Remembering the Legendary Bill Walton an All Time Trail Blazers Great

Remembering the Legendary Bill Walton an All Time Trail Blazers Great

in today’s show we remember Bill Walton an all-time great Trailblazer and one of the guiding lights of this very podcast welcome to lock down Blazers let’s get into it you are locked on Trailblazers your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday what up up world it’s your past first point guard and Trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond you are listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers part of the locked on podcast network available where wherever you get podcasts and also on YouTube thanks for making this show your first listen coming at you each and every weekday Monday through Friday so make it a part of your daily routine tell your friends to do the same make it your first listen is lockon Blazers your team every day in today’s show we’re going to remember one of the greats Bill Walton passed away on Monday May 27th at the age of 71 and alltime great Blazer a legend in the community a legend in the game and a legend in the broadcast Booth a man who in many ways is the guiding Spirit of this podcast we are going to honor honor big red in today’s show I want to do it in a couple different ways I want to talk about Bill Walton the basketball player um just an all-time great Hooper a dude who just won who just won when he was available to play the games he won them that that is this the the the lasting truth of Bill Walton’s career but he was also someone who developed an ethos that was infectious and that he was um eager to spread and his off Court impact was incredibly loud he became a larger than life character and someone who depending on how old you are you probably have enjoyed and appreciated Bill Walton for different reasons throughout the years so we’ll talk about Bill Walton the guy the person the human in the second segment and then we’ll we’ll close to the show honoring Bill Walton the way I think he’d want to be honored with with his which is with a little bit of Blazer’s optimism he was fiercely optimistic particularly later in his life fiercely optimistic we’ll try to channel some of that um true true optimism here on the show let’s start with Bill Walen the player I am not old enough to remember bill walon the player Bill Walton’s NBA career ended before I was born some 6 months before Michael showed up Bill Walton was done playing basketball so what I know of Bill Walton is from watching the extremely long 30 for30 documentary about him from you know the 10 years I’ve spent covering the Blazers including some time for the for the paper of record in which uh we would write sort of deeper dives into the history and and be responsible for things like writing a book about the Blazers 40 Years of of of of Blazer uh of Blazer history and things like that but but much of my appreciation of him is in many ways academic right like I have seen the clips on YouTube I have seen him cram on Kem Abdul Jabar and one of the great plays in Blazers history and like look out Kareem this dude’s better than you um like this is the highest highs right um but it is not a deeply held like personal experience appreciation of Walton so if you are roughly my age um uh you know even like in your early 40s you probably don’t really remember um Bill Walton Playing For Real uh in a meaningful way but you may remember Bill Walton the guy so we’ll talk about the guy in a second the player though an absolute an absolute Phenom on the court he started just by winning all of his Collegian basketball games um you know back in uh the early 7s freshman didn’t play so he shows up as a sophomore UCLA and they just keep on winning he was a part of a UCLA team that won 88 consecutive basketball games including his um his sophomore and Junior season his Junior season in 1973 um in the national championship game is perhaps the greatest college basketball final ever played perhaps greatest College college basketball game ever played where he goes 21 of 22 and is the most dominant force on the court he was absolutely phenomenal he comes out plays another season in college and in 1974 is the number one overall pick by the Portland Trail Blazers they spent a couple years where he is um unavailable due to some injuries and they’re not good and Walden is not um not yet miserable in Portland but he is unhappy and then they get Maurice Lucas in the in the dispersal draft in the ABA draft among with other you know players that they added that kind of a big retool that summer but importantly Maurice Lucas and him and Bill walon forged a friendship if you’ve never read breaks of the game by David howon you should read it um if you have read it you should read it again great um it’s the sports book I’ve certainly read uh the most of any of them it does have a little bit of um sports writer from 19 early 1980s um language in it that if you are of a certain age particularly for my younger audience shout out to my genz listeners you will notice it but it’s fantastic and some of the stories in are just are just great um but Walton forged an immediate friendship with Maurice Lucas and then they win the title as the youngest team in the league and not only did they win the ti win the championship not only do they win the championship they beat the Lakers to do so they beat Dr J and um and the Sixers in in the finals they they come back from um they come back from a from a series deficit to get the win and in game six Walton is