Thank you Bill Walton

[Roc44]

Unfortunate

The guy was an awesome basketball player dominate when healthy. Top 3 college player ever. Understood the game at a higher level than almost everyone just like jokic. Jokic can shoot better Walton more athletic. Anyone who does like this man has some serious issues. Dude was the man for a short stretch. Great father and human being. Jeesh, he beat Kareem in his prime on the way to the NBA title come on dominate. Wish we could ask Wooden what he thought of him and Kareem and who was better when healthy.

 

[baggerbob]

The guy was an awesome basketball player dominate when healthy. Top 3 college player ever. Understood the game at a higher level than almost everyone just like jokic. Jokic can shoot better Walton more athletic. Anyone who does like this man has some serious issues. Dude was the man for a short stretch. Great father and human being. Jeesh, he beat Kareem in his prime on the way to the NBA title come on dominate. Wish we could ask Wooden what he thought of him and Kareem and who was better when healthy.

The world was a better place with Bill in it.
Too bad more people aren't like him.

 

[orangecuse]

You’re welcome.

This is awesome, and, for me, never gets old. Pasch's reaction here, as well as other broadcasts they did together where Pasch's laughter is practically uncontrollable, is pure joy.

Many of us can most likely relate to that someone in our life that can make us laugh the way Pasch does here (and other similar on air moments) bringing out the little boy/girl in us that, no matter how old we get, we all still have.

 

[cuseincincy]

To Bill Walton I would say congratulations on a life well lived! I was fortunate to see him play his rookie year several times in Portland. Back in those days NBA players had off-season jobs and one of the Blazers (Larry Steele) sold insurance out of the office my mother managed for MONY. There were always tickets available for the office and we used them often. One of the greatest nights of my life was when my New York Knicks came to Portland and we had seats on the court at the baseline. Clyde the Glide and Earl the Pearl were my heroes and without a doubt the best nicknamed backcourt in history. I look back at that and I really had no idea what I was witnessing and in the moment is was just another game. But that night this North Dakota boy got the autograph of a guy my Mom went to college with.
Me: "Excuse me Mr. Jackson, my Mom went to UND too can I get your autograph?"
Phil: "On this?" As he looks at the Portland Trailblazer basketball in my hands. He then signed it with a smirk and went back to warmups.
I had no idea. I looked back at the box score today...Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Bill Bradley, Phil Jackson, Bill Walton and Lenny Wilkens. 6 Hall of Famers in one game. I was 10 years old saw my 2 heroes and happy the guy from the University of North Dakota signed my Blazers ball.
Bill was a unique guy and in many ways a kindred spirt as I grew older. I get why people didn't like him. But Bill wasn't going to change for anyone and enough people loved him he didn't need to. RIP and say hi to Jerry when you see him.

 

[Ozone!]

 

[BillSU]

View attachment 241486

Tie-dyed, always a smile, too logical the former UCLA basketball star is gone

To heaven where he is in the midst of teaching Richard Nixon what a basketball is

After a long battle with cancer, basketball legend and all-around great person Bill Walton died on May 27.

Walton rose to national prominence as member of the UCLA Bruins, where he won two national championships and was part of a remarkable 88-game winning streak.

He was made the top overall pick of the 1974 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. Walton suffered through two injury-plagued seasons before the Cinderella campaign of 1976-77.

1974-75 Portland Trail Blazers Media Guide

It was then that Walton played in 65 games and led Portland all the way through the playoffs and a six-game upset of the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1977 NBA Finals. To date, it is the Blazers’ first and only NBA title.

RIP Bill

 

[BillSU]

Still don't like Bill.

He doesn't like you either. And you're the only one.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

My father’s favorite player. He loved to watch the big red-head. Walton was the big fundamental before Tim Duncan.
He revered life, but never took himself or basketball too seriously. He did, however, take serious things seriously, as evidenced by his stance on the Vietnam war.
To those who found his irreverent broadcasting not to their liking, I am sorry you could not see the beauty and poetry in his musings.
My life as a consumer of basketball as entertainment is better for having had the privilege of hearing Walton on his broadcasts.
Thanks, Bill, for your genius on the court, and on the airwaves. You made my favorite game better.

 

[Nicknack]

He didn’t like you either. And you're the only one.

Fify

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Part of my niece's job as Event's Coordinator with the NBA is to help with funeral arrangements when a significant player passes away. She's out in SF now helping put Bill's together. Such an odd part of her job.