[ad_1]
The Bounce Newsletter 
| This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.
We could dedicate this newsletter to Bill Walton for an entire month, and it still wouldn’t do him justice. Rest in peace, big man. 🕊️💔
R.I.P. Bill Walton
Basketball Legend
On Memorial Day, the NBA announced the passing of legendary big man and commentator Bill Walton, who was 71 years old and lost a long battle with cancer. Immediately, the basketball world took notice with tributes, pictures, videos, columns, anecdotes and so much more. From the early ’70s through yesterday, Walton was undeniably one of the most important and entertaining figures in basketball.
Long before passing bigs like Nikola Jokić established themselves, Walton dominated the basketball world. You might look at his career numbers and wonder how that was possible. You’ll see just one MVP and one NBA championship ring (before he joined Boston), and wonder if his hoops mastery is hyperbole. It is not.
At UCLA, Walton took the reins from Lew Alcindor by going 60-0 and leading the Bruins to two national titles in his first two college seasons. UCLA also notched an 88-game winning streak during his stay. Walton was the top pick in the 1974 NBA Draft, but his first two pro seasons were ruined by the foot injuries he battled pretty much his entire adult life.
Then came the first postseason of his career. Walton finished second to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the 1976-77 MVP, but he got his revenge in the Western Conference finals by sweeping Kareem’s Lakers and dunking all over him in the Game 3 victory on the way to 22 points, 15 rebounds, nine assists, two blocks and two steals.
In that postseason, he led the Portland Trail Blazers to their only championship to date. It was a historic title run. He averaged 18.2 points, 15.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3.4 blocks in their 19 playoff games. One other player in NBA history has averaged at least 18-15-5-3 in the postseason (Tim Duncan, 2003). That’s the list. Walton had 20 points, 23 rebounds, seven assists and eight blocks in the closeout game. He’d win MVP honors the next season despite playing just 58 games.
Walton isn’t just one of the best passing big men of all time — he’s just one of the best big men ever. His body didn’t allow him to have the long career the basketball world should have been able to celebrate, but that didn’t stop him from being recognized and celebrated every step of the way. He was a genius out there and eventually reinvented himself as the top sixth man for the 1985-86 champion Celtics.
Most younger people know him for his Pac-12 and college basketball broadcasting, which we’ll touch on shortly. But don’t forget this man was a menace on the basketball court when his body allowed him to be. He’d dunk on you. He’d throw your shot into the third row. He’d drop a dime you never saw coming. And he was a ferocious competitor. Walton is one of the greats of all greats. This one hurt.
Remembering Bill Walton (1952-2024) pic.twitter.com/zP1MSvWbDT
— NBA History (@NBAHistory) May 28, 2024
Shout out to my former SportsCenter producer Jeremy Lundblad for finding this (re: my last tweet). This is the time Bill Walton and @DickieV took over our show and we just let it happen 😂 pic.twitter.com/R1cVg3Yr19
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) May 27, 2024
I am sad today hearing that my comrade & one of the sports worlds most beloved champions & characters has passed. Bill Walton enjoyed life in every way. To compete against him & to work with him was a blessing in my life. Sorry for your loss Walton family. We’ll miss him too. Doc pic.twitter.com/GAEt1DRH8N
— Julius Dr J Erving (@JuliusErving) May 27, 2024
An Absolute Icon
Broadcasting Legend
I mentioned above that Walton was the precursor to Jokić on the basketball court. I would also contend this: Long before there was Charles Barkley talking basketball on your television, Bill Walton was changing the way we thought about basketball broadcasts. Former players with big personalities had given these broadcasts a chance, including the Celtics’ Tommy Heinsohn doing national broadcasts while still very much repping Boston green. But things seemed to change in the ’90s, when Walton joined NBC’s broadcasts.
My favorite broadcasting team ever was getting Steve “Snapper” Jones with Walton. They provided the color and analysis for the game, and you could really fill in any play-by-play announcer from there. Tom Hammond was my favorite to complete the trio, but Marv Albert was the biggest star. You’d get genuine banter – often of the incredulous nature – between Walton and Snapper. And it was the very best the sport has ever had to offer.
To put it mildly, Walton was off the cuff and off the wall. He could stray from the game, but it would always come back to the action. It had the looseness of a local baseball broadcast team doing the very best in sports entertainment on an NBA broadcast. It opened the door for the NBA on TNT to eventually empower the likes of Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal.
Walton would eventually become college basketball’s color commentating legend we knew for the last 12 years. He left in 2009 because of his back issues but returned to work college games. He often teamed with Dave Pasch, and it was some of the best entertainment basketball could produce. Here are some clips I’ve gathered to illustrate:
There’s so much more out there. And we’ve barely scratched the surface of who he was and what he meant outside of basketball. Rest in peace, Bill. You inspired so many of us to take a less conventional path.
