Bre Ladd is a former American volleyball star player, but whose fame was her marriage to Luke Waltona National Basketball Association (NBA) head coach and former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player.
Early life and family
Breenne Filene ‘Bre’ Ladd was born on April 19, 1984 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Her parents Robert Douglass “Bob” and Tammie Elaine Ladd raised her along with an older brother, Joshua. Her paternal grandparents are Dr. Robert M. Ladd and Virginia Ladd. Her father died of natural causes at age 53 on January 23, 2013; her mother remarried Ed King in 2016 and currently lives in Salt Lake, Utah. Her brother is married to Sarah and has four children, Kirin, Hunter, Aspen and Marley.
Another great photo of Luke Walton & Bre Ladd at their wedding ceremony in Aspen, CO.
Posted by Tom James Company On Monday, August 26, 2013
Education and volleyball career
She graduated from Canyon del Oro High School with honors in 2001 and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Community and Public Health, a two-year course from the University of Arizona. She then went on to study nursing.
Secondary school
Bre started playing volleyball in high school and led the school’s team for two straight years, 2000 and 2001. Her outstanding stats of 146 career blocks, 146 career aces, 971 career kills, and her incredible record of 21 kills in a game , led to her receiving many individual game awards – the most notable being the Gatorade National High School Volleyball Player of the Year in 2001, Tucson Citizen, and the Arizona 5A MVP in 2001, which was extra special because it was voted on by the coaches.
She was the top-ranked volleyball player recruit after graduating from high school, topping the Fab 50 Volleyball Magazine list in 2002. Bre was also tapped to join the U.S. Junior National Team in 2001, participating in the Women’s Junior World Championships in the same year. .
Volleyball Club Experience
She played with the Tucson Cactus Club in Arizona for four years.
Secondary school
From 2002 to 2004, she was assigned the middle blocker position on the University of Arizona Wildcats volleyball team. Her teammates were the equally good Jennifer Abernathy and Kim Glass. She shattered records as a freshman for most blocks with a 1.09 average and holds the record with 124 blocks. Bre was always included on the All PAC-10 roster from her freshman year through her senior year of college.
Career
Bre is a certified divorce coach who assists couples through divorce in California.
Personal life, husband Luke Walton
She married Luke Walton after seven years of dating – she met him in 2002 at the University of Arizona. During the first meeting, nothing happened, but in 2005 they got to know each other again and started dating. They got engaged in 2012 after he asked her to marry him on Christmas Eve, cleverly putting the ring in a bigger box so she wouldn’t have a clue. She said, “He put a jewelry box in a really big box and I assumed he gave me the earrings I asked for. I opened the box and saw my ring, and was so genuinely shocked, even after all this time.’ Bre and Luke exchanged wedding vows on August 17, 2013 in Aspen, Colorado.
The 225 guests, half of whom came from the sports world, had a blast climbing the gondola to the top of The Little Nell with the Rockies as a backdrop. A close friend of her father officiated the wedding. They now have two sons: Lawson, born in 2014, and Landen, born in 2016. Currently, she and her family live in Manhattan Beach, California, USA.
Who is Luke Walton?
Luke Walton is an American born on March 28, 1980 in San Diego, California, USA. His parents, NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton and Susie Walton raised him along with his three brothers, Chris, Nathan and Adam. He graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1998 and received a bachelor’s degree in family values and human development from the University of Arizona in 2003.
Basketball career
He was a basketball player throughout college and after graduating he was the second pick in the second round of the 2003 NBA Draft, selected by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was able to prove his worth, and so when he extended his contract with the Lakers in 2007, he was able to secure a six-year, $30 million contract. During his nine years as a Laker, they played in the NBA Finals three years in a row. His team lost the first in 2008, but won back-to-back championships in 2009 and ’10.
In 2012, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he finished his basketball career.
Coaching career
Luke began his coaching career during the 2011 NBA lockout in which games were halted until a deal was worked out between owners and players, so he worked as an assistant coach for the University of Memphis.
After the 161-day lockout ended, he returned to play in the NBA. After his retirement from playing professional basketball, he continued his coaching career, but this time he was hired for the 2013-2014 season as a player development coach by the Los Angeles D-Fenders, an NBA Development League team.
After one season, the Golden State Warriors hired Luke as the team’s assistant coach from 2014 to 2016. While with the team, he was able to add another championship to his resume as the Warriors won the 2015 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers. . Luke also got a great opportunity to be the team’s interim coach as head coach Steve Kerr had a serious back problem and was unable to fulfill his duties.
His coaching achievements were recognized with NBA Western Conference Coach of the Month titles for October and December. Steve Kerr came back in January 2016 and led the team to the Finals, but this time lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but still broke an NBA record by finishing the regular season with 73 wins and 9 losses. Although Luke was able to coach the Warriors four games more than Steve (43-39), due to NBA rules and voting results, the “Coach of the Year” award was awarded to Steve Kerr with Luke ranked 9the on the voting list.
In 2016, he was not back with the Lakers as a player, but as a Head Coach. He stayed with the team until 2019 with a record of 98 wins and 148 losses, even slightly improving the team’s record.
However, there was the controversial firing of Magic Johnson as president of the team, citing reasons such as wanting to terminate Luke, but he was unable to do so for fear of conflict with the team owners. Ultimately, he was let go by Lakers management. Immediately after his mutual parting with the Lakers, he was hired by another NBA team – Luke is currently the Head Coach of the Sacramento Kings with Vlade Divac, a former Lakers teammate, who serves as the general manager of the team.
Sports Anchor
He had a brief broadcasting stint in 2013 as a Spectrum SportsNet anchor on the Time Warner Cable network along with former NBA player-coach Byron Scott, joining the broadcast team of former NBA players James Worthy and Robert Horry.
Interesting facts, hobbies
- She is fluent in sign language and tutored the deaf and dumb at the Arizona State School for the Deaf and the Blind headquartered in Phoenix, but had a local school in Tucson.
- She was on the honor roll throughout Canyon Del Oro High School
- While in college, her favorite TV series was “FRIENDS”, her favorite movie was “Pretty Woman”, and she wants Natalie Portman to portray her if her life story were ever made into a movie.
- Her favorite professional athlete is Michael Jordan because of his intense competitiveness.
- One of her embarrassing moments was when her top slipped while swimming.
Scandal
On April 22, 2019, Bre’s blissful marriage was shaken when Kelli Tennant, a former sports anchor, accused her husband of sexual assault. Kelli and Luke briefly worked together at Spectrum Sports Net when Luke was hired to join the broadcast team in 2013. book in his hotel room in Santa Monica, California, the attack took place. Luke denied the allegations but admitted they met briefly in the hotel lobby. Even the Sacramento Kings team and the NBA launched their own investigation only to find that there was not enough evidence to support the claim.
#BREAK #LukeWalton: #KelliTennant details allegations of sexual assault in hotel room. She would go on to say she had managed to leave the room. @NBA @Lakers @SacramentoKings @warriors @NBCLA. #Me too. pic.twitter.com/qyfgptg8oO
— Robert Kovacik (@RobertNBCLA) April 23, 2019
Her husband’s lawyer called Kelli an opportunist. The case was dropped in December 2019 because the prosecutor did not want to participate in the investigation. Throughout the investigation, Bre stood by her husband and declined all media interview requests.
Appearance
She is 1.85 m tall, weighs about 67 kg and her vital statistics are 36-28-36. She is white with long blonde hair and brown eyes.
Net value
Sources estimate her net worth to be close to $1 million as of early 2020, and combined with her husband’s net worth of $16 million, she and her children would have no problem living quite a luxurious life.
