Walt Hopkins is the former American basketball head coach for the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

Walt Hopkins
2022 as national coach in Germany
Personal information
Born (1985-07-30) July 30, 1985 (age 39)
NationalityAmerican
Career information
High schoolEdward C. Reed High School (Sparks,NV)
CollegeUniversity of Nevada
Harvard University
University of California, Berkeley
Career history
As coach:
20172019Minnesota Lynx (assistant)
20202021New York Liberty
Career highlights and awards
As assistant coach:

Education and early career

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Hopkins earned a B.A. in English writing from the University of Nevada. He then earned master's degrees from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley.[1]

At Berkeley, he worked as an academic coach and tutor for the school's athletes. In 2013 he was a player development coach for the Tulsa Shock of the WNBA. He was an assistant women's basketball coach at Utah Valley University from 2013 to 2014. He joined the Minnesota Lynx as assistant coach in 2017,[1] when the Lynx won the championship.[2]

Later career

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In 2020 under new owner Joseph Tsai, Hopkins replaced Katie Smith as the Liberty's head coach. The team will play in Tsai's Barclays Center in Brooklyn.[3] In September 2020, he was appointed as head coach of the German women's national team.[4] On December 6, 2021, Hopkins was fired as head coach of the New York Liberty. In 2023, he guided the German national team to its first Eurobasket berth since twelve years. Afterwards he stepped down for personal reasons.[5]

Coaching record

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Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Playoffs PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result
NYL 2020 22 2 20 .091 6th in East 0 0 0 Missed Playoffs
NYL 2021 32 12 20 .375 3rd in East 1 0 1 .000 Lost in First Round
Career 54 14 40 .259 1 0 1 .000

Notes

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  1. ^ a b "Walt Hopkins". NBA Media Ventures. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  2. ^ "Joe Tsai hires Walt Hopkins of Minnesota Lynx to coach New York Liberty". SB Nation. January 6, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2020 – via MSN.
  3. ^ Powell, Jackie (January 6, 2020). "Walt Hopkins named new head coach in New York". High Post Hoops (Fansided). Retrieved January 7, 2020.
  4. ^ "Walt Hopkins neuer Damen-Bundestrainer « Deutscher Basketball Bund". Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  5. ^ "Lisa Thomaidis ist neue Damen-Bundestrainerin". Deutscher Basketball-Bund (in German). 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
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