Bonkers Bonkers I’m telling you the finals MVP of of the 1977 championship in game six he has 20 points 23 rebounds seven assists and eight blocks he averaged 19195 and four that’s four blocks 20 points 23 boards seven assists and eight blocks in a championship game the following year the Blazers would go 50 and 10 before Walton’s feet basically gave out on him and he would miss the remainder of the season but he would win MVP the Blazer’s only player to ever win MVP he comes back in the playoffs plays twice against the Sonics in the opening round of opening round of the playoffs and his he’s just not right and within a year he is suing the Trailblazers and asking for a trade it ended quickly it was abrupt he ends up missing three of the next Four Seasons he plays for the Clippers as they uh debut in San Diego and then as they move to LA and then finally back healthy after missing a number of games and a just tons of ankle and and foot surgeries to try to get his body right he finally does and plays on one of the most talented teams in the history of of of the NBA the 85 86 Celtics he wins um he’s Sixth Man of the Year that year plays in 80 games they win the championship he plays 10 more games the rest of his career he played 10 more games in The Following Season he didn’t play in the 8788 season and then announced his retirement shortly thereafter it it was abrupt and when when Walton was available he was an all-time great uh the Ian Carell a local comedian he’s from Beaver and Oregon top of the food chain where Champions are made um he mentioned on social media today that that he doesn’t know if Bill Walton is the greatest Blazer of all time but he’s certainly the most Blazer of all time and I think that is the perfect way to put it and I will say this unequivocally no one has gotten to the Peaks that Walton has in a Blazer uniform um I think some of greatest of all time goat talk is your personal preference and what you value whether you value longevity whether you value CHS whether you value um a sort of closeness to the to the community and all of those things like some of it is Soft Stuff some of it is hard stuff some of it is like you know it’s the the hard stuff being like stats that you see in this stat sheet some of it is like how long did you do it but undeniably with all the goat talk and I’m this is not the time or the place to get into any of that no one who has worn a Trailblazers Jersey has ever been singularly as good for the hit the Peaks that that Walton did the best for a brief period the best basketball player in the world if they if he had been able to stay healthy we really would have tested what that looked like during a period in the in the uh in the NBA history in which the Blazers could have ripped off some titles with all due respect to the sonics and the Wizards who were Sonics and the bullets who were going to win the next two championships that pre- and Magic run in the late 70s it was a chance for the Blazers to win a lot but they couldn’t and that’s stuck with Bill Walton the he had guilt about getting hurt not only do they have beef a lawsuits and and a trade request and all of those things not only did they have beef with the Blazers medical staff and and all these things but like Bill Walton Bill Walton had guilt about not being available for you for the Blazer fans of the of the of the ‘ 80s honestly of the early ‘ 80s like not being there for you to cheer him on not being there to carry on a dynasty not being there to be one of the great teams cuz he knew they were that good and that special and he talks about it all the time and and in many ways because he holds that team in such high reverence so does so does the the organization so does the fan base because Walton set the tone for that team was special and it just didn’t work and we we as a sort of Blazer watching public really appreciate the 77 championship team in a special way Walton is the core of it Mar Lucas pretty special too but Walton is the core of it his career ends quickly again I didn’t see him play I know most of my exposure to him is academic my exposure to Bill Walton is behind a microphone in the broadcast Booth as one of the voices of the NBA and then eventually one of the quirkiest and a truly unique force in the broadcast Booth let’s talk about Walton the person in the second segment because the player is worth celebrating the person is worth smiling about that’s that’s what we’ll do in the second segment let’s smile and remember Bill Walton a a a truly oneof one unique Force join me in that second segment won’t you first though I want to tell you about FanDuel America’s number one sports book look it’s it’s it’s the playoffs it’s the playoffs in the NBA it’s the playoffs in the NHL and fan wants to give you a shot to bring home a big win of your own because it’s win or take all time we’re we’re getting down to the true finals in both Sports so right now new customers get $150 bonus $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet you place a $5 bet on FanDuel you get that Victory they’ll give you 150 bonus bucks to play with you can bet on spreads money lines player props and more visit fanduel.com lockon and make every playoff shot count that’s FanDuel America’s number one sports [Music] book all right let’s talk about Bill Walton the person over the course of his 13 NBA Seasons Bill Walton missed and I read this in a wonderful um a wonderful little bit written by uh Jason quick of the athletic Bill Walton missed 762 games and had 13 different surgeries on