Bill Walton Was a Role Model for a Life Well Lived
The first time I met Bill Walton, who died today at age 71, I was 13 years old and he was playing for his hometown San Diego Clippers. It was summer, and I was playing basketball at the local Jewish Community Center off University Ave. and 54th St. in San Diego and he came to the JCC to meet us and sign autographs. He was a San Diego legend already by then, having played down the street at Helix High School, then on to UCLA, and then the Portland Trailblazers where he led the Blazers to the 1977 NBA title. But he was also fighting off injuries, something that would limit the rest of his career and plague him throughout his life.
Walton was larger than life to a 13-year-old kid, and not just because he was nearly seven feet tall. He was a local kid and among the greatest athletes ever to come out of the San Diego area. I didn’t know it at the time, but soon after this first meeting my family would move to La Mesa and I too would attend Helix High School.
When I got to Helix it was clear he was a local legend, as was his older brother Bruce, who played football at Helix and went on to a career in the NFL. The Waltons lived on Colorado Ave. over by Lake Murray, where I spent many a day riding my bike or fishing. We lived about a mile apart but by the time we’d moved to La Mesa Bill had already moved on to the NBA and beyond. Still, he was from my neighborhood, and for that reason, he was one of my sports heroes.
Walton’s knees nearly ended his career several times, but he still managed a second act with the Boston Celtics in the mid-80s and earned another ring in 1986 and he was instrumental. His playing career ended shortly after that, but he had yet another act ahead as a premier announcer for college basketball. He wasn’t everyone’s taste, but he was one of my favorites for sure. Ironically, last season turned out to be his last as an analyst, and it was also the last for his beloved Pac-12, the Conference of Champions.
In 2016, Walton published a book called Back from the Dead, the title a play on his career and also his love for the Grateful Dead. Say what you want about his TV persona, you’d be hard-pressed to find another human being who loved life and lived life the way Walton did. He was famous for crazy meandering quotes about life and basketball, often throwing in some history or philosophy along the way. He was very smart, and well read, and he was unusual for a sports analyst in that way but I loved it. I also loved hearing his stories about following the Grateful Dead and cycling the hills of San Diego. He said cycling saved his life because he was able to exercise despite having terrible knees.
When Back from the Dead came out I went to meet him at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix. He told stories and made us all laugh, and he answered questions from the crowd. He had been running a little late to the store, but he made up for it by talking well into the evening and staying to sign autographs.
When it was my turn to meet him, I told him he was one of my sports heroes and mentioned I attended Helix. Without missing a beat, the first thing he said was “did you have Miss so-and-so for English” like we were any two kids who went to the same school. We talked for a minute or so about Helix, and La Mesa, and then I got to take a photo with him. He was so genuine and normal and friendly — it had been nearly 40 years since our last meeting and I felt like I was talking to an old friend.
He signed my book like this: “To Len, thanks. Go Helix. Good everything forever. Chase your dream. Here we go! — Bill Walton.”
There will never be another like him. Rest in Peace Mr. Walton. And thanks for being a sports hero and life coach to us all.
There are no guarantees in life. The simple twists of fate and the breaks of the game are the two maxims that define so much of the success and failure in life. — Bill Walton
Great thoughts about a great man.....Thanks Len