How can you not love Bill Walton...

[manleyzoo]

Nobody was saying he is a dick? Not your words I know but..."So you are saying that the coach of a team that won a championship because of that guy said he was a great guy. What a surprise. the guy was a dick. I don't care how he treated his coach. rather the people that were forced to try and work with him." So someone is saying he was a dick particularly to the press or maybe to his teammates?

Uh, I don't get your metaphor at all. I guess you're saying he hated the press. The thing is he's not a member of the press, he's an in-game color commentator. So, you're saying his whole career he hated color commentators and now that he's one he's a hypocrite and demanding to get paid? Ok, well, whatever...

 

[tbonezone]

well it ain't all fantasy just cuz you're not old enuf to remember it ! fact. walton often just refused to talk to the press. unless perhaps he knew you and felt like it.and that covered tv analysts ,playbyplay , color guys, radio , newspaper, whatever. this actually happened. he hated the press and you can say it was only his speech impediment but i frankly don't buy it. and now they butter his bread. just curious how all that anger worked itself out. must be the money.

 

[dasher]

Nobody was saying he is a dick? Not your words I know but..."So you are saying that the coach of a team that won a championship because of that guy said he was a great guy. What a surprise. the guy was a dick. I don't care how he treated his coach. rather the people that were forced to try and work with him." So someone is saying he was a dick particularly to the press or maybe to his teammates?

Uh, I don't get your metaphor at all. I guess you're saying he hated the press. The thing is he's not a member of the press, he's an in-game color commentator. So, you're saying his whole career he hated color commentators and now that he's one he's a hypocrite and demanding to get paid? Ok, well, whatever...

i also can't stomach the guy because he took big money from the celts and didn'

No, what I'm saying is neither you, me, nor anyone else other than players and coaches, have any idea whether he was/is a dick or not. The only thing you've seen is him in public with the press. I've been a business tech journo for 30 years and have interviewed just about every big-time CEO, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs multiple times and many other less than pleasant CEOs. And I've questioned them in pressers. Most, if not all were hostile to the press. So what, BFD. It's not a friendly relationship by design, its contentious. Journos, especially those of us that cover sports teams, don't get ruffled by it at all.

The friendly, affable subjects are really good at smiling and chuckling and seeming like they're all friendly and confiding inside stuff to you. But, in my experience those are the ones that as soon as they leave you they're cursing the ground you walk on. The difference between the hostile and friendly interview is who's cursing you to your face and who's doing it behind your back. And, that's a fact.

What does it matter to you in the first place in how I feel about Bill Walton? Wouldn't it be oh, i don't know, my opinion and I'm entitled to it?

 

[manleyzoo]

well it ain't all fantasy just cuz you're not old enuf to remember it ! fact. walton often just refused to talk to the press. unless perhaps he knew you and felt like it.and that covered tv analysts ,playbyplay , color guys, radio , newspaper, whatever. this actually happened. he hated the press and you can say it was only his speech impediment but i frankly don't buy it. and now they butter his bread. just curious how all that anger worked itself out. must be the money.

Got a flash for ya, pal. I'm a 72 SU graduate, way old enough to have seen him play in person in college, in the pros, seen his press conferences. Here's another flash: color guys aren't employed by media outlets. They're employed by the network. Last I looked the Pac 12 network wasn't a media company but rather a broadcast network. What was the last time you saw Walton interview a coach or a player after the game. Or do a sideline report?

 

[manleyzoo]

i also can't stomach the guy because he took big money from the celts and didn'

What does it matter to you in the first place in how I feel about Bill Walton? Wouldn't it be oh, i don't know, my opinion and I'm entitled to it?

The right to your opinion has nothing to do with it. It's what is your opinion that matters. So side-stepping the facts, is, uh, kinda the point.

 

[dasher]

The right to your opinion has nothing to do with it. It's what is your opinion that matters. So side-stepping the facts, is, uh, kinda the point.

Not side stepping anything. I don't have to do that with you or anyone else. The guy was involved with a lot of shady people back in the day as well. Treated people poorly. Hung around with shady people. Was a complete dipshit when it came to the last basketball coach at UCLA. I would rather listen to vitale and am grateful that he doesn't do Syracuse games.