his feet and ankles excuse me 39 different surg surgeries 39 surgeries on his feet and ankles 39 surgeries missed 762 games over 13 years he just wasn’t he had a great deal of guilt about not being available about his body not being right he’s mentioned I’ve seen him do this several times that he he’s he’s said I peaked at 12 years old by the time he got out of college his body was shot his knees were in trouble and he just wasn’t himself and even then for a brief period in the late 70s he was the best basketball player on Earth or certainly the best basketball player in the NBA with all due respect uh to it not being as a global game at as much of a global game at the time but it took a while for Bill Walton to come back right um I was here by the time he came back I moved to Portland in the fall of 2006 I’ve almost been here about 20 years um Bill Walton didn’t make a public appearance back at the Rose Garden back in back in Portland at the arena until 2009 so like I was I I was an adult at that point right like I was I was uh Bill Walton had um career ended before I was alive and then his sort of Feud and beef and and kind of just ill will and and bad maybe not bad blood but just like not ready to to mend the fences with the Blazers lasted until I wasn’t in into my adulthood but then in 2009 he came back and he was he had kind of come out of come out on the other side he had already worked at NBC and done finals games I have a very vivid memory of him um calling the Nets Lakers finals in the early 2000s just because of the way he would say Lucius Harris um I I remember that VI that is a vivid part of my of my basketball memory by the time he came back though when when Walton was back here when it when it was when he was ready to be part of this community again he loved it he loved Portland and and Blazer fans loved him and it was time to be time for that Embrace to be public and okay and celebrated he he never was like a true sort of Team Ambassador right like he had called games for the Clippers and all these things and like the sort of standing um issues with the Blazers lasted a long time but he was 2009 and then and then beyond he was much more public and present and did things with the team that he had he he wouldn’t have otherwise he wasn’t like on the broadcast like Terry Porter is but he was much much more present and much more open about it um about his his relationship with the with the team and all of those things and he loved Portland and he had developed this ethos by then that he was the luckiest guy on Earth if you have heard Bill Walton talk in public you have heard him say I’m the luckiest guy on Earth and then he’ll rip off reasons why he’s lucky because what Bill Walton developed was gratitude he’s a guy who I think during his basketball career things were dark right you miss that many you have 30 surgeries you miss almost you know 800 games uh it’s like it’s a lot of it’s a lot of time to feel like you things aren’t going your way and feel get feel sorry for yourself get down on yourself but Bill Walton come out on the other side and he’s the luckiest guy on Earth in fact Walton is perhaps as I mentioned to open the show perhaps The Guiding Spirit of this podcast if if you’re an everyday listener you’ve heard me say this hold on to your joy and the reason that I say hold on to your joy is not because I am this Fierce Optimist that believes everything is good in fact it is the exact reverse I am someone who believes things are bad life has a lot of fleeting joy in it basketball has a lot of fleeting joy in it so the ability to sit with something and appreciate the good things and say this is good I’m going to hold on to it is a skill that you cultivate and by the time Bill Walton was you know a decade into the 21st century he had cultivated that skill better than anyone you’ve ever known he was pure joy and that’s when he kind of grew from being um a fairly normal albeit somewhat quirky announcer in the early 2000s calling Nets Lakers in the finals to being like an itinerate philosopher who just went on whatever tangent he wanted to hijacked Pack 12 basketball games and took listeners and and viewers on on a true Journey on the broadcast it maybe wasn’t going to be much about basketball but boy was it going to be a lot about grizzly bears uh migration routes of large birds Which Way water flows at what side of the Continental Divide you’re on and anything you’d ever want he’d want to talk about he would take you on that Journey he is he is there is nobody like him there is nobody like him and that’s what I said for for I think for the older listeners and I hear I hear from some of them from time to time uh who email me who say like you know you young whipper snapper weren’t young enough to appreciate him but he was the best and I to to to that I say yeah I think again like I have an academic understanding of how good he was but to I think people roughly my age we kind of watched him grow from being like funny personality who clearly loves basketball to being like the itinerate philosopher right like truly truly um if you’re watching on YouTube I’m wearing the Lithuania uh tie-dye shirts H gift from my father shout shout out to you Dad thanks for listening I know you’re not watching uh but if um like Walton clad in clad in tiedye talking about whatever he wanted we saw him we we watched him develop into that and if you’re a little bit younger you probably only know of Bill Walton doing things like playing drums in his basement on an alternate cast on ESPN