Late last week we told you about Antoine Walker filing for bankruptcy. Now it seems he’s making an effort to return to the NBA and he’s turned to his old coach, Rick Pitino, to make it happen.
The Courier Journal reports that Walker has been working out in the Yum center the last few weeks. He’s been through some pretty grueling workouts that most people wouldn’t have made it through. He’s receiving a lot of support from his old coach (Pitino) and one time team mate Walter McCarty.
Here are a few excerpts…..
[QUOTE]”I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring,” the 6-foot-8 forward said. “I know I want to play basketball, so I know I’m going to apply myself. I know I’ve got one shot.”
“We all, in our own ways, tried to warn him,” said UofL assistant coach Walter McCarty, a former UK teammate. “Antoine is a great guy and has a great heart, but he also has a strong ego as well. When you’re making that kind of money, it’s easy to forget that you can also run out of it.”
“I have a great coach in Pitino, who is really helping me as far as spearheading my basketball career,” Walker said. “I have the right representation as far as taking care of that stuff that I wasn’t really on top of at first. I feel much better. I’m in a better place as an individual to kind of allow me to get back to playing basketball.”
“We’ve taken him through some tough workouts a lot of people wouldn’t make it through,” McCarty said. “There have been times where I know he’s hurting and his body wants to give up, but he gets through it. He’s going to do anything to get there.”
Pitino has showed him old footage from when Walker was in his best shape at UK, helping the Wildcats win the 1996 NCAA championship.
“Coach always has those high dreams,” Walker said. “He wants me to get back to my college weight (last listed at 224), which is going to be hard to do, but I’m really dedicated to try to get down to it.”[/QUOTE]
[SIZE=2][B]Here’s a video of Walker working out in the Yum center. If you don’t see it, wait a few seconds, it should show up….[/B][/SIZE]
I just wish they would get that Cardinal crap off of him. Antoine is a Wildcat!!
The original article was written by C.L Brown from the Courier Journal and I really enjoyed it. You can read the [URL=”http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100529/SPORTS02/5290351/1002/rss07″]entire article here…[/URL]
