Humbled Walker ready for coaching journey

Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)

Devondrick Walker went so close to a fairytale farewell but his body was telling him it had enough and one of the best Americans to come to the NBL1 is throwing himself fully into coaching immediately in NBL1 West at the Mandurah Magic.

Having had a career that since college at East Texas A&M has seen him play in the G League and NBL, and make his mark in Italy, France, Latvia, and most notably in the NBL1 in Australia, it might have been slightly earlier than planned, but the decision to retire became an easy one for the 34-year-old.

"It would have been tough if it was abrupt, but if you would even look at my couple of years of playing career, I haven’t played professional basketball since 2022 anyway," Walker said.

"Or at least not at the level that I was accustomed to and that I saw myself being at. The last real chance for me to do that was that Brisbane Bullets stint.

"From there, I was on an uphill battle trying to get back and the body and the mind starts to fight each other a little bit, and the decision kind of just makes itself now. Even sitting out the 2025 NBL1 season, I was kind of thinking about it, but I wanted to give myself one last try.

"I really worked my butt off to get back to playing this season to see if I could do it once more and if my body was capable. My goal going into it was to get healthy and get back to have one more NBL shot because I'll be a citizen here soon so I thought if I was a local, there might be some teams interested.

"So that was the goal, but the body responded differently and it kind of told me what to do, but I think the decision really was made a couple of years ago if I'm being honest. Maybe I was being stubborn delaying it."

 

 

Humbling experience in recent years

In an ideal world, Walker wanted to have one more run of playing professionally before moving into coaching.

That was the vision he had in mind when he worked enormously hard to get his body back close to the heights that saw him likely the best NBL1 player around the country across 2022 and 2023.

He was back to back MVP at the Rockingham Flames in the NBL1 West, was Grand Final MVP in their breakthrough championship triumph of 2022 and for a lot of 2023 back-to-back championships looked on the cards.

He still went on to dominate the 2023 National Finals in Joondalup, but then his body started to let him down. Walker went through a nightmare couple of years physically even though when on the court, he showed what he could do with Rockingham in 2024.

But he committed himself to making one more run. He had a vision of making it back to the NBL for one last run especially if he could do so as a local.

Walker worked tirelessly to get himself back in a shape to play with the Geraldton Buccaneers in 2026 and showed glimpses of what he was capable of with 17.7 points, 3.7 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals.

He then had a chance at a fairytale finish once he realised his body just wasn’t going to allow him to keep playing. Walker had 16 points, nine assists and six rebounds in a gripping NBL1 West Grand Final at RAC Arena.

Ironically that was against the Rockingham Flames but Walker and the Buccs couldn’t quite get it done, and since Walker has had to realise that his body won't let him be the player he has always been.

The humbling he has gone through, from an unstoppable force to someone struggling just to get on the floor, means Walker knew it was time to move on to the next stage.

"It's been extremely humbling and sometimes those humble moments you kind of need, and the only thing that can really humble is something like injuries or going through some horrible things," Walker said.

"Now that I look back, I think I needed to be humbled because essentially I have been playing basketball for almost 20 years and never had another job, and never thought I would do anything else.

"I think to be honest, if health was at a premium, I'd play basketball at the highest level I can until I was 45, but it's been extremely humbling the last few years. I went from NBA Summer League to NBL and then to Italy and France, and then once I got injured, the leagues continued to get a little lower and lower.

"For me, it was kind of like if you really want a chance to get back to playing against the competition you believe the competition you can, you have to dominate these lower leagues.

"But these last two seasons I've had in the NBL1, I haven’t been capable of dominating or put my stamp on the league as I would have liked considering I had other aspirations, so that's when I knew it was time.

"This year was especially tough because I wasn’t able to put in the work I needed to, and couldn’t replicate the work that I have been able to for the last 15 years. Once it became a hassle to play, I knew the time was right."

First taste of coaching at the Lynx

When Walker's body started to let him down, it only made sense that if he was going to dip his toe into coaching that he would do it with the Perth Lynx where his Rockingham coach was also a WNBL Coach of the Year.

Walker had enormous respect for Ryan Petrik having played under him with the Flames and then learned even more from coaching with him over two seasons with the Lynx.

"I've always been extremely intrigued by the coaching side of things and have tried to learn what the coaches are doing and how they're doing it so for me it was always interesting," Walker said.

"Then that one season I had surgery, I asked Ryan if I could come down to help out with the girls at the Lynx. I wasn’t doing much at that time so I wanted to come help out with some skills stuff and he said absolutely.

