Bill Walton
Bill Walton
William Theodore "Bill" Walton IIIis an American retired basketball player and television sportscaster. Walton achieved superstardom playing for John Wooden's powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early 1970s, winning three successive College Player of the Year Awards, while leading the Bruins to two Division I national titles. He then went on to have a prominent career in the National Basketball Associationwhere he was a league Most Valuable Playerand won two NBA championships. His professional career was significantly hampered by multiple foot...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth5 November 1952
CityLa Mesa, CA
CountryUnited States of America
I might be the most injured athlete in the history of sports. I've had 31 operations. An endless string of stress fractures.
I mean, I'm 6-foot-11, I've got red hair, freckles, I'm a goofy, nerdy-looking guy, I've got a speech impediment-I stutter and stammer all the time-and I'm a Deadhead.
I was a skinny, scrawny guy. I stuttered horrendously, couldn't speak at all. I was a very shy, reserved player and a very shy, reserved person. I found a safe place in life in basketball.
Life is about growth. People are not perfect when they're 21 years old.
Well, we've made some changes on this tour. We're no longer sleeping in the parking lots and swimming in the fountains. We've been staying in hotels most of the way, though I will say some hotels have declined to take us because we're just having too much fun.
I couldn't imagine not playing basketball. To me, basketball is what life is all about.
I lived to play basketball. Growing up as a kid, Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics were my favorite team. The way they played, the teamwork, the sacrifice, the commitment, the joy, the camaraderie, the relationship with the fans.
Tim Duncan's foot issue, I think, is a major factor in this year's playoffs. That's not the kind of injury that gets better over time playing NBA basketball.
We can never thank David Stern enough. His vision to use basketball to improve the quality of our lives to make this world a better and saner place, that guy, is the most important man in the history of basketball.
No one missed more basketball in the history of NBA than I did. I played 14 seasons, on the roster for 14 years, and I missed more than nine-and-a-half full seasons.
John Stockton is one of the true marvels, not just of basketball, or in America, but in the history of Western Civilization!
That's what makes it so fun to be on a team. You're sitting at your house, thinking up this wild, crazy stuff as to how it's going to go, and the other guys are sitting at their houses doing the same thing.
Health is a function of three things. 1. Luck 2. Genetics and 3. Choices in your lifestyle.
The great thing about being a broadcaster is you have this incredible responsibility to the people that make it all happen, the people that turn on the television set.