He Is a Giver, Not a Taker : Lion Point Guard Walker Has More Assists Than Shots

If basketball fails to provide a job for Tony Walker after college, the Loyola Marymount senior would like to take a shot at curing society’s ills.

“I’d like to get a job as a probation officer,” he said. “I don’t like what’s going on with the young kids and the gangs. I’d like to clean up some of that stuff.”

Walker’s career goals should come as no surprise to his Loyola teammates. They already know his selfless nature.

As the Lions’ starting point guard, Walker believes it is better to give than receive. He is the only regular player for Loyola who has more assists (156) than shot attempts (134) this season.

“He dispenses first and looks for his shot second, and that makes him an ideal point guard,” Loyola Coach Jay Hillock said. “He’s the fastest point guard I can think of. We call him Rocket.”

However, it was during one of Walker’s drives to the basket that the Rocket came crashing down. He was fouled on a layup attempt against Pepperdine on Jan. 11, causing him to land awkwardly on his right wrist.

For most players, the fall would have been no cause for alarm. For the 6-foot, 175-pound Walker, it meant reliving a frustrating ordeal.

The thin navicular bone of the right wrist is to Walker what the heal was to Achilles. Walker has broken it twice and sat out last season after having surgery to stabilize the bone with pins.

Walker escaped any serious injury in his fall against Pepperdine, but it aggravated the wrist, forcing him to miss practice for two weeks. He managed to play in games with the injury, but it diminished his effectiveness.

“I can hardly shoot free throws,” said Walker, a 61% foul shooter. “It hurts right around where I had my pins put in. It has affected my game a lot. I’ve had to drive and do more layups. No more shooting, and I was just coming around. People were playing me to drive and I would hit that little jump shot at the free-throw line.”

Hillocks estimates that Walker is playing at about 80% of his potential.

“I think it bothers him and he probably doesn’t have quite the control on the basketball that he does when his hand is healthy,” Hillock said. “But he has played through it. You have to realize how tough he is to play in pain.”

With Loyola (11-10 overall, 4-5 in the West Coast Conference) going into the critical stage of its season, Hillock said it is imperative for Walker to remain healthy and in the lineup.

“It’s tough to improve when the team quarterback is out,” Hillock said. “Things don’t flow the same way. As Tony plays, we play.”

Walker was confident about his wrist going into tonight’s game at Santa Clara (10-11, 6-2). He said the injury is healing, but he knows the wrist is susceptible to damage during the course of a physical game.

“When we went up north to play Portland and Gonzaga, some of the players knew that my hand was hurting and they went after my wrist,” he said. “But it’s coming along. It just takes time to heal.”

Despite playing with his wrist heavily taped, Walker managed to collect a personal-best 15 assists Friday night in a 95-80 victory over the University of San Diego. It was the fifth-highest assist total in Loyola history.

Walker is fifth on Loyola’s career assist list with 383. He led the Lions and the WCC with 227 assists in the 1989-90 season, when the team reached the West Regional final of the NCAA tournament.

This season, he ranks second in the WCC, averaging 7.4 assists a game.

“He has the innate ability to get kids good shots,” Hillock said. “He puts the ball right in front of them to finish (the shot).”

In that regard, Walker has followed in the footsteps of his older brother Billy, a former Cal State Long Beach player who set state and Southern Section career records with 827 assists playing for John W. North High of Riverside in 1981-84. Billy Walker’s state assist record was recently broken by Jason Kidd of St. Joseph High of Alameda, the defending state Division I champion.

“I always looked up to him,” said Walker, who was a freshman at John W. North when his brother was a senior. “I saw the things he used to do. He was mainly an assist guy, too. He didn’t shoot that much. I guess I just patterned myself after him.”

Walker says the keys to becoming a good point guard are game experience and learning the strengths and weaknesses of teammates.

“You have to know the people you play with,” he said. “Some people on our team, you can’t give them the ball too far out.”

Walker learned his skills at John W. North High, where he was a football, basketball and track standout. A wingback in football, he said he received several scholarship offers in the sport, but opted to attend Ventura College and play basketball.

As a freshman at Ventura, he teamed with Cedric Ceballos, now with the Phoenix Suns and the reigning NBA slam-dunk champion, to help the team to a 23-10 season. The next season, Walker averaged 8.5 points, 8.7 assists and two steals to lead Ventura to a 28-6 record and the Western State Conference title.

Walker transferred to Loyola for the 1989-90 season and made a smooth transition to the Division I game. His average of 7.1 assists ranked 18th nationally and he shot 54% from the field, second on the team to the late Hank Gathers. And he did it playing the entire season with a hairline fracture of his right wrist.

“(Doctors) told me that it was still cracked and they would have to do the surgery after the season if I wanted it to get better,” Walker said.

Nearly two years later, he still feels the pain.