From The Athletic in December 2018:
So after working for a week to carve out 10 minutes to discuss his affinity for Jokic with a reporter, Walton instead turned an opening question into a 30-minute verbal love letter.
Some highlights:
“He’s a beautiful player who plays a mental game. He has what seems to have been lost in the world, which is peripheral vision. When you walk down the street in life, when you drive a car in life, when you ride a bike in the world on a street, it is staggering the lack of peripheral vision. But Nikola Jokic is the antidote to so many of our problems in the world.”
“When you see someone like a Nelson Mandela or a Martin Luther King or a Mahatma Gandhi, someone who sees the future before anyone else does, knows how to get to where they need to be, where they want to be, that is Nikola Jokic. Happiness begins when selfishness ends. In a game that has been taken over by incessant dribbling for yourself, Nikola Jokic is such a breath of fresh air. And it’s his imagination. Watching him play basketball is like watching Bob Dylan come up with a song.”
“He epitomizes Coach Wooden’s most oft-repeated mantra to us, which was, ‘Basketball, like life, is not a game of size and strength. It’s a game of skill and timing and positioning. It’s not how big you are, it’s how big you play. It’s not how high you jump, it’s where you are and when you jump.’ Nikola’s a complete package of skill, timing and positioning, but even more importantly, he has so many elements of Steve Nash in his game. With Steve, there’s never been a player in my life who has elicited more awe and elicited more inspiration in terms of, ‘Oh my gosh, did you just see that?’ Nikola has a lot of that in him.”
“When you watch Nikola Jokic play, you feel good about life. You feel good about the world. You believe that tomorrow is worth fighting for.”
by nowhathappenedwas
29 Comments
The conclusion of the article:
> Walton figures he first began paying attention to Jokic during the center’s rookie season, in 2016. First, friends would text him video clips. Soon, complete strangers, Walton said, who suspected he’d have an appreciation for this young player’s flair, started emailing highlight clips.
>
> So Walton started carving time in that busy schedule to watch Nuggets games on League Pass. That Chris Marlowe, who Walton has known since the two were teenagers growing up in Southern California, is the one calling the games as the Altitude TV play-by-play man, has only made the experience of watching Jokic play even more holistic.
>
> “With the way the NBA is able to package the content, it’s just spectacular,” Walton said. “You put those video clips in conjunction with the audio call of Chris Marlowe, that’s like being on tour with The Grateful Dead, like being out there with Bob Dylan and Neil Young and Jackson Browne and all the great ones, all the guys that just weave the story line throughout everything they do within their lives.”
>
> Sure, you could chalk up his comparison of Jokic to legends from the music world as Walton being Walton, the musings of a joyful philosopher. But heartfelt testimonials from the Nikola Jokic Admiration Society are growing, originating from all corners, an organization that has one of basketball’s great spokesmen.
>
> “We couldn’t be happier for Nikola, couldn’t be happier for Denver, couldn’t be happier for the NBA, couldn’t be happier for the world,” Walton said. “We just hope it lasts forever.”
Comparing Jokic to MLK and Gandhi now is just incredible. But doing it in 2018 means you are just operating on a different level then the rest of us.
is bill walton a poet? lol seriously wondering. not necessarily bc of the ppl he compares jokic to but the descriptors of like “watching a singer come up with a song” is kind of beautiful.
>”When you watch Nikola Jokic play, you feel good about life. You feel good about the world. You believe that tomorrow is worth fighting for.”
Can lakers fans confirm?
best non-lebron player since jordan
Jokic cares more about his horses, doesn’t give a shit about awards or records, once you overcome that, you can be mentally able to do what is the best about the team and about winning the game, instead of pursuing personal records
Walton was the man.
Years ago I remember watching a Pac-12 game he commentated on MLK Day. There was a really egregiously bad foul call and Walton said, “In the words of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ And that call is an injustice.” RIP Bill.
Walton was basically a very tall Terrence McKenna
Normally when people make this kind of wacky comparison between athletes and major historical figures it sounds corny and forced. When Bill Walton did it, you could see that he truly had such appreciation for something as trivial as a random college game.
Damn, wish Walton could have used this insight to look inward and ask himself why he’s trying to send homeless people to concentration camps
My favorite call of his, pure exuberance https://youtu.be/xmWdO1iFhv0?si=UGECY1oejDMJ54T8
[deleted]
Sounds like a once-in-a-week, -800 downvoted, 100 comments calling you an insane person post on r/nba/new from that time.
This reminded me just how much Walton loved Steve Nash. There’s got to be quotes like this for him too
Glazing goes crazy
For those who don’t know, Bill Walton was the best passing big man of his time. Although he was way more of a defensive player than Jokic is
Wow. I only knew Bill Walton as the great basketball player with an even bigger ‘if?’ career. This text is truly amazing though; he had an undoubtedly great vision and understanding of the game. Saying in 2018 that Jokic was ‘someone who sees the future before anyone else does, knows how to get to where they need to be, where they want to be’ is beyond impressive.
His words about Nash describe exactly how I felt about Nash’s game even before his MVPs years with the Suns. Nash is the main reason (60% Nash vs 40% Dirk, I would say) for me becoming a basketball and a Mavs fan until today.
It’s crazy how Shaq is hating on guys like Bill Walton.
He used to get made fun of a lot.
Watching any artist write a song would be extremely boring and time consuming.
This type of shit is why people hate Jokic lmfao.
He gets the weirdest praise i’ve ever seen
I love how true to himself Walton was. It’s like he fell into a vat of LSD in the late 70s and was seeing the world through a permanent acid trip.
Luka passes a lot as well, there Euro players come from a much less individualized society. Maybe that plays a factor?
Someone should’ve sent this quote to Kendrick Perkins and Nick Wright
I love how he appreciates and puts into words, so beautifully, how i feel about Jokic’s game. He also was a big fan of Boris Diaw another one of my favorite players ever and I’ll never forget what introduced me to his game was this quote from Bill as he was announcing:
[https://youtu.be/6KkrccHEAqg?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/6KkrccHEAqg?feature=shared)
I would imagine that watching Bob Dylan, or any songwriter come up with a song would be a fairly boring experience.
that last quote hits hard man, started tearing up lol
let’s aim for a brighter tomorrow…
If you didn’t read this in his voice you’re lying
If you can find it, there’s a Road Trippin podcast with Channing and RJeff where Jefferson is talking about a party he and Luke Walton had at his dad’s house.
One of those parties the sun is coming up, naked girls in the hottub (iirc) and RJeff and Luke are still partying…
Then here comes a butt ass naked Bill Walton, sits down in the tub… girls run off… two guys are like “wtf?” and Bill simply says:
> Its my house.