Getty Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics
Remember when Antoine Walker was the shimmy king when he was a Boston Celtics All-Star
Where the heck did it come from?
“To be honest man, it wasn’t something that I just laid in the bed and thought about,” Antoine Walker told me on the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show.
“I was just in college. I like to have fun. We used to always dance and play and do all type of things. You know when you’re in school with your teammates and in a game one day; I played the game with a lot of emotion. I just start… and I just did it one time and that was really hard to because we were a pressing team back in college, so you gotta get back in the press [laughs] and I just did it in college and Coach told me, “Look. You can dance all you want. I have no problem with it, but have to make sure that you get in that press.” So if you look at some of old college footage, I used to do it in college. So it came from school. It just took me a while to have the balls to do it in the NBA, that’s all.”
Boston’s sixth overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft out of the University of Kentucky, Walker was a three-time All-Star and a member of the NBA’s All-Rookie team in 1997.
Walker’s talent really shined in the eyes of many when the Celtics paired him with Paul Pierce.
The duo of Pierce and Walker blossomed during the 2001-02 season when the Jim O’Brien team boasted a 49-33 record and made their first NBA Playoffs appearance in seven years. Walker’s stat sheet was amazing 22.0 points and 5 assists per contest.
The Celtics made it all the way to the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals, but would eventually lose in six games to a talented New Jersey Nets team that was guided by Byron Scott and featured Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Keith Van Horn and Richard Jefferson.
Now in 2020, the Celtics are again in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals.
The Celtics currently trail the Miami Heat 0-1 and have a cast of young vets that includes Kemba Walker, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum.
Tatum averaged 23.4 points, seven rebounds, three assists and 1.4 steals per contest in the regular season. During the NBA Playoffs, During the NBA Playoffs, Tatum has leveled upward.
An NBA All-Star for the first time this season, Jayson a former Duke Blue Devil standout is averaging 25.7 points, 10.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game through 12 NBA Playoff games.
For those keeping score at home: Tatum has also given his version of Walker’s shimmy during games.
Million Dollar Question: Who does it better?
“Tell him he’s got some work to do,” joked Antoine Walker.
“Nobody does the shimmy better than me! But, he’s got some work to do before I can even consider it.”
Who does it better?
“Stephen Curry has a nice shimmy, ” said Walker.
“John Wall has a nice shimmy. But Jayson Tatum is at the bottom of that list right now. He’s got some work to do. And then he doesn’t – from him, he doesn’t really show a lot of emotion when he plays so he probably really doesn’t have any rhythm off the court. He probably can’t dance. I don’t know. I haven’t been around the new Celtics a lot.”