When Lonnie Met Timmy

Lonnie Walker has some funny stories about him and The Big Fundamental.

Mar 10

When Lonnie Walker entered the NBA, Tim Duncan had already been retired for two years.

But yet Duncan has a special place in Walker’s heart because of all the embarrassing things he did in front of the legend.

Walker was on the Outta Pocket podcast and he told a couple of stories of incidents that had happened. But the funniest one, in my opinion, is how a retired, 40-something Tim Duncan made a young Walker throw up on the hardwood.

Walker said that in his first season with the San Antonio Spurs, Duncan was always at the training facility and working with the young guys.

And one of the things that The Big Fundamental likes to do is play 3-on-3 with them.

So, in their first (practice) match-up ever, Duncan made Walker run around so much that he threw up all over the court.

“First time on the court, I’m excited. Like, oh you got three-on-three,” Walker said. “Tim always plays with the youngins, you know. He loves the game; he’s always at the facility helping us out.
“So, he catches the ball at the top of the key and he just tells the managers and stuff like ‘go ahead, run around,’” he continues. “He’s just holding the ball at the top of the key and I’m just running around. He had this thick ass brace on his knee.
“He keeps setting like these fake screens for them and I’m running over them, running over them, and running over them,” Walker says. “It’s like a minute-thirty. Usually, for three-on-three, we do 3-minute stents and it’s like a minute and thirty.
“[Tim] finally misses it and I grab it,” he says. “And as I’m grabbing it, I like, stop. I’m like something don’t feel right. It gets in my throat, it gets all out and I threw up on the court. They were like, ‘oh!’ I threw up again on the court. ‘Oh!’ I’m like, ‘I’m not done yet.’ Threw up again in the trash bag. I’ve done some embarrassing moments with Timmy.”

Sometimes, these types of encounters would irk franchise legends. But apparently, it didn’t bother Duncan as he continued to mentor the young player.

According to Walker, Duncan trained with him every other day after their first meeting and even helped with his conditioning after he tore his meniscus in his rookie season.

Walker is no longer a Spur; he joined the Los Angeles Lakers last summer. But I have a feeling that his relationship with Duncan is still strong.

I mean, he did puke multiple times in front of Timmy. I think that memory is tattooed.

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