 

[Cowtown]

You're fine by me, cto, but if I saw Bill Walton walking down the street, I'd cross over it to avoid him.

 

[Forloveoforange]

Bill and Dave are doing the UCLA/Arizona game. Just started.

I was glad that Vitale mentioned the Cal game last night. That's when I realized I had been wasting my time for nearly an hour and a half. And Bill was right. It did look more like a beaver!

 

[Fireball Jr.]

I was so frustrated when I -- a 24-year-old, long-hair, anti-Oscar Madison sportswriter from a large Ohio daily who Bill would've probably enjoyed talking to and smokin' a joint with -- stood in front of him in the locker room in St. Louis after he went 21-for-22 to beat Memphis for the 1973 NCAA championship and he wouldn't say boo, made as if I weren't there.

I was super frustrated because I was a kindred spirit, not one of "those" other sportswriters who bashed him for his anti-war, counter-culture ways. He could've trusted me, but his college coach was fine with his players blowing off the media, so I wasn't surprised by Bill's silence. Thankfully, plenty of his teammates were comfortable talking to me and I got my post-game, championship flavor.

I never held it against Bill for stiffing me -- including later that night at the hotel when I approached him in the lobby -- but I found it frustrating, I understood his silence years later when I later found out he stuttered and didn't feel comfortable talking to the media, although that didn't stop two pros I interviewed, the Cavs' Barry Clemens and the Bulls' Bob "Butterbean" Love.

If he was a jerk to some media people, so be it, 'cause many of them were utter to him. I was outta my mind one night before a Cavs-Portland game when long-haired, pony-tailed Bill walked in the players' entrance at Richfield Coliseum eating a carrot and some of the neanderthal sportswriters I sat at press row with were making fun of him (as did they to me, too, because I didn't look, act or think like them).

Love Bill, love his zest for life, love that he's now the big kid and his son's the adult about to embark on a head coaching career. Bill, the father, clearly did something right. Long may his freak flag fly!

 

[Moontan]

Pasch & Walton are covering the UCLA @ Arizona.
Bill is a handful... I don't know how Dave does it... I'm not sure if I could.

I used to regularly hear Bill's weekly morning radio appearance and enjoyed those appearances, but that's a different scenario than PBP.
Galapagos islands, "have you ever been on a ship" Bill asks Dave... Cray-cray.

 

[Forloveoforange]

"have you ever been on a ship", what's wrong with that?

A couple games ago, there was a charge call. Bill asked Dave "Have you ever been hit by a truck? Have you ever waited for the cardinal to land on the sorrel bush to sing to you in the morning? Have you ever sat on your bike at the bottom of Mount Lemmon ready to climb 20 miles to its top?"

 

[Toga]

"have you ever been on a ship", what's wrong with that?

A couple games ago, there was a charge call. Bill asked Dave "Have you ever been hit by a truck? Have you ever waited for the cardinal to land on the sorrel bush to sing to you in the morning? Have you ever sat on your bike at the bottom of Mount Lemmon ready to climb 20 miles to its top?"

Mt. Lemon - overlooking Tucson. It's pretty - unlike Tucson.

 

[IthacaMatt]

like a 1000x I guess some of the young don't know what a a-hole he was during his playing days. How can you not love him? I can't stand the guy.

You may not realize, but he had a really bad speech impediment back when he was younger. He was also awfully shy, which is probably impossible to believe nowadays, with the larger-than-life media version of Bill Walton. He also constantly got compared to another great UCLA center, Lewis Alcindor, who had preceded him, and was a player who many people said he would never measure up to. Walton was the most complete center I've ever watched. Some were stronger, better rebounders, had some part of their game they exceeded him in, but wow, he was the most high basketball IQ center, apart from maybe Bill Russell, ever.

 

[Toga]

You may not realize, but he had a really bad speech impediment back when he was younger. He was also awfully shy, which is probably impossible to believe nowadays, with the larger-than-life media version of Bill Walton. He also constantly got compared to another great UCLA center, Lewis Alcindor, who had preceded him, and was a player who many people said he would never measure up to. Walton was the most complete center I've ever watched. Some were stronger, better rebounders, had some part of their game they exceeded him in, but wow, he was the most high basketball IQ center, apart from maybe Bill Russell, ever.

