Former NBA All-Star guard Kemba Walker has signed a one year deal with AS Monaco in the French LNB Pro A league. The league is the same one which recent number 1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama played in with his Metropolitans 92 team.
After winning an NCAA title with UConn, Walker became a 1st round pick, 9th overall, for the Charlotte Hornets franchise in 2011. The 6’ guard would go on to earn 4x NBA All-Star selections, and was twice given the NBA sportsmanship award in 2017 and 2018.
Unfortunately, knee injuries have largely derailed the career of the 33 year old Bronx, NY native, limiting him to just 89 games over the last 3 seasons combined. As a result, Walker has bounced between NBA clubs of late, suiting up for the Celtics, Knicks and Mavericks over the last few seasons.
Last year, the former Husky signed on with the Dallas Mavericks, but was ultimately waived after 9 games in January before his salary would have become fully guaranteed. Across those 9 contests, Walker averaged 8pts/2.1ast/1.8reb while shooting .421% from the field in 16 minutes a night.
Despite his down year, and injury concerns, AS Monaco wasn’t the only European club vying for Walker’s signature this offseason. Italian side EA7 Emporio Armani Milan was rumoured to have approached the former All-Star about a possible move across the Atlantic as well.
Over the course of his 12 season career, he’s posted an average of 19.3pts/5.3ast/3.8reb per game. His 750 games of NBA experience will undoubtedly be a huge asset to the reigning French League champions.
AS Monaco reached the final four of the EuroLeague for the first time in club history this past season, and hopes that Walker’s abilities both on and off the court will help them reach new heights in 2023-24.
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.