Bill Waltonisms

SLC Sox

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Jul 16, 2005
524
Sports Illustrated has a feature up on Bill Walton, the commentator.  He does a lot of west coast games and games for the Pac-12 network, which I watch a lot, and I guess this pretty much sums it up:
 
 
 
It’s an acquired taste, Sullivan admits. Not everyone can handle someone as off the wall as Walton. (In the production truck during ASU-UCLA a graphics operator explains to a young assistant that “wacky tangents” are always a good time to put commentators' names on screen to remind viewers that yes, this is to be expected with this particular color analyst.) Not everyone likes it.
 
I love it.  There was the time he gave play-by-play guy Dave Pasch a copy of Darwin's On the Origin of Species on air because he knew Pasch was a creationist.  Or when he talked about going to a very Mormon-themed park in Salt Lake City to offer his prayers, or when he called a player "a comet soaring across the universe," or when he and Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak burned some sweetgrass together:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQHKG3-JwNs
 
He mixes excellent knowledge of the game with insane tangents with, frankly, poetic metaphors with wild enthusiasm and we are all better for listening.
 
Dec 10, 2012
6,943
He is a cultural icon. The enthusiasm he brings is uncanny. And even though he is a CA/Pacific Coast guy through and through, he still keeps a picture of the Parquet in his kitchen.
 
He's a rich man's Heinsohn IMHO. Is he doing any MM games this year?
 
But I weep for the person standing behind him at Soldier Field on 4th of July weekend. 
 

SLC Sox

Well-Known Member
Silver Supporter
Jul 16, 2005
524
CBS is televising the tournament so that sadly means that Walton won't be calling any games.  This is a travesty.