Ticket 2 Ride

It’s funny, the death of basketball legend Bill Walton has silenced the many who disliked the guy. I get it, Walton could be annoying as a television commentator, but Bill Walton was a pure basketball guy, a throwback to a much different time. The man had a big heart and a zest for life, I’ll take that any day of the week.

It you saw Walton play for UCLA in the early 1970s, you saw one of the first tall guys who was incredibly agile and nimble on the court. There were athletic and graceful big men before Walton, but Walton was scrappy and played more like a backcourt player.

Walton was a new breed of college athletes, it was the 1970s, and the times were changing. Walton played for John Wooden at UCLA, who turned out championship teams (10 NCAA Championships) with an emphasis on team. Wooden was The Wizard of Westwood.

Walton had a long reputation as a cornball guy, his antics on basketball telecasts either made you laugh or roll your eyes. He didn’t care. Walton the free-spirit did not always please Coach Wooden. Once when Walton showed up with facial hair, Wooden asked Walton if he had forgotten something.

Walton: “Coach, if you mean the beard, I think I should be allowed to wear it. It’s my right.”

Wooden: “Do you believe in that strongly?”

Walton: “Yes, I do, coach. Very much.”

Wooden: “Bill, I have a great respect for individuals who stand up for those things in which they believe. I really do. And the team is going to miss you.”

“Bill went to the locker room and shaved the beard off before practice began. There were no hard feelings. I wasn’t angry and he wasn’t mad,” Wooden recalled.

Walton and Wooden did not always see eye-to-eye, but Walton trusted his coach, and they became very close in the following years. Walton called him twice weekly, and stayed on the phone long enough for Wooden to make the slow trip to the telephone. Walton would tell stories later that his behavior drove Coach to an early grave at age 99, including being confronted by Coach over rumors Walton smoked marijuana, and needing Wooden to bail him out of jail after being arrested at a student anti-war protest.

Walton passed away on May 27, following a long battle with cancer. For most of his adult life, Walton battled injuries that robbed him of a good portion of his basketball career, on and off the court. Walton missed more games (680) than he played (488) due to injuries, and underwent (his estimate) 38 orthopedic surgeries. “Bad back, broken bones, ankle and foot problems, broken hands and wrists, knee injuries, and broken noses,” Walton said.

Traveling as a broadcaster was difficult later on, the result of old injuries and back issues. I never knew that the pain he endured made him even consider suicide. Nothing worked to get rid of the chronic back pain. Finally, surgery repositioned several of his vertebrae that were impinging on nerves, and the surgeon fused some of his lumbar vertebrae. The result was that Walton was able to engage in the physical activities he missed, but without the pain. The one battle he would lose was with cancer.

Walton claimed to have seen the Grateful Dead a thousand times and knew the band well. I guess that’s a Deadhead. He also enjoyed Phish, another laid-back jam band. Why not, Walton was a vegetarian, indulged in weed, was anti-war and was a champion of the environment.

Bill Walton won every kind of basketball award possible, I won’t list them, but he’s recognized as one of the greatest college and NBA players ever. He was selected as the first player in the NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974, and led them to the 1977 NBA title, the only one in Portland’s history. He would later help the Boston Celtics win the 1986 NBA Championship, and was recognized with the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award, as being the most valuable player to come off the bench to help a team. That award probably speaks the loudest about Bill Walton. By that time in his career, age and injuries had reduced his role, and backed up future hall-of-fame center Robert Parish.

Coach Wooden at UCLA had preached selflessness and sacrifice as part of winning teamwork. Walton’s UCLA team won a record 88 consecutive games, an unimaginable feat at any level of basketball.

Walton compared basketball to the Grateful Dead’s style of playing. On stage, all six band members have their own role, but they have to know where the other five are headed and get in sync with them. The magic is when it all comes together to produce something greater than the sum of the parts – same as on the basketball court.

A sports collectors site that I belong to listed member comments about Walton’s passing. One guy posted a story about when Walton came to speak to his group. Paid speakers usually arrive, speak and catch the first plane out. Walton arrived early to meet the organizers, gave his talk, spent several hours meeting the attendees, chatted up a few of the organizers he got to know, had a late dinner with them, asked about their families and jobs, and eventually left behind people he knew by their first names. That’s not something you buy, it’s a gift.

Bill Walton, rest in peace. Thanks for sharing your gifts.