Lonnie Walker IV is, as far as I can tell, the player on the Spurs who is most beloved by Spurs fans. While every other player on the team ranges from completely reviled (Bryn Forbes) to begrudgingly tolerated (LaMarcus Aldridge) to fondly accepted (Dejounte Murray), none of them enjoy the universal fan support that Walker enjoys.
And as an outside observer, I struggle to make sense of this phenomenon.
That is why, in an attempt to organize my thoughts, I have created the OFFICIAL REASONS WHY I THINK LONNIE WALKER IS SO BELOVED BY SPURS FANS (AND NBA FANS IN GENERAL) POWER RANKINGS. I fully acknowledge that these OFFICIAL POWER RANKINGS may be built on faulty logic, uniformed assumptions, or incomplete knowledge. That is why I encourage all Spurs fans (and general Lonnie Walker fans) to correct my misconceptions or add items to this list.
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1. EXCITING STYLE OF PLAY
If you watch this video (something I definitely recommend you do), you’ll see what I’m talking about here. Walker gets off the ground SO EASY for layups and dunks. His ability to contort past defenders, float towards the cup, and execute a perfect finger-roll is too much fun to watch. His in-game dunks, while still somewhat rare, are always executed with power and grace. An athletic freak who also has a nice shooting touch and is only twenty years old is impossible not to love.
2. ABSENCE OF OTHER YOUNG PLAYERS WITH STAR POTENTIAL
The Spurs are in a tough place right now. Their team is loaded with old players who can lead them to the playoffs but will never, ever, EVER lead them to a championship. DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge are hard to get excited for. Role-players like Rudy Gay, Marco Belinelli, and Patty Mills are riding out the ends of their careers. Lonnie Walker is basically the only high-potential player on the roster unless you count Dejounte Murray (who projects to have star-level defensive impact while having not-star-level offensive impact). Since all sports fans need a player to pin their hopes on, Lonnie Walker has, by default, become that player.
Exhibit B: Keldon Johnson. This guy barely played but Spurs fans are sure he will be a beast.
3. YEARNING FOR A KAWHI REPLACEMENT
DeMar DeRozan is fine, but he’s an inadequate Kawhi replacement, and besides, he was traded for, not developed in-house. Spurs fans would love for their next superstar to be a player they drafted, and they want Walker to be that guy. As long as Walker doesn’t have a shady overseer named “Uncle Dennis” who instructs him to sit out games with dubious injuries.
4. UNIQUE HAIRSTYLE
Walker’s “hair tower” is gone now, and the real story of why he grew it out that way is actually extremely depressing (although I have to give him major props for making that story public), but I’m not gonna lie: that hairdo was the most unique hairdo in the whole league. It was ugly, yes, but it was also distinctive and cool in the “I don’t care what you think about my personal style” kind of way. The singular bent-in-half hair-column added flair to the whole ensemble. And the way he could bang it on the rim as he went up for a dunk or layup? Awesome. I was just worried he would get it tangled in the net, though.
5. THAT ONE GAME WHERE HE TOOK OVER THE GAME AND LED THE SPURS TO VICTORY
Check out these highlights of Walker scoring 28 against the Rockets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghTT43i3qME . He took over that game in the fourth quarter. This is Lonnie Walker’s STATEMENT GAME. Many second-year players don’t have a statement game. but Walker definitely does. He got a lot of attention from fans around the league after this.
6. ROOTING FOR THE UNDERDOG
It is our natural tendency as sports fans to root for the player who overcomes obstacles to achieve a high level of success. In this case, Walker’s obstacle was Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who was extremely reluctant to give him minutes his rookie year and was still not willing to give him a consistent role this season. When Walker strengthened his midrange game halfway through the season (you can basically see it happen at a certain point in this video), he stopped getting DNP’s, but he was never given the role that Spurs fans wanted him to get. Will that change next season? Probably. Hopefully.
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After compiling the OFFICIAL POWER RANKING you see above, I have a firmer grasp on why Lonnie Walker is viewed as the franchise savior by Spurs fans. Sometimes it really is helpful to get all of one’s thoughts out on paper (or in this case, a text file) to bring order to the chaos. Now we just have to wait and see whether Walker ever fully capitalizes on his potential or if he reaches his ceiling somewhere short of the ultimate goal (which is a superstar-level player who leads the Spurs to multiple rings).