William Theodore Walton III (born November 5, 1952) is a retired American basketball player and television broadcaster. Walton became famous for playing for John Wooden UCLA Bruins powerhouse in the early 1970s, winning three Annual Best Players of the Year Award, while leading the Bruins to two national titles. He then went on to have a prominent career at the National Basketball Association (NBA) where he was the most valuable league player (MVP) and won two NBA championships. His professional career was significantly hampered by several foot injuries. Walton was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 10, 1993 and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in the same year.
Video Bill Walton
Early life and college career
Walton was born in La Mesa, California, son of Gloria Anne (nÃÆ' Â © e Hickey) and William Theodore "Ted" Walton. Her adult registered height is 6 feet 11 inches; it has been reported that Walton is actually taller (7 feet 2 inches, or more) but does not like to be categorized as seven feet.
She played high school basketball at Helix High School. At the age of 17, Walton played for the United States men's national basketball team at FIBA ​​World Championship 1970. He played college basketball for John Wooden at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1971 to 1974, winning the title nationwide in 1972 over Florida State and again in 1973 with a 87-66 victory over Memphis State where Walton made 21 of 22 field goal attempts and scored 44 points, representing more than half his team's total.
UCLA's 1971-72 Walton led basketball team had a 30-0 record, in the process of winning its game with an average margin of more than 30 points. He is the backbone of two successive 30-0 seasons and is also part of the winning record of the men's 200-game winning streak. The UCLA streak contributed to a personal winning streak that lasted almost five years, where the Walton High School, a new student of UCLA (new students are not eligible for university at the time) and UCLA university teams have not lost the game from the middle of the first year of middle school to the middle of the year senior in college.
Walton was the recipient of the 1973 James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States. Walton also received the Best Player of USBWA This Year and Best Player of Naismith College of the Year as the country's top college basketball player three years in a row while attending UCLA, at the same time earning the All-American Academic Award three times. Some college basketball historians rate Walton as the largest ever to play a game at the college level. In the senior year of Walton during the 1973-74 season, 88 consecutive wins in school ended with a 71-70 loss at Notre Dame. During the same season, UCLA's seven successive national record record was broken when North Carolina State beat the Bruins 80-77 in a double overtime in the NCAA semifinals. With Walton's 1974 graduation and Bruin coach John Wooden retired after UCLA's 1975 national title, the UCLA dynasty ended.
Prior to joining the university team, Walton (18.1, 68.6 percent), along with Greg Lee (17.9 ppg) and Keith Wilkes (20.0 ppg), were UCLA team members Freshman 20-0. NBA Career>
Portland Trail Blazers
After leaving college, Walton was designed by the San Diego Conquistadors of the American Basketball Association and also taken as number one overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1974 NBA draft and was hailed as the savior of the Portland franchise. He signed a contract with the Trail Blazers but his first two seasons were damaged by injury (at different times he broke his nose, legs, wrists and legs) and the Blazers missed the second playoffs of the year.
It was not until the 1976-77 season that he was fit enough to play 65 games and, driven by new head coach Jack Ramsay, the Trail Blazers became the Cinderella team of the NBA. Walton led the NBA in both rebounds per game and blocked shots per game that season, and he was selected to be the NBA All-Star Game, but did not participate due to injury. Walton was named First Team All-Defensive NBA and Second Team All-NBA for the achievement of his regular season. In the postseason, Walton leads Portland to sweep the Los Angeles Lakers in the conference final (arguably holding himself against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the series) and went on to help the Trail Blazers to the NBA title over favorite Philadelphia 76ers despite losing the first two games of the series. Walton was named the Final MVP.
The following year, the Blazers won 50 of their first 60 games before Walton suffered a broken leg in what turned out to be the first in a series of foot and ankle injuries that shorten his career. He still won the league's MVP that season (1978) and the NBA MVP Sporting News as well. He played in his All-Star Game only in 1978 and was named both the First Team All-Defensive NBA and the All-NBA First Team. Walton returned to action for the playoffs, but returned to injury in the second game of the series against the Seattle SuperSonics. Without Walton leading them, Portland lost the series to Seattle in six games. Apparently, Walton will never play for the Trail Blazers again. During the offseason, Walton demanded to be traded, citing unethical and incompetent treatment of injuries to his players and other players by the Blazers front office. He did not get his wish and sat in the 1978-79 season in protest, signing a contract with the San Diego Clippers when he became a free agent in 1979.
