Bill Walton

William Theodore Walton III (November 5, 1952 – May 27, 2024) was an American professional basketball player and television sportscaster. 

American Hall of Fame basketball player (Portland Trail Blazers, Boston Celtics), and sportscaster (ESPN), cancer.

He played college basketball at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego / Los Angeles Clippers, and Boston Celtics. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Walton played for coach John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins, winning three consecutive national college player of the year awards (1972–1974), while leading UCLA to NCAA championships in 1972 and 1973 and an 88-game winning streak. After being selected as the first overall pick in the 1974 NBA draft, Walton led the Portland Trail Blazers to the team's first NBA championship in 1977, earning the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. The following season Walton was the 1978 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP).

However, Walton's professional career was significantly hampered by multiple foot injuries requiring numerous surgeries. Walton sat out the 1978–79 season and was then signed by the Clippers, for whom he played four injury-plagued seasons. His career was rehabilitated during two seasons with the Celtics at the end of his career. Playing as a backup center behind Robert Parish, Walton earned the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in the 1985–86 season, winning his second NBA championship. He was named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Walton was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

After retiring from the NBA, Walton overcame stuttering and embarked on a second career as a sportscaster, working both as a studio analyst and color commentator with several networks and teams. He earned an Emmy Award in 1991. Walton was a fan of the Grateful Dead, as a self-described "Deadhead", and often mentioned them in his broadcasts. He hosted several podcasts and satellite radio programs featuring the music of the Grateful Dead.

Early life

Walton was born and raised in La Mesa, California, the son of Gloria Anne (née Hickey) and William Theodore "Ted" Walton, Jr. He was raised with siblings Bruce, Cathy, and Andy. The Walton home was on a hillside on Colorado Avenue, just below Lake Murray.

Walton's father Ted was a music teacher and social worker and his mother Gloria, a librarian. His parents had interests in art, literature, politics, and music. Walton took music lessons, and although his parents were not sports-oriented, Walton followed in the footsteps of his older brother Bruce, who had gravitated toward sports. When the Walton children were in junior high and high school, their father formed an informal family band: Bruce played trombone, Bill played baritone horn, Andy played the saxophone, and Cathy played drums (or flute or tuba).

Walton first played organized basketball under Frank "Rocky" Graciano, who coached at Walton's Catholic elementary school. Walton said that Graciano "made it [basketball] fun and really emphasized the joy of playing the team game. I was a skinny, scrawny guy. I stuttered horrendously, couldn't speak at all. I was a very shy, reserved player and a very shy, reserved person. I found a safe place in life in basketball."

Personal life

Walton resided in his hometown of San Diego with his wife Lori Matsuoka (m. 1991). He and his first wife, Susie, had four sons: Adam, Nathan, Luke, and Chris. Walton and Susie were married in 1979 and divorced in 1989.

His son Luke became an NBA player, winning both the 2009 and 2010 NBA Finals with the Lakers. The titles made Bill and Luke the first NBA father-son pair to have both won multiple NBA championships. Luke was the head coach of the Lakers (2016–2019), after two years as an assistant for the Golden State Warriors. In April 2019, Luke Walton was named head coach of the Sacramento Kings. Luke was named after Walton's friend and former teammate Maurice Lucas. "Maurice was so important in my life and in little Luke's life", Walton said. "Whenever there was a big moment for little Luke, big Luke would show up unannounced to make sure it all turned out right."

Chris Walton played basketball for San Diego State. He is a real estate executive. Nate Walton played basketball at Princeton. He entered the corporate world and earned his MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. (Bill Walton had attended Stanford Law School for two years while with the Clippers, but never graduated.) Nate was on the ballot for the 2003 California Recall election, receiving 1,697 votes. He has been highly successful in the oil business.

Adam Walton played at Louisiana State University, Pomona College and the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California. He was a college assistant coach at San Diego Mesa College. Walton's other brother, Bruce Walton, played in the National Football League with the Dallas Cowboys from 1973 to 1975. They were basketball teammates in high school. Bill followed Bruce in attending UCLA. Bruce played in Super Bowl X, making Bill and Bruce the only brothers to play in the Super Bowl and NBA Finals. Walton's sister Cathy was a youth swimmer and played some basketball at the University of California.

Walton's ankle problems became so severe that he had both his ankles surgically fused. In 2009, he underwent an eight-hour spinal-fusion surgery. Two titanium rods and four four-inch bolts were inserted in his back. He could not walk to the hospital. After the successful surgery he was hospitalized for a week, and could not move freely for a year. His saga of injury and failed rehabs was connected to the use of painkillers by the medical staff of the Trailblazers to keep players including Walton on court. Walton ended up suing team doctor Dr. Robert Cook for negligence in diagnosing and treating a foot injury suffered by Walton during the 1977-78 season.

In a June 8, 2010, interview on The Dan Patrick Show, Walton admitted to contemplating suicide for a time due to the constant pain resulting from injuries sustained during his NBA career.

Walton was known as a vegetarian and a meditation practitioner.

Walton maintained a close lifetime friendship with Coach John Wooden, visiting him often. "Coach Wooden is the most influential person in my life outside of my mom and dad, but when we played for him, he was older than our parents, and we thought our parents were the oldest people on earth", Walton said. "So the things he taught us made no sense to us. We thought he was nuts, but when you're hot and when you're on top and it's all happening, you never think. We were so young and we had always won. So we had no real idea how fragile everything was. Everything that Coach Wooden told us eventually came true." Despite his opposition to Walton's protest activities, Wooden also one time bailed Walton out of jail after he was arrested during an anti-Vietnam War protest.

On Walton's desk sat a message to him from Coach Wooden: "To Bill Walton, it's the things you learn after you know it all that count. John Wooden."

Walton's political beliefs were known for being radical. During his time at UCLA, Walton was active in campus protests. He was famously arrested during an anti-Vietnam War protest during his junior year at UCLA. Walton, who spoke at Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman's memorial service and funeral, acknowledged spending time with Hoffman when he was a fugitive in the late 1970s.

Walton was a fan of the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young, Phish, and Bob Dylan. He was particularly attached to the Grateful Dead, whose concerts he started attending in 1967, while he was still in high school. He attended more than 850 Grateful Dead concerts, including traveling with the band to Egypt for its 1978 performance (joining the band on drums), and quotes Grateful Dead lyrics in TV and radio interviews. To fellow Deadheads, Walton is fondly known as "Grateful Red" and the "Big Red Deadhead" and "World's Tallest Deadhead". In 2001, Walton was inducted into The Grateful Dead Hall of Honor. Walton wrote the liner notes for the Grateful Dead live albums Dave's Picks Volume 5 in 2013 and Dave's Picks Volume 48 in 2023, both of which feature concerts recorded at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion during Walton's tenure on the university's basketball team.

Walton also considered himself a fan and friend of the writer Ken Kesey. In 2015, he made a visit to the Ken Kesey Collection while on a stop at the University of Oregon.

His memoir, Back from the Dead: Searching for the Sound, Shining the Light and Throwing It Down, was released by Simon & Schuster in March 2016. It remained on The New York Times bestseller list for two weeks in April 2016. Walton, who had a service dog, wrote the foreword to the 2015 book Unconditional Honor: Wounded Warriors and their Dogs by author Cathy Scott.

Death

Walton died from colon cancer at his home in San Diego, on May 27, 2024, at the age of 71.