Basketball legend and civic icon Bill Walton dies at 71
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Bill Walton playing for the San Diego Clippers in 1982. Photo by Andy Hayt/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton, a San Diego sports legend, civic activist and music lover died Monday following a prolonged battle with cancer, the NBA announced.
He was 71 years old.
What they're saying: "Bill Walton was truly one of a kind," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.
The big picture: Walton's life and personality were colorful and huge, matching his nearly 7-foot frame and trademark wild red hair.
- He won championships and top player honors at every level of basketball, while enmeshing himself in the 1970s counterculture as the most famous Deadhead.
- Walton engaged with San Diego civic life, boosting Balboa Park, advocating for bike safety, controversially agitating over the city's homeless crisis and supporting dozens of nonprofits.
Flashback: Born and raised in La Mesa, Walton began his legendary basketball career at Helix High, where he won two California Interscholastic Federation titles and 49 consecutive games.
- He continued his career under John Wooden at UCLA, where he won the NCAA Player of the Year award three times, two championships and an NCAA record 88 straight games.
- The Portland Trail Blazers made him the top pick in the 1974 NBA draft, and he won a championship with the team in 1977 and the league MVP in 1978.
Zoom in: Walton played for the San Diego Clippers from 1979 through 1984, and won another championship with the Boston Celtics in 1986.
State of play: For another generation, he's perhaps most known for his baritone voice that was ubiquitous on basketball broadcasts beginning in the 1990s.
- Walton's color commentary was one of a kind, as likely to dissect a pick-and-roll as reference a Renaissance painter, quote a Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan lyric or describe a memory of an obscure Oregon river.
- Or, he would simply unfurl his catchphrase, "Throw it down, big man!"
Friction point: Most Walton sightings around town included the large, unwieldy personal chair he carried with him everywhere — a necessity due to his extreme height and numerous injuries from his playing days.
Worthy of your time: ESPN released a documentary on Walton's life, "The Luckiest Guy in the World," last year.
- Walton's autobiography, "Back from the Dead: Searching for the Sound, the Light, and Throwing it Down," begins with him contemplating suicide due to chronic pain from the injuries that plagued his life and career.
- "I've spent half of my adult life in the hospital," he told the New York Times in 2016.
Living in San Diego meant encountering Bill Walton throughout the city he loved.
- Walton for years worked out daily at the Mission Valley YMCA, where his bronze statue (with a bike, wearing a Grateful Dead tie-dye) now stands behind a sign reading "The Y saved my life!"
- He was an easy-to-spot regular at concerts around town, including at a Neil Young and Crazy Horse show in April.
- Fellow San Diegan Eddie Vedder interrupted a 2022 Pearl Jam concert to treat the crowd to his best Walton impression.
- Walton could often be seen biking around Balboa Park and his Hillcrest home, or kayaking at La Jolla Shores.