because the the the media World eventually realized that what you did with Walton was harness how unique he was one of the interesting um sort of stories about how Bill Walton became this incredibly intriguing public figure that you’d want to listen to is that he had a speech impediment so he was 28 and hated public speaking hated public speaking and then kind of as he says learned to talk at 28 and then talked for the rest of his life as much as he could um behind me on the YouTube Show YouTube um screen I think it’s the word I’m looking for if you’re watching is a picture of Bill Walton in a Clippers jersey uh he is holding a rose to his nose and crying this is hold on to your joy in its purest form I I don’t know if many of you know that that this is sort of The Guiding figure of the um of the podcast but Bill Walton over what is uh what is my left shoulder here reversed on your screen is that um it is the appreciation that when things because things go bad more often than not to be able to sit with the things that bring you Joy and pursue them and then if you are Bill Walton celebrate them in as public a space as you possibly can ride your bike whenever you get a chance tell tell the world how much you love your wife on national TV talk about whatever you want to talk about that that strikes your interest and be yourself and you’re and and exude that joy as much as you can because you came out from the other side a dark NBA career that should have been so much more that was taken from you because your body just wouldn’t allow you to do it and like I said he had guilt around it um I’ll share this here although I don’t in General I do not like when people make famous people’s deaths about themselves so I’ll try to do this quickly I was fortunate enough to interview Bill walon one time in my life in a one-on-one setting I talked to him maybe a handful of other times in in various media capacities but um the story was I was trying to write a story about how his sort of both him and Bill both him and Greg Odin were back in Portland for the same week and I was going to try to write a story about the Kindred Spirits returning to Portland and I sat with Bill Walton for 45 minutes and he talked about everything he wanted to talk about and when I asked him about Greg Odin he gave me one sentence this is someone who does things his way and the story I wrote was not about the Kindred Spirits returning to Portland it was about Bill Walton and the unique experience it is to be Bill Walton back in Portland and I think this is Maybe the maybe the way we should appreciate what Walton is right um he is someone who exudes Joy he is uniquely himself at all times and exudes joy and particularly later in his life he was someone who was unapologetically himself unique in a way that no one will ever even approach there will not ever one of one there will not be an ever ever be a Bill Walton but what he wanted to do was talk about stuff that made him happy he didn’t want to talk about sad stuff not with me not with some stranger he didn’t want to lean into it he said I liked Greg like Greg Oden everybody gets hurt I was just first that’s the exact quote we spent 35 minutes talking about the maloma Athletic Club Wallace Park all the bridges in Portland and how much he revered Phil Knight the things he wanted to talk about and that’s the spirit way I want to I want I want to use to close the show let’s aggressively focus on the positives aggressively focus on the positive the Blazer the Portland Trail Blazers in 2024 are in a weird spot let’s go find the positives I got them come with me to the third segment and find [Music] them still a pass first point guard I’m still Mike Richmond and you are still listening to the locked on Blazers so in the spirit of Bill walon someone who knows to hold on to his Joy better than any of us possibly could the Blazer who reached the highest peaks this particular iteration of the Blazers is flirting with one of the worst runs this team is ever in terms of just like lack of lack of playoff success playoff appearances that that franchise has ever had right they’ve been a a traditionally um successful franchise sort of you know they made the playoffs for two straight decades um and I think in general if you are a longtime listener shout out to my everyday or or just if you’re if you’re a if you’re a someday listen someday listener you know that I am in general a little I can tend towards pessimism right that that’s kind of my natural that’s my natural space that’s where I live so to be fiercely optimistic to be as as to be as rosy as maybe some would prefer is is me um either playing a character or or getting outside my comfort zone so what I don’t want to do here is sell this as anything other than it is in honor of big red in honor of Bill Walton in honor of the guy who who was telling us throw it down big fella so many times on the broadcast I want to offer you some some legitimate optimism for the Blazers or why you a Trailblazers fan have a reason to hold on to your joy I think there’s a couple here that I think are are hon honest even if I am doing this even if I’m wearing a tie-dye shirt and playing a character number one is that it’s basically tabula rasa right it’s basically a clean slate roster certainly they have um long-term money tied up to some players and a bunch of players under contract for next season but in terms of what they’re where they are now and where they’re going to be when they’re good again I mean the chances that they have even half the