RIP Bill Walton
- Thread starter RorschachsMask
- Start date
I was on a flight with Bill Walton about 30 years ago. It was a small commuter plane going to Sioux Falls, SD. No first class and Bill was really cramped in his seat, yet was working on his laptop the entire flight. I engaged him in a quick conversation as we were deplaning. He came across as very authentic. Like me, you may wonder why Bill Walton was going to Sioux Falls. He was attending a a card signing event.
I am convinced he was 7'2-7'3. He was bigger than Parish. I think the idea he was just another 6'11 guy is a reason people can't understand how dominant he was.
I never got to meet him but to echo @phenweigh I know people who met him and they say he was just like on TV, happy, loving life, etc.
Key guy on the best team ever.
I never got to meet him but to echo @phenweigh I know people who met him and they say he was just like on TV, happy, loving life, etc.
Key guy on the best team ever.
Great discussion on SC about Walton with SVP and Danny Ainge. Hopefully it becomes available online, can really see how much Danny cared for him.
I luckily caught this interview. I didn’t realize that Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Danny Ainge all grew up with Walton as his basketball idol. Walton first got on my radar when I was 12, watching Providence College, with Marvin Barnes and Ernie DiGregorio, in the 1973 season College try to beat UCLA at Pauley Pavillion, but getting crushed. PC made the Final Four that season, trolling in the first game before a knee injury to Barnes resulted to a loss to Memphis, who Walton destroyed with his legendary 21-22 performance.
I loved that 1977 Portland team, and really appreciated Walton’s ability to control the game at both ends of the floor. Although I love Cedric Maxwell, I was thrilled when Red added Walton to the 1985-86 Celtics. Having two preternatural basketball players like Bird and Walton on the same team? Sign me up.
For those on this board too young to have watched the 1986 team, I can tell you that Walton played every second with joy, after years of health concern. I met Bill Walton once, on Causeway Street years later, where he was so generous with his time in talking with Celtics fans, while slumped over with back issues. As someone who used to struggle with back pain, I emphasized with him, and when advanced back surgery worked for him, I was thrilled that such a joyful man didn’t have to live in pain 24/7.
A week ago, I happened upon a video where Bill recounted how he took the Celtics to a Grateful Dead concert, sans Ainge (“His wife wouldn’t let him go,” said Walton). I listened to every second of his tale, which he told with a level of joy that was exceptional, but probably a level he got to all the time.
When I heard the news of his passing, I remembered the many faces of Bill Walton: the shy teenager who threw himself into basketball to find a place t belong, the amazing college player, who wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion publicly during the tumultuous 1970s, the young NBA center willing the Trailblazers, down 0-2 to Dr J and the Sixers, to four straight Finals wins, the always injured Walton, sitting sadly on the bench 8n street clothes, the reborn basketball savant becoming a champion again on the legendary 1986 team, and finally the ebullient basketball broadcaster.
Rest in peace, Big Bill, go find DJ in heaven and bring him to a Jerry Garcia concert.
The joy Bill brought to the game made him even greater. When he was with the Celts, his facial expressions on the bench reflected those of us sitting in the stands. He was one of us. And when he was on the court, watching him and Larry pass and realizing that there were the best two big men to ever pass on the court together brought us supreme joy. (And to think Larry and Pistol also had the same experience six years previously). Bill's now up playing in a pickup game with DJ, Reggie, and Russ while "Box of Rain" is being played on a boombox.
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I didn't remember it as their being crushed, so I just went back to have a look. Yeah, they were beaten 101-77. I thought it was more competitive. That search also led me to a look at the first half of the 1973 semi against Memphis State. That's some of the best college basketball I ever saw. Would have been a helluva final.
I know this is a Bill thread but if you followed hoops all of KAreem's career he was not the GOAT.
Just a few things
No Laker or Yankee is underrated.
He sulked through entire seasons which ended up being write offs for those teams.
