Kemba Walker could land with unlikely team this summer?
Kemba Walker has struggled to find a home ever since leaving the Charlotte Hornets in 2019. Perhaps he now sees that as the universe’s way of telling him something.
Marc Berman of the New York Post reported Friday that the veteran point guard Walker has recently been working out in Charlotte and mentions a reunion with the Hornets as a possibility for him. Berman adds that Walker’s mother still lives in Charlotte as well.
A return to the Hornets would seem like an unlikely scenario on paper given the way that Walker’s time with them ended. After spending the first eight seasons of his NBA career with Charlotte, Walker got way lowballed by the team in contract negotiations and ended up leaving to sign with the Boston Celtics. He never quite fit in with the Celtics however and eventually ended up with the New York Knicks last year. Granted, Walker has seen even less success with the Knicks, averaging career lows across the board in 2021-22. He also recently agreed with the team to shut it down for the season and get his ailing knee right.
At 31 years old, Walker is still under contract for $9.2 million next season. Thus, Berman says that the likeliest scenario is that the Knicks trade him on draft night this coming June. The Hornets do need a backup behind LaMelo Ball and even signed Isaiah Thomas this year to try to fill that role. Walker returning to his old stomping grounds in Charlotte would definitely make for one heck of a story too.
Photo: Steve Mitchell-USA Today Sports
