Hall of Famer Bill Walton Dies At The Age of 71 [1952-2024]

Classic Bill Walton on Olajuwon v Shaq... comparing them to Beethoven v Mozart.

 

RIP, brother Bill

 

One of the greats as a player and ambassador of the game .

RIP

 

Rip
Bill

 

RIP

I know he wasn't everybody's cup of tea as a broadcaster, but he's one of the few color men who could make crap basketball watchable to me. Shame injuries pretty much crushed his playing career, he was the OG playmaking center. No telling where he would have ended up in the pantheon.

'Thrown it down big man, one time. Establish order"

 

What an amazing life

 

One of a kind. I loved him as a color commentator because he made a random Oregon State vs Stanford game fun.

Fitting that he died along with the Pac-12 and won't have to see UCLA in the Big 10.

 

Liked Bill as a player and the infinite patience of Dave Pasch made him tolerable on Pac 12 basketball broadcasts. I seriously have no idea how Pasch was able to put up with some of Bill's antics during games. It got weird sometimes.

 

The greatest color commentator in the history of basketball second only to the kegenday Steve Snapper Jones

 

Damn, RIP. A little before my time, but I used to study film of Big Red's games because I enjoyed learning about basketball history.

Great all around passing big, defense, boards and held his own on prime Kareem en route to a chip, 6MOY on those GOAT Boston teams.

Great one year peak and entertaining broadcaster. RIP to the great Bill Walton.

 

His passion for the game was undeniable. RIP big fella

 

Walton and Pasch were more of a comedy duo than a broadcasting pair. I loved watching them...especially when Bill would tangent into some rambling about the Oregon coast and Willamette Valley beauty. There will never be anyone like Bill. Possibly the greatest ambassador of the game. Definitely the greatest ambassador of Big Men. A fantastic human being...who, at times, was a little off, but I don't think he'd have it any other way. I will truly miss Bill and Dave doing Pac basketball games. I wouldn't care who was playing...would just tune in to see what entertainment those two would throw out there.

RIP Big Man.

 

Oh yeah... **** cancer.

 

Was he broadcasting until recently? RIP to the man, he definitely made some broadcasts more interesting. Some legendary Yao rookie season ones for sure.

 

Such a positive person. He will absolutely be missed.

My favorite commentary from him was talking about Game 2 Rockets/Jazz in 1995 where he said: "the Rockets played PERFECT basketball" and he emphasized that PERFECT in the way only Bill Walton could. No one else could have said it just that way with that meaning..he was talking about well they moved the ball, how unselfish they were, and how effective all of that was. He saw the bigger picture in the game and was good at communicating that.

Rest in Peace!

 

How the Grateful Dead inspired Bill Walton and shaped his life’s perspective


Bill Walton was a proud Deadhead.

The basketball great, who died Monday at age 71 following a prolonged cancer battle, was famously a huge fan of the Grateful Dead (and a tie-dye aficionado). A fixture at the band’s shows — he was hard to miss at nearly 7 feet — Walton reportedly had attended more than 850 shows since 1967, including when the Dead played in front of the Great Pyramids in Egypt in 1978. As a broadcaster for ESPN, Walton often inserted references to the band in his color commentary during games.

“I became the basketball player that I was because of the Grateful Dead,” said Walton in a 2016 interview with Salon. “I am the human being that I am today because of the Grateful Dead. They’re right there at the top of my teachers. Their inspiration moved me brightly.”

More than just a fan, the UCLA basketball legend, who helped lead the team to back-to-back NCAA championships (and undefeated seasons) during coach John Wooden’s tenure in the 1970s, developed a friendship with the Grateful Dead over the years. The band often would stay at Walton’s house when they were in San Diego, and the Hall of Famer attended band member Jerry Garcia’s private funeral. Not only that, his home resembled a Grateful Dead museum, with photos and memorabilia lining the walls. Walton even peppered his 2016 memoir, “Back From the Dead,” with his love of (and lyrics from) the band.


Among the anecdotes that Walton shared is how he got his Boston Celtics teammates into a Grateful Dead concert in 1985. (Walton, who was drafted first overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974, had been traded by the Clippers to the Celtics in 1985.) His teammates had never seen the band perform and gathered at Larry Bird’s house before the show.

“I had to explain to everybody in the Grateful Dead that ... the Celtics were just icons and they couldn’t really go out in public because they were so popular,” recounts Walton in a video previously shared on X, formerly Twitter. “They said, ‘We’ll take care of this, Bill.’ So they built this special little enclave right on the side of the stage where, unless you were on the stage, you couldn’t look into this little area. It was all curtained off. It was the perfect little place to watch the concert.”

 

more tidbits on Walton

he overcame a stuttering problem.
his brother Bruce was an OL for UCLA and then the Dallas Cowboys
bill met his wife at UCLA; she was a translanted Minnesotan, who fancied herself as a hippie
after leading the Portland Trailblazer to win the NBA ring against Dr. J's 76ers, he severed ties w the team after he had publicly announced that he no longer trust the team's medical staff.

• he felt that the medical staff lied to him repeatedly, after mis-treating his injured ankle.

he was traded to the LA clippers; he played a season there, had to retired because of the re-occurence of the anlke injury
he then attended Stanford law school, graduated.
in his early 30s, he joined the Bird-led Celtics as a back up to center Robert Parish
he was a valuable bench player helping the Celts to win another ring.

he re-injured his ankle in his 2nd year, then had to retire from the NBA one final time

rip​