The basketball world has lost one of its most colorful characters. Hall of Fame legend Bill Walton has died at age 71 after a recent battle with cancer, the NBA announced on Monday.
Walton enjoyed a storied collegiate career at UCLA under legendary coach John Wooden. During his career at Westwood, the 6’11” center won two national championships (1972-73), three National Collegiate Player of the Year awards and was a three-time All-American. During his three seasons on varsity, his teams lost just four games and went 86-4 overall.
His success continued in the NBA, where he was selected first overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1974 NBA Draft, won an NBA championship in 1977, and was named MVP in 1978 (averaging 18.9 points and 13.2 rebounds), but he struggled with chronic foot injuries and only played in 209 of 328 games over four seasons.
After sitting out the 1978-79 season in protest of the way he and his teammates were injured, Walton signed with the San Diego Clippers as a free agent, but missed two seasons with a foot injury and played just 169 games over six seasons.
In 1985, Walton was traded to the Boston Celtics. He played a career-high 80 games in the 1985-86 season and won another NBA championship as the team’s sixth man alongside Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish. Walton played just 10 games the following season and retired after missing the 1986-87 season due to injury.
Generations of basketball fans are probably best known for Walton as the quirky basketball commentator who, for the first 20 years of his career, called college and NBA games for CBS, NBC, the Clippers and ESPN/ABC.
However, after a three-year hiatus while he recovered from back surgery (to alleviate injuries sustained during his playing days), Walton returned as a full-time commentator for ESPN, and also called NBA games for NBC alongside Greg Gumbel and Steve “Snapper” Jones.
Walton became a hugely popular commentator, frequently discussing topics barely related to the game on the court (recreational drug use, bizarre trivia, his love of the Grateful Dead, his political beliefs, etc.), and play-by-play announcers such as Dave Pasch and Jason Benetti often had to maintain a deadpan sense of humor, knowing that Walton’s stories and analysis would run wild.
In 2009, Walton was named one of the top 50 sportscasters of all time by the Sportscasters Association of America.
