Fansided

Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton gets pranked by Warriors on Draft pick

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Apr 27, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton smiles during warm ups before game five against the Houston Rockets of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 27, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton smiles during warm ups before game five against the Houston Rockets of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Los Angeles Lakers could have lost their draft pick. So a Golden State Warriors staffer pranked Luke Walton that it fell to fourth and out of his hands.

Tuesday is a good day for the Los Angeles Lakers. They picked up the second pick in the NBA Draft and will get one of the two consensus franchise players — Ben Simmons and Ben Ingram — in this draft.

The future for the Lakers suddenly looks extremely bright with new coach Luke Walton in place a group of young players that includes last year’s No. 2 overall pick in D’Angelo Russell and young forward Julius Randle.

Before Luke Walton can celebrate with his Lakers, he still has to finish the job with his current team, the Golden State Warriors. So Walton was not with the Lakers contingent in New York when the Lakers essentially won the Lottery.

This gave the Golden State Warriors an opportunity to play a little joke on Walton, according to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register:

Yes, that would certainly cause the future Lakers coach to have his heart skip a beat or two. The Lakers future would be very different if they did fall to fourth and out of the top three.

The Lakers traded their pick in this year’s draft to the Phoenix Suns as part of the Steve Nash trade in 2012. The pick was top-three protected. Getting the fourth pick means no pick and no extremely bright future for Walton and the franchise. Things would be very different.

It is quite a cruel prank to play on the Warriors assistant who got the team off to its historic start on the way to the regular season wins record of 73.

The Lakers will have the second pick and that bright future they earned by having the second worst record in the league this past season. Walton may indeed have the last laugh following this playoff run.

For more NBA Draft, check out our NBA Draft hub page. 

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