According to young experts Dave Cowens was shit and wouldn't be in the NBA today but somehow Kareem lost to a team where Cowens was the best player. They were both centers and Dave held Kareem (most unstoppable ever!) to 10-21 while he went 13-25 .
Moses abused Kareem in the 83 finals, and Kareem couldn't guard him in 81 either.
Walton outplayed him in a sweep.
Name another GOAT candidate that was outplayed by guys at his position in at least three playoff series.
Without Magic and the bye to the finals every year he would have fewer rings than Wilt.
Two November '85 Worcester shows that Bill led the Celtics to attend. Turns out they might not have played for five or six hours as Bill remembers, but it may have certainly felt like it that night.
View: https://youtu.be/VkGxvMPGjc8
View: https://youtu.be/mNySr6-Wzjo
View: https://youtu.be/hha1bLtDG3A
View: https://youtu.be/VkGxvMPGjc8
View: https://youtu.be/mNySr6-Wzjo
View: https://youtu.be/hha1bLtDG3A
The votes for HOF and for the all-time teams are unsupported by his body of work in the NBA based solely on the numbers IMO.
He got there out of recognition of his dominance at his (brief) peak, his body of work as the college GOAT, his reputation as a ranconteur and character, and a sense that he would have dominated if his feet and back hadn’t betrayed him.
Which I’m fine with. This is where sports is not just actuarial tables. Bill Walton was a larger than life character and no meaningful “Hall of Fame” would leave him out.
Well, the HOF takes into account contributions to the game of basketball, not just the NBA performance, so Walton’s time in college absolutely propels him easily into the HOF. Hence why players like Dino Radja and Sabonis are included.
I remember reading Paul Saltman’s book on nutrition — he’s the biochemist who identified a trace metal deficiency as the cause of Walton’s early osteoporosis. Vegetarianism wasn’t the problem, it was Walton’s extremely restrictive macrobiotic diet. This will always be one of the great “what ifs” in my book.
Walton’s career wouldn’t be HOF-worthy in baseball, but it would be in football — think Terrell Davis or Earl Campbell. (The bar for Springfield is low enough that it’s not a serious question; winning the MVP basically punches your ticket, though Derrick Rose might change that.)
RG33 is right- Springfield is not as pro-league--centric as Cooperatown or Canton- Walton’s whole body of work including college warrants inclusion, as per Springfield’s own standards, peak vs longevity debate of his pro career aside.
I was at Del Frisco's Steak House in NYC about 15yrs ago with a table full of college buddies. Out of the blue Bill Walton sits down with our crew and starts chatting with all of us. We talked Dead shows/songs for 10 minutes until one of my buddies blurts out "this guy is one of the greatest NBA players ever and all you guys care about is Help Slip Frank at Alpine Valley"
I imagine Walton had done this with 1000s of other people in restaurants over the years.
A man of the people.
RIP Bill
I imagine Walton had done this with 1000s of other people in restaurants over the years.
A man of the people.
RIP Bill
I mean, Dino Radja is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. The same Radja that put up decent yet pedestrian numbers for bad Celtics teams in 224 NBA games. But add in his body of work in the Euro Leagues, and there you go.
So there would have been a serious case for Walton to be inducted based solely on his NCAA career. Add in his brilliant but short NBA career pre-injury, and his induction becomes a slam dunk. Yes, I'm sure being popular and visible in his post-playing days helped, but he likely would have made it to Springfield even if he decided to shun TV appearances once his NBA career concluded.
So there would have been a serious case for Walton to be inducted based solely on his NCAA career. Add in his brilliant but short NBA career pre-injury, and his induction becomes a slam dunk. Yes, I'm sure being popular and visible in his post-playing days helped, but he likely would have made it to Springfield even if he decided to shun TV appearances once his NBA career concluded.
Glad I could find this clip. Bill Walton rides the T to the Garden before the NBA Finals in 2022. Imagine you are taking the T home from work, and you just see a gregarious, stoned, 7 foot tall, 70 year old man on the train?
