Quirky hippie, vegetarian, pacifist – and one of the most dominant basketball players of all time. But the edgy Hall of Fame center Bill Walton was always more than that. An illustrious career after career cemented him as one of the greatest personalities US sport has ever seen.
“More time, more life, more love, more music, more games, more of everything…”: Bill Walton’s answer to the question of what he actually wanted in life is symbolic of everything the giant stood for – and what drove him until his last breath. He was an original, an exuberant soul, feeling endless joy for life. He operated on a completely different wavelength than most of his contemporaries – one of the few legends in sport who also had something interesting to offer outside of their discipline. A guy who always made a difference, whether as an athlete, commentator or friend.
Presumably his own suffering, his many failures and his failures were the stuff that made him a better person. A devastating series of crippling and painful injuries almost drove him to suicide 15 years ago – the pain was so severe back then, in his ankles, knees, and spine, which had to be welded back together with iron clamps. “It was like lying in a tub of acid all day while receiving electric shocks, and you can’t get out for two years.”
Walton loved the west coast of the USA. He studied at UCLA and had a law degree from Stanford University. He loved to ride his bike through the parks of San Diego. His closeness to the Californian rock band “Grateful Dead” is iconic. He and the band members were best friends, he attended more than 800 of their concerts and even followed them to Egypt in 1978, where he was the band’s drummer. “Their message is peace, love, hope, creativity, teamwork, exuberance. Being able to share my passions with them makes me the happiest Deadhead in the world,” said the redhead, who was affectionately called “Grateful Red”.
Dominance, successes, titles – When he played
William Theodore Walton III was made for the sport: 7’1″ tall, 205 pounds, agile, smart, with a gigantic wingspan and an even bigger “team first” instinct, always putting collective success above his own achievements on the hardwood. He loved collecting assists and watching his teammates score. But his body failed him as a teenager – and then again and again and again. So often that Walton, who had to go under the knife 39 times in his career (and only had one offseason without surgery), missed a whopping 680 games in 14 years as a professional. Four times – including his last official season in 1987/88 – he missed the entire year due to injuries.
When he played, he dominated. After winning two titles at Helix High School in his hometown of San Diego, he made John Wooden’s UCLA virtually invincible. The legendary Wooden became Walton’s lifelong mentor – after threatening to expel him as a freshman because Walton initially refused to cut his hair. Thanks to the best young player in the country, the Bruins won 86 of their 90 games and two national college championships in the next three years, while Walton broke one record after another. Portland selected the center first in the 1974 NBA Draft.
Walton led the Portland Trail Blazers to their only championship.
(Photo: IMAGO/USA TODAY Network)
During his first four seasons in Portland, he was a two-time All-Star (1977 and 1978), MVP of the league (1978), and powered the Trail Blazers to their first and, to date, only championship in 1977 as Finals MVP. In game six of the finals, he put up an absurd 20 points, 23 rebounds, 7 assists and 8 blocks. He led the league in rebounds and blocks and made the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams. His coach at the time, the legendary Dr. Jack Ramsay, once said of his favorite player: “Bill Russell rules on defense. Wilt Chamberlain is unstoppable up front. Bill Walton can do anything.”
Seven years of bad luck and injuries followed, six of them in the San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers jersey, after Walton sat out his last season in the Blazers jersey for ethical and moral reasons (he would later sue the team doctor for damages because he had misdiagnosed him and his teammates for years and thus almost forced them into sports disability). Walton later wrote in his memoirs about his time with the Clippers, who later became the property of the controversial Donald Sterling, who was banned from the league forever in 2014: “My greatest failure as a basketball player is not having had success here in my hometown. An indelible stain on my soul (…) When Sterling took over the team, butts suddenly jumped higher than basketballs. Basketball was abominable, and the business there was dishonest, corrupt, amoral and illegal. But otherwise everything was fine…”
In the summer of 1985, towards the end of his career, Walton picked up the phone and called two iconic clubs: the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. While the Lakers first wanted to study his phone book-thick medical records, a cigar-smoking Red Auerbach in Boston seized the opportunity – and signed Walton as “Larry Bird’s valet,” as Walton later smugly analyzed. The then 33-year-old did indeed complete his healthiest NBA season, played 80 games, was honored as the league’s best sixth man and helped Bird and the Celtics to the 1986 NBA title – his “best and happiest moments as a professional,” according to his own statements. He is the only player in history to be MVP, Finals MVP and Sixth Man of the Year. In 2006 he made it into the Hall of Fame, and in 2021 he was named one of the 75 best basketball players of all time.
“Thank you for my life”
After his retirement, thanks to the help of legendary New York journalist Marty Glickman, Walton overcame his stutter, which had accompanied him since childhood and had long made him a shy loner, and thus began a second, even more successful career as a sports reporter. He worked as a TV commentator and studio analyst for all the well-known US sports channels. In 1991 he won an Emmy Award, the most important television award in the USA. His monologues as co-commentator were the stuff of legends – a mixture of philosophical lessons for life and hilarious gibberish that no one understood except himself.
Bill Walton during his time at UCLA.
(Photo: IMAGO/USA TODAY Network)
His political beliefs were considered radical. During his time at UCLA, Walton actively participated in protests on campus. In 1972, he was arrested during an anti-Vietnam War protest – his hands raised in the air in a peace sign were symbolically printed in numerous newspapers and magazines. In the NBA at the time, he was the only white man who openly and loudly denounced social injustices. He took on the US government and refused to let the clubs and institutions he belonged to silence him.
He was the original political athlete, took a resolute stance and even then resisted the postulate that athletes should only focus on sport. Eternally non-conformist and unconventional, Walton always remained true to himself. One of his most famous mottos was: “Love is the greatest and most important power in this world. Until the power of love triumphs over the love of power, we can never be truly successful.”
That’s exactly how Walton lived his life. Basketball made him famous, but Walton was always more than one of the most successful athletes of his generation. He was, more than anything else, a human being, through and through. He cared for others with charity, empathy and respect. And he dedicated his time on this planet to striving for a better present and future. He called himself the “luckiest man in the world.” Walton always ended his text messages with “Thank you for my life.” The Hall of Famer died on Monday in San Diego, surrounded by his family. He was 71 years old.