Hall Of Fame Dead Head

On my desk is a 1986 Fleer Basketball card of one Bill Walton: • Born: 11/5/52 • Height: 6'11" • Weight: 225 • College: UCLA. The man is a legend. My brother bought me the card and mailed it to me randomly sometime around the turn of the century (I love being able to use that term when talking about the year 2000, only 6 years ago). Today I was perusing ESPN and found a chat trascript from earlier today where Walton expounded his knowledge about "Shaq O'Neal", tie-dyed shirts, & of course as always, Coach Wooden. That's what you get with Walton. Consistency. The man averaged a career double-double, always consistent.

So today we'll give homage to a Basketball Hall of Famer, William Theodore Walton, III. The man has a personal home page, for crap's sake! How rad would it have been to have Bill Walton speak at your H.S. or College Graduation!?! Instead of going into statistics, you can read about his accolades here. My favorite highlight is that he's won two different Emmy awards best live sports television broadcast and an environmental documentary. Walton is, as Train always says... epic.

Another great memory, relived every year when my brother & I are watching an NBA game during a visit home for Christmas, is when Walton starts spouting on about fundamentals -- "That effort was HORRIBLE!" -- "What was he THINKING!?!" -- & my dad (who hates Walton's, & Barkley's even more, commentary) saying, every time without fail, "That guy is a moron." Classic. I can't wait until next year's Christmas Day NBA game.