"So as I was recovering from my first knee surgery I was down at practice with Lynx doing some skill work and learning and listening. That was the first introduction to professional coaching and then I sat out that next season, and fully committed to a season with Ryan in the WNBL.

"So big time shoutout to Ryan and I have learned so much being under him with him showing me the ropes of what coaching looks like, and what it requires, and the hard work and dedication he puts in.

"That's what really sparked my interest in even more. Then after learning off Dayle (Joseph) with the guys in Geraldton this year, I felt like I was ready to make that transition now."

How the Mandurah job came about

Walker knew that he wanted to give playing one more crack in 2026 and his initial vision was for that to lead back to a run as a professional before moving into coaching.

Even though he ended up moving to Geraldton and playing at the Buccaneers, he enjoyed the discussions he had with Mandurah.

He had an instant connection with general manager Brent Barclay and they reconnected once Mark Utley decided to step down and initially it was to revisit a head of performance position.

Walker was keen to get started with that and make the move to Mandurah with wife Natasha and their daughter Nya, but then the chance also came out to take on the Magic NBL1 coaching role and he didn’t need time to consider it.

"Last off-season when I wanted to play one more time, a lot of NBL1 teams were in contact with me and one of them was Mandurah," Walker said.

"I had a really strong connection there with Brent during that recruiting process and he offered a similar head of performance job, but I couldn’t commit to that while putting everything into playing.

"He completely understood and that meant a lot to me, and then I played this season, and then afterwards, me and Brent got on the phone again after Utley announced he was leaving.

"Initially we were talking about the head of performance role again and he offered me that position, and then jokingly I threw it out there about the head coaching role.

"I said I'd love to have that as well and he went back to the board, they had conversations about it and then it got a little more serious until it was officially offered to me.

"Of course, I accepted and thought it was the perfect transition to playing and getting to coach in the league I was just playing in."

Embracing a new challenge

Walker reflects back to when he was a youngster and learning everything he could about how to handle the ball, how to shoot and become the basketball player he dreamed of becoming.

He now feels similar, where he is becoming obsessed with learning as much about coaching as he can so that he can be the best coach he can possibly be too, and make a career out of it.

"It's been great already and I'm learning about all the responsibilities, and I kinda feel like a kid again back like when I was 12, 13 and 14 years old trying to learn as much as I can about basketball," Walker said.

"I'm sitting on YouTube watching film all day and trying to learn styles and schemes, and that's exactly what I would have been doing as a kid. I remember vividly watching Pistol Pete Maravich's ball handling video every day and it feels very similar now.

"This feels just like I did 20 years ago so it's good to come into something new, and being able to understand the responsibility of not only myself, but now of a whole squad and it's going to be fun."

Wanting to come up against the best

What coaching at the Magic will now provide is a chance for Walker to also go head-to-head with Petrik who remains coaching Mandurah's great local rival, Rockingham.

Walker is looking forward to that challenge and nothing will bring out the best in him more than going head to head with the best.

"Obviously Ryan is the benchmark not only in the NBL1 but also in the WNBL along with Shannon (Seebohm) so when you're preparing how to do things and your style, you always want to look at the best," Walker said.

"No one would have studied, no disrespect, Steve Kerr and everyone studied what Michael Jordan did when you're learning to play.

"Ryan is in that category in coaching and he is what you want to study and obviously you want to know what he knows with his scheme and style, and he's definitely going to push me to be a better coach. I can't wait to take him on now and test myself up against him."

Building a team to now coach

Walker has spent his entire professional career focused on himself and that's what you have to do as a player where you try to be the best you can be, and look after your own body.

He has been as diligent a player as there has been with all that and a lot of that in recent years with his injury troubles that's been a necessity just to give him any chance of still being able to do anything on the court.

But now Walker has a whole squad to worry about building ahead of the 2027 squad with the Magic and while his good friend Bryce Cotton was his first call, he doesn’t quite expect the potentially soon-to-be seven-time MVP of the NBL back on deck just yet.

"I think he definitely was my first call, but I don’t think it's going to happen no time soon when he is still the MVP in the NBL, but keep your eyes open and we might get him on the back end," Walker said.

"In terms of the rest of the squad, it's still a little early to tell who we're looking to bring in but I think my style of play will be a little bit different to what they did last year so right now we're just trying to focus on the local guys.

"The season's a long way away still so I think we're just trying to lock in our local guys first and focus on that development of the juniors first of all to see how much they can provide before we start looking at bringing in the heavy hitters."