Bill Walton, the leading college big man who won two NBA championships and later became a successful sports broadcaster, has died at the age of 71, the NBA announced Monday.
According to the league, Walton died surrounded by his family after a long battle with cancer.
“Bill Walton was truly one of a kind,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “As a Hall of Fame player, he redefined the center position. His unique all-around skills made him a dominant force at UCLA and led to NBA regular season and Finals MVP awards, two NBA championships and a spot on the NBA's 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams.”
Walton was the first overall pick in the 1974 draft by the Portland Trail Blazers and led the team to its only NBA title in 1977. He was named league MVP in 1978, and the 6-foot-11 Walton won another title as a member of the Boston Celtics in 1986, winning the Sixth Man of the Year award.
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That season would be his final. Walton, who battled injuries throughout his career, played just 22 games in the regular season and playoffs before retiring in 1988, according to CBS Sports.
Before turning pro, Walton achieved legendary status at UCLA, leading the Bruins to championships in 1972 and 1973 and a streak of 88 consecutive wins. His 44 points in the 1973 national championship game still remain a record. Walton was a three-time National Player of the Year while at UCLA playing for legendary coach John Wooden.
Walton had a remarkable college career, but in 1972 he was arrested on the UCLA campus during a protest against the Vietnam War. Wooden himself bailed him out, according to the UCLA Library.
According to Walton's memoir, “Back from the Dead,” he told Wooden, “Coach, you say whatever you want. It's my classmates and friends who are coming back in body bags and wheelchairs.”
“On behalf of the entire UCLA men's basketball team, we are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Bill Walton,” UCLA head coach Mick Cronin said in a statement, adding, “In addition to his incredible accomplishments as a player, his relentless energy, passion for the game and unwavering candor were hallmarks of his extraordinary character.”
Walton's activism didn't stop at academia: He was an outspoken advocate for marijuana legalization long before many states decriminalized or legalized the drug.
In 1975, the former Portland Trail Blazers player denounced the FBI and the US government after being questioned by the FBI, which was then looking for his friends, activists Jack and Mickey Scott, for helping members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, including Patty Hearst, evade law enforcement.
Walton had no idea where Hearst was, and when he spoke to Geraldo Rivera in 1975, he said he had “no idea” how he got involved in the case in the first place.
“They're going to investigate unless we let them,” Walton said of the FBI's aggressive surveillance tactics and statements to the media, “so I've taken the position that I'm never dealing with those guys again.”
After his playing career ended, Walton overcame a noticeable stutter to become a successful sports broadcaster known for his colorful vocabulary, heavy on catchphrases and hyperbole.
“My whole life I was very self-conscious, with red hair, a big nose, freckles, a goofy, nerdy face and I just couldn't speak. I was so shy, I never said a word,” Walton told The Oregonian in 2017. “Then, at 28, I learned how to speak, and it became the greatest achievement of my life and everyone else's biggest nightmare.”
A self-described “Deadhead,” Walton sometimes appeared on television wearing Grateful Dead T-shirts, and was also known to wear tie-dyed T-shirts while making off-topic comments that were both amusing and perplexing.
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Dave Pash, who worked with Walton on ESPN and ABC and was often the butt of Walton's jokes, said Monday that the two men had a “special friendship.”
“He would talk to me, and during commercial breaks he'd take his headset off and say, 'I love you, but don't tell anyone,'” Pask told ESPN. “He enjoyed the fact that I was his sparring partner and we could have fun together and take shots. It's all part of the game, and I knew we had a great friendship off the air.”
Walton did not just attend Grateful Dead concerts as a fan, he also performed onstage with spin-off bands such as Ratdog and Dead & Company, playing percussion.
On New Year's Eve 2015, Walton appeared at a Dead & Company show dressed as the God of Time, and featured Trixie Garcia, daughter of the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, descending from the ceiling with a giant joint in her mouth to ring in the new year, imitating the band's friend and legendary promoter Bill Graham's appearance at the closing curtain at the Winterland Ballroom on New Year's Eve 1978.
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Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Walton was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
“What I remember most about him was his passion for life,” Silver said. “He regularly attended league events, always cheerful, smiling broadly and eager to share his wisdom and warmth. I cherished our close friendship, envied his boundless energy and respected the time he spent with everyone he met.”
He is survived by his wife, Lori, and his sons Adam, Nate, Chris and Luke, a former NBA player and current assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