View: https://twitter.com/NBAHistory/status/1534673024686952448
View: https://twitter.com/NBAHistory/status/1534673024686952448
A friend of mine sent me the highlights of Bill's 21-22 game in 1973 with the observation of how little time the ball spent in his hands. He understood that basketball was a game of quick decisions and ball movement, and was a practitioner of such at a level few have ever realized. Watching him play the game he loved could make you love it as well, just as watching him live his life could make you love life--and him--as well. I'm a Sixers fan, so I can't say that I was happy in the moment when he won his two rings, as the first one came as the first (of many) heartbreaks I suffered as a basketball fan, and the last one came with a team I grew to despise. But as a fan of the man, I'm happy that he was able to bracket his all too brief career with rings both in his youth and as his playing days were nearing their end. Rest in Joy, Big Red!
Thanks for posting this. I don't know if I've ever seen a big man so fluid and balanced in terms of handling the entry pass/lob and immediately being in position to go up and shoot, pass, tip the ball in, etc. On the block. he seems to catch the pass and go up for the turnaround in one single continuous motion.
Edit: Or what Remagellan said above: everything happens so quickly
Bill came to St. Louis last year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his masterpiece which took place here. Did the full interview tour and treated every young rando sportscaster as if they were royalty.
Yeah, this is really the true sign of his greatness. It reminds me of how Jokic ranks by far as the player in the NBA with the most touches, but is relatively modest in overall usage rate. The decisions of what to do are made lightning fast, wasting no time and giving the defense no chance to anticipate.
Painful to watch him walk even a short distance in that clip. It illustrates to a small degree what he went through. I think I heard 39 surgeries
If Bill couldn't make you smile, you were trying too hard to be mad. Going to miss that large bundle of joy.
His book "Back from the Dead" is worth reading. What he endured physically is absolutely mind-boggling.
Big time dedication to Bill by Pearl Jam tonight in Seattle. Stories from Ed, photos on the screen and a heartfelt acoustic song.
Love it.
Man of the Hour is the song they played.
Love it.
Man of the Hour is the song they played.
The last time I saw Bill Walton was at the Fare the Well concerts in Santa Clara. A 7-foot redhead in tie-dye, standing right in the thick of things, he was hard to miss.
The first time I saw Bill he was with the Trailblazers. A friend and I were going up the West Coast and dropped in on a friend of mine in Portland. She told me that Bill Walton next door. I knew he was a vegetarian, so I rapped on his door to invite him over for dinner. His wife answered, holding an infant. I asked if Bill was home. A moment later, he showed up and I threw out my invitation. He graciously declined, saying he was leaving on a road trip (which was true). We chatted for a minute. At no point did Bill make me and my friend feel like the dorky nerds that we were. My real hope was to get high with Bill but that did not come to pass.
I liked this article in the Athletic. Bill in a nutshell: "That’s all I want in life. Is more,” he told me three years ago. “More time. More life. More music. More games. More reading. More love. More everything. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
And he signed off with "Good and happy everything, forever.” How can you not love a guy like that?
The first time I saw Bill he was with the Trailblazers. A friend and I were going up the West Coast and dropped in on a friend of mine in Portland. She told me that Bill Walton next door. I knew he was a vegetarian, so I rapped on his door to invite him over for dinner. His wife answered, holding an infant. I asked if Bill was home. A moment later, he showed up and I threw out my invitation. He graciously declined, saying he was leaving on a road trip (which was true). We chatted for a minute. At no point did Bill make me and my friend feel like the dorky nerds that we were. My real hope was to get high with Bill but that did not come to pass.
I liked this article in the Athletic. Bill in a nutshell: "That’s all I want in life. Is more,” he told me three years ago. “More time. More life. More music. More games. More reading. More love. More everything. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
And he signed off with "Good and happy everything, forever.” How can you not love a guy like that?