There was about a 3 year mostly healthy stretch when his overall game was as good as it gets.

 

[IthacaMatt]

There was about a 3 year mostly healthy stretch when his overall game was as good as it gets.

The year the Blazers won the championship - 1977 - Walton missed he first 17 games of the season with yet-another foot problem, so that season's regular season record wasn't ultra-impressive. But the following season they started 50-8 - Roughly on par with this year's Warriors or the best Michael Jordan Bulls team with Dennis Rodman. Then he got hurt again and they only won 8 games the rest of the season, but still finished 10 games ahead of the second best team in the Western Conference.

 

[manleyzoo]

I was so frustrated when I -- a 24-year-old, long-hair, anti-Oscar Madison sportswriter from a large Ohio daily who Bill would've probably enjoyed talking to and smokin' a joint with -- stood of front of him in the locker room in St. Louis after he went 21-for-22 to beat Memphis for the 1973 NCAA championship and he wouldn't say boo, made as if I weren't there.

I was super frustrated because I was a kindred spirit, not one of "those" other sportswriters who bashed him for his anti-war, counter-culture ways. He could've trusted me, but his college coach was fine with his players blowing off the media, so I wasn't surprised by Bill's silence. Thankfully, plenty of his teammates were comfortable talking to me and I got my post-game, championship flavor.

I never held it against Bill for stiffing me -- including later that night at the hotel when I approached him in the lobby -- but I found it frustrating, I understood his silence years later when I later found out he stuttered and didn't feel comfortable talking to the media, although that didn't stop two pros I interviewed, the Cavs' Barry Clemens and the Bulls' Bob "Butterbean" Love.

If he was a jerk to some media people, so be it, 'cause many of them were utter to him. I was outta my mind one night before a Cavs-Portland game when long-haired, pony-tailed Bill walked in the players' entrance at Richfield Coliseum eating a carrot and some of the neanderthal sportswriters I sat at press row with were making fun of him (as did they to me, too, because I didn't look, act or think like them).

Love Bill, love his zest for life, love that he's now the big kid and his son's the adult about to embark on a head coaching career. Bill, the father, clearly did something right. Long may his freak flag fly!

I've been on this board since its inception and years before that in its prior iterations, and this, without doubt, is the single best post I've ever read. Also, kudos for invoking the great CSNY's (Almost Cut My Hair Last Night)

I used to see Walton riding his bike around campus with a backpack on and he took a boatload of crap about that from local LA writers as well. And, he got heavily criticized for his activist anti-Vietnam war stance. He was among the first college athletes ever to stand up for something bigger than just his sport. That's something that we Syracuse fans, with our football history, should know a thing or two about.

 

[MCC]

BTW, in the deciding game 6, Walton had 20 pts, 23 boards, 7 assts and 8 blocks. He was only the best combo center in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks to come along after Russell and probably the best ever in college.

Alcindor.

/thread

[And it's not even close]

 

[IthacaMatt]

If you're a baseball fan of a certain age you must also have hated Ralph Kiner, Red Barber, Jack Brickhouse, Russ Hodges, Hank Greenwald and a slew of others, all of whom, while not ex-players, went off telling tales during the game for long periods of time that had absolutely nothing to do with baseball. Gotta put Casey Stengel in the same bucket. How about Phil Rizzuto--hated the story-telling Scooter, too? What about boxing legend Don Dunphy, one of the greatest tangent guys ever?

The difference is that in baseball, you have so many lulls built into the game that it makes much more room for storytelling. Hoops, going up and down the court, doesn't offer quite so many pauses (except for free throws), so I can see how stories that go on for too long can bother some viewers. That has often been people's beef with Dick Vitale, well, that and the fawning over Duke.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I was so frustrated when I -- a 24-year-old, long-hair, anti-Oscar Madison sportswriter from a large Ohio daily who Bill would've probably enjoyed talking to and smokin' a joint with -- stood of front of him in the locker room in St. Louis after he went 21-for-22 to beat Memphis for the 1973 NCAA championship and he wouldn't say boo, made as if I weren't there.

