Walton weathered injuries to win titles
By: Lisette Hilton
Source: ESPN
Classic
"One of the saddest days for Coach Wooden
was the day he came down and had to bail me out of jail after I got
arrested in the anti-Vietnam protest. He said, 'Bill, I know you feel
very strongly about this, but I just don't think that you getting arrested
and taking part in this demonstration is what it's all about,"
says Bill Walton on ESPN Classic's SportsCentury series.
Before the injuries hampered his professional
career, Bill Walton dominated college basketball.
At UCLA in the early '70s, the 6-foot-11, 235-pound
center was the linchpin of the Bruins winning an NCAA record 88 consecutive
games. Walton didn't just play basketball; he understood the soul
of the game.
He learned about competition early, beginning
at Blessed Sacrament Elementary School in La Mesa, a suburb of San
Diego. A shy and nervous seventh grader who stuttered, Walton was
in no hurry to leave the restroom before the tip-off of a local Catholic
league championship game.
His coach, Rocky Graciano, took note of the
promising player's trepidation and told him, "Bill, you've got
to learn to love these moments because this is what sports is all
about, playing for the championship. You're going to play in a lot
of these championship games before you're through and you have to
look forward to each one as if it's the greatest opportunity and the
greatest moment of your life."
Walton never forgot the message. He won two
high school championships (1969 and 1970), two NCAA crowns at UCLA
(1972 and 1973) and two NBA titles (with the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers
and 1986 Boston Celtics).
The once shy Walton became a ferocious, outspoken
and controversial player and person. He immersed himself in basketball
and the times. A fan of the Grateful Dead, Walton was known for joining
fringe causes. He was arrested while he was a junior at UCLA during
an anti-Vietnam War rally. Walton was just as intense about the physical
and mental games of basketball.
UCLA coach John Wooden described Walton as
"intelligent" and "inquisitive." In the forward
of Walton's book, "Nothing But Net," Wooden wrote, "As
a player, Bill was one of the greatest who ever performed at his position
at every level of competition -- high school, college and professional.
There are many true students of the sport who consider him to be the
very finest when all aspects of the games are taken into consideration."
Walton was born on Nov. 5, 1952 in La Mesa.
He grew up in a middle-class home where his parents didn't own a television
until the mid-sixties. His father Ted was more interested in music
and literature than in sports. Still, his dad never discouraged him
from playing basketball.
In his senior year at Helix High School, Walton
averaged 29 points and 25 rebounds in leading the team to a 33-0 season
and its second straight championship. Almost every major college was
offering him a scholarship.
Walton greatly respected Wooden and chose UCLA.
Under the wizard's guidance,
Walton became the consummate center - rebounding, passing, blocking
shots and scoring. Not only was he a three-time first-team All-American,
he also was the Division I Player of the Year each season (1972-74).
UCLA went 30-0 in both of Walton's first two
seasons. He scored 24 points and grabbed 20 rebounds as the Bruins
defeated Florida State 81-76 in the 1972 NCAA championship game.
A year later, Walton put on perhaps the greatest
display in an NCAA tournament game as he made 21-of-22 field-goal
attempts in scoring a finals record 44 points in an 87-66 rout of
Memphis State.
UCLA's winning streak reached 88 before it
was snapped at Notre Dame 71-70 on Jan. 19, 1974. Counting back to
high school, Walton's teams had won 129 consecutive games.
His collegiate career didn't end on a high,
however. Seeking to win its eighth consecutive NCAA championship,
UCLA lost to North Carolina State and David Thompson, 80-77, in double
overtime in the Final Four.
The Walton Gang went 86-4 in three years, with
the big redhead scoring 1,767 points (20.3 average), grabbing 1,370
rebounds (breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's school record with his 15.7
average) and also being the second most accurate shooter in UCLA history
with a .651 field-goal percentage.
After graduating with honors, Walton was made
the first pick in the 1974 draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. But
he never fulfilled the greatness he showed in college because of injuries.
While he was sidelined for only three of 90
UCLA games, he missed more contests (680) than he played (488) during
his NBA career. Only once in 14 years did he play more than 70 regular-season
games.
As a rookie in 1974-75, an injury-prone Walton
was limited to 35 games and averaged just 12.8 points. The next season,
Walton played 51 games; he averaged 16.1 points and 13.4 rebounds
though the Trail Blazers finished last in the Pacific Division.
He made his mark during Portland's 1976-77
championship season, when he played in 65 games and won the NBA's
MVP award.
Walton led Portland past Dr. J and the 76ers in the 1977 NBA Finals.
He averaged 18.6 points and led the NBA in rebounding (14.4) and blocked
shots (3.25). After the Trail Blazers, who finished second to the
Lakers in the Pacific Division in the regular season, swept Los Angeles
in the Western Conference finals, it rallied from a 2-0 deficit to
win the NBA Finals in six games over the Philadelphia 76ers. Walton
was voted the Finals MVP.
In 1978, Walton was named All-NBA First Team
for the only time after averaging career-highs in points (18.9) and
assists (5.0). He also averaged 13.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks. But
injuries hit him again and he played in just 58 games. After a 50-10
start, the Trail Blazers finished 58-24 and didn't even reach the
Western Conference finals.
Walton missed the entire 1978-79 season because
of a foot injury. He wanted out of Portland. He was so dissatisfied
with the quality of medical care he received from the Trail Blazers'
medical staff that he filed a malpractice suit.
On May 13, 1979, Walton, a free agent, signed
a $7-million, seven-year contract with his hometown team, the San
Diego Clippers. After just playing 14 games in 1979-80, he missed
the next two seasons because of injuries to his feet.
Walton passed the time by attending Stanford
Law School. When he returned to the NBA in 1982, the Clippers gingerly
played the center, who appeared in only 33 games. By the end of the
1984-85 season, the Clippers' first in Los Angeles, Walton was embarrassed
by his stats: 10.1 points and nine rebounds, though he did play in
67 games.
On Sept. 6, 1985, Walton was traded to the
Celtics, where he would back up center Robert Parrish. He made it
through 80 regular-season games (averaging 7.6 points and 6.8 rebounds
in 19.3 minutes a game) and won the NBA's sixth man award. Playing
16 of 18 playoff games, he helped Boston win the championship.
But Walton suffered stress fractures in his
foot the following season, and played in only 10 games. After spending
the entire 1987-88 regular season recovering from major surgery on
his right foot, he tried to return to practice, but the pain was too
great. Walton called it quits.
For his career, Walton averaged 13.3 points
and 10.5 rebounds. His field-goal percentage was .521 and his foul-shooting
percentage was .660. In February 1990, almost three years after Walton
had played his last NBA game, he was contemplating a comeback - until
his most devastating injury took hold. He got up and couldn't walk.
His foot and ankle were so badly damaged that they were partially
dislocated and the disintegrating bones were grinding together.
All his accomplishments seemed like nothing
compared with the devastation of undergoing an ankle fusion.
Walton found that getting off the court didn't
mean getting out of basketball. Since the early nineties Walton, who
had gotten over his stuttering problem, has expressed his views as
a television basketball analyst.
"Among the nicest and most satisfying
rewards of my new career as a broadcaster," he said, "is
that I get to work and I don't get hurt physically."
