RIP Bill Walton

Muse

Lifer

Jul 11, 2001

37,807

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136

• May 27, 2024

• #1

Good article behind NYTimes Athletic paywall, but this looks good:

Loading…

www.cnn.com

39 surgeries. He said he "peaked at 12!"

Bill fought through some tough stuff, decided after spinal fusion surgery in 2009 that basically saved his life he was "the luckiest guy in the world."

And:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Walton

 

Last edited: May 27, 2024

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feralkid

Lifer

Jan 28, 2002

16,577

4,659

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• May 27, 2024

• #2

So long, Mr Walton.

 

zinfamous

No Lifer

Jul 12, 2006

110,802

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• #3

hum. well that seems surprising to me.

 

esquared

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord

Forum Director

Oct 8, 2000

23,771

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• May 27, 2024

• #4

I always wondered what he could have done in the NBA had he not had all these injuries.
He's in the HOF as he should be but how many more rings and MVPs could he have had.

The guy's teams just did not lose (HS and UCLA). 88 game win streak while at UCLA along with his last two year at HS
put his win streak at some 140+ games.

RIP Bill Walton. You were one great player.

 

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Muse

Lifer

Jul 11, 2001

37,807

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• May 27, 2024

• #5

Here's the New York Times article, not available when I made the OP, but it's on front page now.

This link will get anyone past the paywall for the next 14 days, i.e. until June 10, 2024.

Check out the comments, they're terrific and many are by people who knew him personally.

Bill Walton, N.B.A. Hall of Famer and Broadcasting Star, Dies at 71

He won championships in high school, college (U.C.L.A.) and the pros (Trail Blazers and Celtics) before turning to TV as a talkative game analyst in the college ranks.

www.nytimes.com

 

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BoomerD

No Lifer

Feb 26, 2006

63,317

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• May 27, 2024

• #6

That's John-boy's great grandson...right? Or was he Sam Walton's younger brother?

 

sactoking

Diamond Member

Sep 24, 2007

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• #7

I'm too young to have seen him play. My only real exposure to him was as one of, if not the, worst color commentators in sports.

 

M

manly

Lifer

Jan 25, 2000

11,311

2,342

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• May 28, 2024

• #8

sactoking said:

I'm too young to have seen him play. My only real exposure to him was as one of, if not the, worst color commentators in sports.

Click to expand...

Somehow Walton won an Emmy, and seems to have a good reputation as a hoops analyst.

Having said that, Joe Buck has won awards and I think he's awful at football analysis and just tolerable at baseball. Mark Jackson was super annoying when he and JVG did their constant husband-and-wife routine. And if you ever hear the local game calls on cable TV, current color commentators are so partisan and dumb it's appalling. I know local announcers are paid to be homers, but apparently they're also paid to be blind.

Walton's signature line was "throw it down, big man?" I don't remember him being good, but I also don't really remember wanting to mash the mute button or switch over to the Spanish language broadcast either.

 

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member

Oct 20, 2014

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• #9

esquared said:

I always wondered what he could have done in the NBA had he not had all these injuries.
He's in the HOF as he should be but how many more rings and MVPs could he have had.

The guy's teams just did not lose (HS and UCLA). 88 game win streak while at UCLA along with his last two year at HS
put his win streak at some 140+ games.

RIP Bill Walton. You were one great player.

Click to expand...

That's why I would want no part of playing for the Portland Trailblazers if I had NBA talent. Those fuckheads shot him up with painkillers and had him play on an ugly stress fracture until his foot snapped in 1978 because durr we're 50-10 right now, to hell with the career of one of the most talented and unique players to ever come into the league. I don't think it's an accident that they keep losing their best players to career ending injuries. See Brandon Roy and Greg Oden. Oden was such an amazing prospect I knew who he was when he was 14, and god I hated when Portland won the lottery to select him.

Walton having his career destroyed by trusting the Trail Blazers is one of the biggest gut punches ever in sports. The guy played defense like Tim Duncan, he was as devastating as Bill Russell in getting his team on the break and finding them in positions to get easy buckets in transition, could score on the block like Duncan, but was also Jokic in the half-court setting his teammates up. Easily the greatest passing bigman until Jokic. I don't think it's a stretch to say Walton could have been the greatest bigman to ever play without that fracture of his foot that the Trailblazers caused. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wasn't going to lead a team of Maurice Lucas, Bob Gross, and Lionel Hollins to a title but Walton did, and they were even better the next year despite him playing on that ticking time bomb of a stress fracture. I feel like we were robbed not getting to see Walton have a full career but it was beautiful seeing him have that one healthy year again in 1985-86 as the sixth man of arguably the greatest team in NBA history (86 Celtics).

RIP Bill, there was never a more talented bigman than you.

 

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SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member

Oct 20, 2014

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• #10

sactoking said:

I'm too young to have seen him play. My only real exposure to him was as one of, if not the, worst color commentators in sports.

Click to expand...

I loved Walton's color commentary. Especially when he was the Clippers color guy and would spend the whole game trashing Michael Olowokandi for being lazy and an outright scrub and then go on rants about how much of a disgrace the Clippers were. He must have had an iron-clad contract to keep from being fired and I imagine he had to love talking crap about the Clippers on their own broadcast after the way their owner Sterling screwed him over on his contract in his playing days (Sterling made Walton give up a bunch of money he was owed for him to OK the trade to Boston in 1985).

 

Muse

Lifer

Jul 11, 2001

37,807

8,291

136

• May 28, 2024

• #11

manly said:

Somehow Walton won an Emmy, and seems to have a good reputation as a hoops analyst.

Having said that, Joe Buck has won awards and I think he's awful at football analysis and just tolerable at baseball. Mark Jackson was super annoying when he and JVG did their constant husband-and-wife routine. And if you ever hear the local game calls on cable TV, current color commentators are so partisan and dumb it's appalling. I know local announcers are paid to be homers, but apparently they're also paid to be blind.

Walton's signature line was "throw it down, big man?" I don't remember him being good, but I also don't really remember wanting to mash the mute button or switch over to the Spanish language broadcast either.

Click to expand...

A guy who used to live in the house. One day ~30 years ago or so, in front on the TV while some sport was on (we had cable), I said something to bring up the subject of how bad the guys were on microphone. He said "I hate all of them." I think of that from time to time. Once in a while I have the idea that one is really good. I think some are, at least at times. But I often hate them, especially when they get into noodling each other, ribbing each other, getting off on their yuk it up tangents. I will mute that stuff sometimes.

 

Muse

Lifer

Jul 11, 2001

37,807

8,291

136

• May 28, 2024

• #12

sactoking said:

I'm too young to have seen him play. My only real exposure to him was as one of, if not the, worst color commentators in sports.

Click to expand...

Saw yesterday it said that he attended 1000 Grateful Dead shows. Is that even possible?

 

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