roster are incredibly slim this is a chance over the next I would say season and a half over the next 20 months to completely remake this thing there is nothing that is set in stone which means that every person on the team maybe not every but a a large chunk of the team has a chance to be part of what is next in terms of getting in from the ground up this is a chance if you are a Blazer fan to appreciate something that is like truly a lump of clay roster that they can shape into something fierce that they want it to be sharp edges and details and all of those things that come with it as you as you add on as you you know add texture to the clay but I think the reason for optimism is cuz right now today you are listening to Tuesday May 28th show this is truly a clean slate I think lump of clay and clean slate is maybe mixing metaphors in a way that I didn’t intend mixing art metaphors in the way I didn’t intend but hey that’s that’s where we are don’t record at night um I think there is optimism or at least reason for joy in knowing that you are watching something in its earliest stages be born be built and grow this is something that’s going to be nurtured and watered and uh maybe repotted a couple times and then thrive in the window sill if you’re an indoor plant person or take over your entire Back Garden if you’re an outdoor person I think there there’s reason to be joyful about that the reason to be joyful about um I think one of the most rewarding experiences as a fan period is watching a team grow up uh there is always something fun about watching your team win but there is nothing that is more fun about watching a team that used to not be good grow together Build Together become something take a lump in the in you know take a law somewhere here take a second law somewhere here and then overcome those things over the duration and growth together there is nothing more rewarding than watching a team grow up if you are holding on to your joy know that the the path forward from a very young team to a team that is eventually competitive there is nothing more fun than watching that group grow together whether this group looks exactly like that or if it looks nothing like like it does now remains to be seen but the reason to hold on to your joy is because you dear listener are listening to a Trailblazers podcast in the middle of May a month before the NBA draft following one of the worst seasons in NBA history and you are looking for a reason to be optimistic and the reason to be optimistic is because you care about this thing and caring about something and allowing yourself to care about something is a risk that you take every day and that being rewarded when you do care about something is one of the great feelings in your life there is there are very few rewarding things than saying this is something that gets deep into my bones and now the thing that is deep into my bones is doing the thing I always dreamed it would I’m not predicting the Blazers hoist trophies but I do think there is a path back to being competitive fun and entertaining we are both way far away and relatively close to the last time the Blazers were in the Western Conference finals and I will tell you that spring in 2019 was the best the best Buzz the Blazers have ever given the city there was there was a s there was just a it was palpable here and to watch this group this core get back to that whenever that is is deeply rewarding as a fan I think the last reason for Blazer’s optimism and I think this is truly in the spirit of of Bill Walton is that choosing the other side sucks I truly believe that I think there are a lot of different ways to be a fan and I and and and I um doing this every day for 10 months out of the year 250 times a year or whatever it is doing this as often as I do I get exposure to all different types of fans right and I but but I I mean this in the spirit of Bill Walton choosing to be hopeful whatever hope looks like to you is more fun than choosing [Music] uh as as friend of the podcast Jr the great PDX Brite would say being a soggy socked fan just leaves you with soggy socks being hopeful and choosing to be hopeful about this team at this stage takes guts you know who had guts to be overwhelmingly positive in the face of all of the things that challenged him Bill Walton Bill Walton was on TV in January we didn’t know that he was sick we didn’t I didn’t know that he was dealing with a a a a a long drawn out battle with cancer what I knew about Bill Walton was that he was immensely joyful every time he touched a microphone because he chose that path so here’s the challenge for you dear listener if you’ve made it here a half hour into this particular podcast choose a little bit of Joy choose a little bit of Joy whatever that looks like to you choose a little bit of Joy today choose it in in relation to the Blazers choosing in relation to your life choosing in whatever it is choose Joy because Bill Walton kept choosing joy and that’s why you loved him he loved this city he loved this franchise he loved this region and he preached the good word on it every time he could he chose optimism give yourself a little bit of Bill Walton choose optimism then come back for tomorrow’s show I appreciate you listening I’ll talk to you soon [Music]

Bill Walton passed away on Monday at the age of 71. There will never be anyone like him. In today’s show we remember the player, the Trail Blazers legend, and the one of a kind force that was Big Red.

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