San Diego Clippers
Walton spent more time on the disabled list than in court with his hometown San Diego Clippers. He only played 14 games for the Clippers during the 1979-80 season before missing the next two seasons, undergoing some reconstructive surgery on his injured leg. After extensive rehabilitation, Walton's feet began to improve; after playing only 14 games from 1979-82, he played 33 games in 1982-83, 55 games in 1983-84, and then his career was high 67 in 1984-85 when the Clippers moved to Los Angeles.
Boston Celtics
After the 1984-85 campaign, Walton requested two major league teams, the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. After several players at the Celtics said they liked the idea of ​​having Walton as his team-mates supporting Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, Red Auerbach made the deal happen. One anecdote that specifically illustrates Walton's decision to choose the Celtics over the Lakers involved Larry Bird, who happened to be in Auerbach's office when Walton called. Bird says that if Walton feels healthy enough to play, that's good enough for him, compared to Lakers GM Jerry West, who limits his interest in Walton while awaiting a doctor's report. Boston acquired Walton by sending the popular forward Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers along with a first-round draft pick. Providing a reliable backup for McHale and Parish, Walton plays in 80 career games and receives the NBA Sixth Man Award that season on his way to the NBA Championship, being the only player ever to win the NBA Finals, Sixth Man Award, and regular season MVP MVPs.
Walton injured himself the following season, but returned for the 1987 playoff. He spent the 1987-88 season on the injured list. He tried his comeback in February 1990, but the injury intervened and he retired from the game.
Maps Bill Walton
NBA career statistics
Regular season
Playoffs
After retirement
The ankle problem became so severe years later that both of her ankles were reunited. Her story of injury and rehabilitation failed to connect with the use of painkillers by the doctors assigned to her case. Walton has said repeatedly in his broadcast that he is also to blame for taking the medicine the doctor gave him. In an interview on June 8, 2010 at The Dan Patrick Show, Walton admitted contemplating suicide for a while due to the constant pain of injury he suffered during the NBA career. Walton's injury, along with protests throughout 1978-1979, gave him an unpleasant, if notird, record of losing most of the game during his NBA playing career, when taking into account the number of years he was officially registered as a player on the team list.
Legacy
Walton was sworn in to the Oregon Basket of Fame and Hall of Fame Hall of Fame in 1993. Walton also has a 32 number that was retired by the Blazers in 1989. His 32nd number was also retired by UCLA, in a joint ceremony with fellow basketball legend, number 33 , Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He is also immortalized at the UCLA Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was named one of the 50 NBA Best Players of all time. He was added to the San Diego Hall of Champions in 1990.
Awards and honors
- 2ÃÆ'â € "NBA Champion (1977, 1986)
- NBA Finals MVP (1977)
- The NBA Best Player (1978)
- 2ÃÆ'â € "NBA All-Star (1977-1978)
- The All-NBA Main Team (1978)
- Second Team All-NBA (1977)
- 2ÃÆ'â € "NBA All-Defensive Main Team (1977-1978)
- The Sixth NBA Man of the Year (1986)
- NBA's 50th Anniversary Team
- No. 32 retired by Portland Trail Blazers
- 2ÃÆ'â € "The NCAA champion (1972-1973)
- 2ÃÆ'â € "NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player (1972-1973)
- 3ÃÆ'â € "Naismith National Player of the Year (1972-1974)
- 3ÃÆ'â € "USBWA Player of the Year (1972-1974)
- 3ÃÆ'â € "Adolph Rupp Trophy (1972-1974)
- 2ÃÆ'â € "Helms of the Year Elementary School (1972-1973)
- 3ÃÆ'â € " Sports News Player of the Year (1972-1974)
- 2ÃÆ'â € "AP Academy Players of the Year (1972-1973)
- 3ÃÆ'â € "The consensus of the All-American main team (1972-1974)
- 3ÃÆ'â € "First-team All-Pac-8 (1972-1974)
- No. 32 retired by UCLA
Broadcasting
After retiring as a player, Walton overcame a stuttering problem to become a successful and controversial NBA color commentator for NBC (1990-2002), Los Angeles Clippers (1990-2002) and ABC/ESPN (2002-2009). After nineteen years of working in broadcasting, he left ESPN in November 2009, as a result of a back problem stemming from an injury suffered while playing at UCLA. After surgery on his back, Walton returned to broadcasting as a part-time commentator for the Sacramento Kings for 2010-11 and 2011-12.
