BIl Walton, who starred for John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins before becoming a Hall of Famer for his NBA career and one of basketball broadcasting’s biggest stars, died on Monday, the league announced on behalf of his family. . Walton, who fought a prolonged fight against cancer, was 71 years old.
He was the NBA’s MVP in the 1977-78 season, a two-time champion, and a member of the NBA’s 50th Anniversary and 75th Anniversary teams. This followed a college career in which he was a two-time champion at UCLA and a three-time national player of the year.
“Bill Walton,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver, “was truly one of a kind.”
Walton, who was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1993, was larger than life, on and off the court. His NBA career — cut short by chronic foot injuries — lasted just 468 games with Portland, San Diego and eventually the Los Angeles Clippers and Boston. He averaged 13.3 points and 10.5 rebounds in those games, neither of those numbers exactly a record.
Still, his impact on the game was enormous.
His most famous game was the 1973 NCAA title game, UCLA versus Memphis, in which he went an incredible 21 of 22 from the field and led the Bruins to another national championship.
“One of my guards said, ‘Let’s try something else,” Wooden told the Associated Press in 2008 for a look back on the 35th anniversary of that game.
Wooden’s response during this timeout: “Why? If it is not broke, do not fix it.”
They kept giving Walton the ball, and he kept putting in an unforgettable performance.
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“It’s very difficult to put into words what he meant to the UCLA program, as well as his tremendous impact on college basketball,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said Monday. the game and unwavering directness that have been the hallmarks of his larger-than-life personality.
“As a passionate UCLA alumnus and broadcaster, he loved being around our players, hearing their stories and sharing his wisdom and advice. For me, as a coach, he was honest, kind and always had his heart in the right place. I will miss him very much. It’s hard to imagine a season at Pauley Pavilion without him.”
Walton retired from the NBA and turned to broadcasting, something he never thought he could be good at – and a path he sometimes imagined would be possible for him because he had a pronounced stutter at some points in his life. .
Turns out he was excellent at it, too: Walton was an Emmy winner.
“In life, being so self-conscious, red hair, big nose, freckles and silly face, with a nerdy look and not being able to say anything. I was incredibly shy and never said a word,” Walton told The Oregonian in 2017. “Then when I was 28, I learned how to talk. It became the greatest achievement of my life and everyone else’s biggest nightmare.”
The last part of this was just Walton’s hyperbole. He was loved for his on-air tangents.
He sometimes appeared on air in Grateful Dead T-shirts; Walton was a huge fan of the band and referenced them frequently, sometimes even recording satellite radio specials celebrating what it meant to be a “Deadhead.”
And the Pac-12 Conference, which essentially evaporated in many ways due to college realignment, was another of his many passions. He always referred to it as the “Conference of Champions” and loved it until the end.
“It doesn’t get any better than this,” he once said on a broadcast, wearing a tie-dye T-shirt and a Hawaiian necklace around his neck.
“What I will remember most about him was his zest for life,” Silver said. “He was a regular presence at league events – always upbeat, smiling from ear to ear and looking to share his wisdom and warmth. I valued our close friendship, envied his boundless energy, and admired the time he devoted to each person he met.”
Walton died surrounded by his loved ones, his family said. He is survived by his wife Lori and sons Adam, Nate, Chris and Luke – a former NBA player and now coach.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
