It’s 4:30 on a recent Wednesday afternoon. Having just arrived home from work, driving through the impending darkness and mist, the scenery, rather the lack thereof, presented a harbinger of colder, darker days ahead. As I flipped on the big screen T.V. to unwind from a long day, the cold and darkness turned to warmth and brightness. As I tuned in there was discussion and visuals of sunnier, more pleasant vistas. Mountains, waterfalls, and rainbows dominated the dialogue.
No, I wasn’t watching the National Geographic channel. This was an early season college basketball game from the Maui Invitational, played in an empty area in Asheville, North Carolina of all places. Because this is 2020, after all. College basketball was back and to put the cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae…Hall of Famer Bill Walton was back calling the action. Well, sort of. If you have ever tuned into a game with Walton providing color commentary, you know exactly what that last statement means. Case in point…Bill Walton had a birthday celebration for the family dog, Potter, earlier that day. When asked how the celebration went, Walton started barking like a dog on live T.V. “Woof, Woof, Ruff, Ruff, Give me some food, would you big guy, Ruff, Ruff, Arrrrr”. “So your dog speaks dog and English”?
As oft been the case during this early season, Walton and play-by-play partner Jason Benetti were not in the arena. Benetti was attempting to call the action from his home in Chicago. Yes, when working with Bill, attempting to call the action is a most appropriate description. Walton was hunkered down at his estate in San Diego.
Sports media consumers certainly have their favorites and those they strongly dislike when it comes to the many personalities who enter living rooms as seasons pass. Perhaps, there are none more polarizing than Bill Walton. Most either love him or hate him…there is very little neutrality when it comes to Bill Walton.
Detractors of Walton may fashion the term “idiot” to describe what appear to be his non-sensical rants during a telecast. Being a non-conformist, pushing the envelope of societal norms does not make one an idiot. Walton is incredibly well read, inquisitive, and has done extensive travel.
The key to enjoying this national treasure is to just simply allow yourself to enjoy him. Don’t be looking for deep insightful basketball analysis when the seven-foot hippie, whose mind, heart, and soul are still at Woodstock, is working a game. You’re probably not, okay certainly not, going to get it. To enjoy a Bill Walton broadcast, hit the mute button on the remote, or much better yet allow yourself to enter Walton’s World. Oh, what a fun world it is. Basketball is supposed to be fun and no one has more fun calling a game, or living life in general than the former redhead himself. In essence, Bill Walton is there to be, well, Bill Walton.
Few can turn a run-of-the-mill mid-week PAC-12 game into must see appointment T.V. like Bill Walton. You just never know what may enter that mind of his, which in turn comes out of his mouth. As much as his broadcast partners try to reign him back to the court action, this is generally a hopeless cause. Discussions of his visits to the ostrich farm, voyages following his beloved Grateful Dead, travels to far away lands, or mushrooms are par for the course. “Have you ever been to?” fill in the blank is a question often asked of his mercenary play-by-play partner that night, generally Dave Pasch on a PAC-12 telecast. Remember…fungus is singular, fungi is plural.
The mention of former Michigan State standout Miles Bridges, currently with the Charlotte Hornets, once turned into a lengthy soliloquy about, you guessed it bridges. “I love bridges. A bridge is the ultimate tool because it allows you to get someplace, you can’t get on your own”. When he goes into his streams of consciousness, we are in for a real treat.
I consider Bill Walton to be one of the great tragedies in sport. Listening to him call a PAC-12 game late at night, you forget he is considered to be one of the greatest collegiate centers of all time, playing for legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. Few broadcasts go by without Walton recollecting with fondness the life lessons Wooden taught. Woodenisms are sprinkled in to season many a Walton broadcast. Much of his NBA career was marred by a bad back and other ailments caused by issues with his feet, for which he endured multiple surgeries.
One of his favorite memories is playing on that 1985-’86 Boston Celtics championship team with the likes of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish. He gushes whenever he reminisces about that team, how he loved playing with those guys and for Coach K.C. Jones. When asked if this is the greatest team at all time, Walton refuses to play that game. Bill isn’t into ranking anything. He has four boys and would never rank his favorites among them so why do so with anything else. He does not live in a binary world in which he has to choose. Enjoy them all, he says.
As much of a fan that I am of Bill Walton, we have very little in common. He is a liberal, free spirit. I tend to be conservative and rigid. Despite this, and maybe even because of this, is why I enjoy him so. I’ve found life to be much more interesting listening to people who are not like me, who don’t think like me. I tune in and listen to Bill Walton because he is, if nothing else, interesting. Just be interesting, and I’ll listen.
Love him or hate him, I think there’s a space in all of us where we wish we could live our lives with the free spirit that Bill Walton does. If we could only unshackle ourselves from the rigid boxes and ideas we put ourselves in. There is no question Bill Walton lives his life to his own drumbeat.
Bill will praise those during a broadcast who influenced him and often concludes his tribute by saying “Thank you for your life”. Well, I must say to Bill Walton…thank you for YOUR life! You truly are a national treasure!