In July 2012, ESPN and Pac-12 Network announced that it will return to full-time broadcasting as a game analyst for Pac-12 basketball coverage, starting with the 2012-13 season. His comments have been noted for his frequent slogans and hyperbole. Walton is usually paired with Steve "Snapper" Jones for a national NBA game because he and Jones do point-counterpoint banter during the game. Though often their argumentative on-air banter is friends, as shown in the brief Walton live 2003 TV series Bill Walton Long Strange Trip .
While broadcasting a game from Ducks Oregon, he often calls Duck forward Dwayne Benjamin Snoop Dogg, due to his resemblance to the rapper.
Books
Memoirs, Back from the Dead: Seeking Sounds, Lighting and Throwing , released by Simon and Schuster in March 2016. Still on The New York Times bestseller list for two weeks in April 2016.
Walton, who has a butler dog, wrote the introduction to the 2015 Book of Unconditional Honor: The Wounded Soldier and Their Dog by author Cathy Scott.
Personal life
Walton currently lives in his home town of San Diego with his wife, Lori. He and his first wife, Susie, have four sons: Adam, Nathan, Luke, and Chris. Luke played from 2003 to 2012 for the Los Angeles Lakers, winning both the 2009 and 2010 NBA finals, making Bill and Luke the first father-son couple having both won several NBA championships. Luke was appointed head coach of the Lakers on April 29, 2016, after two years as an assistant to the Golden State Warriors. Another Walton boy, Chris, plays for San Diego State. Nate, his middle son, played basketball at Princeton, but later entered the business world and earned an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. (Bill Walton studied at Stanford Law School for two years but never graduated.) Nate at the vote for the California California Election, received 1,697 votes. Other Walton's son, Adam, also plays NCAA basketball at Louisiana State University.
Walton is a renowned Grateful Dead fan, Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young, Phish, and Bob Dylan. He attended over 850 Grateful Dead concerts, including traveling with the band to Egypt for the famous 1978 show before the Pyramids (joining the band on drums), and citing the Grateful Dead lyrics on TV and radio interviews. For fellow Deadhead, Walton is known as "Grateful Red" and "Big Red Deadhead" and "World's Tallest Deadhead". In the video for "Touch of Gray", Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart wore a Celtics jacket given to him by Walton. In 2001, Walton was inducted into The Grateful Dead Hall of Honor. While broadcasting a game between Ducks Oregon and USC Trojans, Walton talked about the speech that Dylan gave at MusiCares, and ESPN actually prepared a graphic about Dylan's career spotlight.
Walton also considers himself a fan and friend of the late writer Ken Kesey. In 2015, he made a visit to Ken Kesey Collection when stopped at the University of Oregon.
Walton outlined his musical interest in his own satellite radio show, One More Saturday Night (named after a Dead song of the same name), heard during prime time on Sirius Radio Jam On and XM Radio's Grateful Channel dead. Walton has stated in his online introduction to his radio show column that he likes to go to concerts alone because then he has fewer things between him and reaches the omega point that all the concert audiences are looking for on the show.
Walton still has a committed relationship with the Celtics, if not professionally, as a fan. Regardless of the area where he grew up, and his team of boys Luke is playing for, Walton is careful to point out, "Even though I grew up in the heart of Laker state, the Celtics are always MY team." He keeps a picture of the old Boston Garden floor in his kitchen. Walton joined the Celtics broadcast crew for a road trip on the West Coast in 2011.
In 1990, Walton was inaugurated by the San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame in honor of San Diego's best athletes both on and off the surface of the game.
In popular culture
Walton has a cameo appearance in movies 88 and 1 , Celtic Pride , Little Nicky and Semi-Pro < and appeared as Sven the Wise in the Capital All Visigoth SportsNet 2011. He was also mentioned by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1980's comedy Airplane! ("Tell your parents to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the field for 48 minutes!")
Bill Walton is a character that can be played in the video game NBA Street Vol. 2 (2012), NBA 2K13 (2012), NBA Street V3 < i> NBA 2K14 (2013), NBA 2K15 (2014), NBA 2K16 (2015) , and lent his voice to NBA 2K5 and NBA Shootout 2004.
Walton appeared on the episode of the reality TV show Shark Tank on January 20, 2012, where he helped sell "Clean Bottles", a bottle of water that releases both ends for easy cleaning.
Also see
- List of National Basketball Association annual rebound leaders
Further reading
- Heisler, Mark (2003). Giants: The 25 Biggest All-Time Center . Chicago: Triumph Books. ISBN: 1-57243-577-1.
Reference
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Basketball-Reference.com
- Bill Walton's official website
- Bill Walton's History Profile on NBA.com
- Bill Walton's comments on Pete Maravich on YouTube
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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