th in Central|| – || – || – ||
|align="center"|Missed Playoffs
|-
|align="left"|Toronto
|align="left"|
| 49 || 11 || 38 || ||align="center"|(fired)|| – || – || – ||
|align="center"|–
|-
|align="left"|Washington
|align="left"|
| 38 || 15 || 23 || ||align="center"|7th in Atlantic|| – || – || – ||
|align="center"|Missed Playoffs
|- class="sortbottom"
|align="left"|
Career
| || 169 || 56 || 113 || || || – || – || – || ||
WNBA
|-
|align="left"|Washington
|align="left"|
| 12 || 5 || 7 || ||align="center"|4th in East|| 2 || 0 || 2 ||
|align="center"|Lost in Conference semifinals
|- class="sortbottom"
|align="left"|
Career
| || 12 || 5 || 7 || || || 2 || 0 || 2 || ||
College
External links