Read: Jason Quick’s column on the career of Bill Walton is a must-read.
Bill Walton’s nickname for me was “Coal”, and he would call himself “Solar”. He would playfully say I was living in the past, while he was the future. As I was going through many old texts from him, laughing my butt off, this one got me. Bill was an all time ball buster! pic.twitter.com/EejlTMzBKX
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 28, 2024
This was the last broadcast Bill Walton ever did:
Washington State-Oregon on Feb. 10.
I never would have known anything was wrong.
What a total gut punch. pic.twitter.com/4BOf9groZ0
— College Sports Only (@CollegeSportsO) May 28, 2024
Bill Walton was one of the greatest basketball players of all time – a champion at every level and the embodiment of unselfish team play. He was also a wonderful spirit full of curiosity, humor and kindness. We are poorer for his passing, and Michelle and I send our deepest…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 27, 2024
Great Bill Walton broadcast moments
There’s too many to remember so let’s compile them all here and reminisce together
A thread: pic.twitter.com/7pD29GWfMt
— Pregame Empire (@PregameEmpire) May 27, 2024
I’m not the only one to say this but this outpouring of emotion for Bill Walton is extraordinary because almost no one references Bill the player. Few mentions of the 21-of-22 game, the ’77 title, the MVP, his steady play in 86, etc. Been about Bill as a person, a true testament.
— Jack McCallum (@McCallum12) May 28, 2024
Break Out The Brooms
Boston swept Indiana. Is Dallas next?
Admittedly, seemingly inevitable sweeps in the conference finals and Walton’s passing made me want to focus less on current basketball and more on the legend. Plus, it looks like we might have as many as nine days off between the end of the conference finals round and the start of the NBA Finals, so we have time to discuss what happened in this round.
Last night, the Celtics closed out the Pacers with their brooms fully out. Their 105-102 victory was the third close game in the Eastern Conference finals. While you could argue Indiana gave away Games 1 and 3, Boston won Game 4 to give itself some rest before the NBA Finals. The Celtics held Indiana scoreless in the game’s final 3:33, and Jaylen Brown had his 11th game of this 14-game playoff run shooting at least 50 percent.
Listen: I broke down Game 4 with Jared Weiss on The Athletic NBA Show Podcast.
Larry Bird Trophy recipient Jaylen Brown in the ECF:
29.8 PPG
5.0 RPG
3.0 APG
51.7 FG% pic.twitter.com/vy7Iu4Sguw
— Celtics Stats (@celtics_stats) May 28, 2024
Let’s really go after this thing ☘️ pic.twitter.com/3qIdcbrCuK
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 28, 2024
Punched our ticket back to the NBA Finals 🎟 pic.twitter.com/OYk2K4TFbR
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 28, 2024
What about out West? Dallas leads Minnesota 3-0.
Game 4 of this series is tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET on TNT. The Wolves find themselves in absolute dismay when it comes to crunch time. Every game has been Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving expertly and maniacally dissecting the Wolves’ top-ranked defense in the final minutes of a close game, while Minnesota looks around and wonders where the next hero shot will come from. The Wolves seem to think one shot will win it, but the Mavs know consistent clutch execution is the best way to reach the Finals.
This is the Wolves’ problem for this series: they’ve scored 20 total clutch points in its three games. Dončić and Irving have combined for 21. Anthony Edwards has struggled to be Minnesota’s closer, and he’s getting almost zero help. All three games could have gone another way, but all three games did go to the team that knows what it wants to do and how to do it when it matters most.
The 🧹🧹🧹 are out in Dallas. We’ll see if Minnesota finally figures it out to prolong the inevitable. As a heads up, teams down 3-0 in a playoff series are 0-155 all-time.
down, but not out. pic.twitter.com/WlOzC3wjqb
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 27, 2024
MAVS ROLL 😈@chime // #OneForDallas #MFFL pic.twitter.com/yRZs38Jg8B
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) May 27, 2024
You heard the man.
@chime // #OneForDallas #MFFL pic.twitter.com/s4t3cpJlvo
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) May 27, 2024
“DAGGER!!!!” Rent was DUE 😤@chime // #OneForDallas #MFFL pic.twitter.com/S4PoOg9jxm
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) May 27, 2024
Bounce Passes
The Wolves are sorely lacking experience in the conference finals.
Minnesota misses Karl-Anthony Towns and its defense right now.
(Top photo: D. Clarke Evans / Getty Images )
[ad_2]
Source link
Fitnessnacks – #Bill #Walton #changed #basketball #basketball #broadcasting #Heres
Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5523450/2024/05/28/bill-walton-nba-celtics-trail-blazers-nba-playoffs-the-bounce/