I was super frustrated because I was a kindred spirit, not one of "those" other sportswriters who bashed him for his anti-war, counter-culture ways. He could've trusted me, but his college coach was fine with his players blowing off the media, so I wasn't surprised by Bill's silence. Thankfully, plenty of his teammates were comfortable talking to me and I got my post-game, championship flavor.

I never held it against Bill for stiffing me -- including later that night at the hotel when I approached him in the lobby -- but I found it frustrating, I understood his silence years later when I later found out he stuttered and didn't feel comfortable talking to the media, although that didn't stop two pros I interviewed, the Cavs' Barry Clemens and the Bulls' Bob "Butterbean" Love.

If he was a jerk to some media people, so be it, 'cause many of them were utter to him. I was outta my mind one night before a Cavs-Portland game when long-haired, pony-tailed Bill walked in the players' entrance at Richfield Coliseum eating a carrot and some of the neanderthal sportswriters I sat at press row with were making fun of him (as did they to me, too, because I didn't look, act or think like them).

Love Bill, love his zest for life, love that he's now the big kid and his son's the adult about to embark on a head coaching career. Bill, the father, clearly did something right. Long may his freak flag fly!

Richfield Coliseum!

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

no antithesis would mean opposite . he gets paid to talk about basketball on tv. he despised people who got paid to talk about basketball on tv. pretty sure HYPOCRITE is the proper nomenclature at play here. he joined the club for money.

No, he disposed HOW they did it, not that they did it. Therefore, I am, as usual, correct.

 

[manleyzoo]

Alcindor.

/thread

[And it's not even close]

Not as a combo center he wasn't. Best ever for sure, but not one who did everything (scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks) like Walton did.

 

[NYCSUGrad]

The difference is that in baseball, you have so many lulls built into the game that it makes much more room for storytelling. Hoops, going up and down the court, doesn't offer quite so many pauses (except for free throws), so I can see how stories that go on for too long can bother some viewers. That has often been people's beef with Dick Vitale, well, that and the fawning over Duke.

Well put!!!

 

[OrOrange44]

I got quite a few chuckles last night watching Az-UCLA
Every time the glockenspiel (Sp?) came up in conversation ESPN had a little animated glock pop up on the screen
Freakin hilarious
Hated him as a player...love him as an announcer
Grew up in Pa and still prefer eastern BB, I watch Pac 12 games just to listen to Walton
I can see how he rubs people wrong but I love the banter
There was one game where he was trying to get Pasche to go see the Dead in Chicago
They were freakin hilarious together
Lets Go ORANGE
OO44

 

[MCC]

Not as a combo center he wasn't. Best ever for sure, but not one who did everything (scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks) like Walton did.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. Kareem (Alcindor back then, you know what I mean) was clearly the better scorer (26.4 vs. 20.1); rebounding is a wash (15.6 vs. 15.7); stats are not available on blocks or assists. I suspect blocks would be a wash, while Walton would have the edge in assists. Not sure what the label 'combo' center is supposed to mean, seems awfully subjective.

I'll stick with my vote for Kareem (Alcindor) as both a better center and all-around player in college, but concede that Walton was a better passer based on what film I've seen of both players.

 

[IthacaMatt]

We'll have to agree to disagree here. Kareem (Alcindor back then, you know what I mean) was clearly the better scorer (26.4 vs. 20.1); rebounding is a wash (15.6 vs. 15.7); stats are not available on blocks or assists. I suspect blocks would be a wash, while Walton would have the edge in assists. Not sure what the label 'combo' center is supposed to mean, seems awfully subjective.

I'll stick with my vote for Kareem (Alcindor) as both a better center and all-around player in college, but concede that Walton was a better passer based on what film I've seen of both players.

Kareem was a better offensive player than Walton, his equal on the boards, maybe a bit better defensively, but was not the passer that Walton was. Walton would draw Alcindor out to the foul line defensively and then throw back-door passes. Walton was an old-school Princeton style center, the best of those there ever was. And he threw really great outlet passes to run the fast break. His UCLA and Portland teams ran like greyhounds. Alcindor's teams were more half-court oriented on offense. Both great players, just a bit different.