Legend Bill Walton has been laid up for a couple years due to serious back issues, which has not only deprived us NBA fans of absurd superlative commentary on ESPN broadcasts, but more important has prevented Walton from getting around much. But a surgery has helped out, and Walton is on his feet. It's only appropriate that those feet -- once cursed -- have taken Walton to Portland.
Walton left Portland in 1979 in truly ugly fashion, as expertly documented in David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game. Walton, who suffered a foot injury which denied the Blazers an opportunity for a repeat championship in 1978 and destroyed his career, accused Portland doctors and staff of malpractice on his way out, suing close friends in the process.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has been on camera a lot in his life: from the basketball court on over to the Airplane movies, he's not camera shy. Of course, despite his talents and high standing on the hardwood, he typically plays a "less than brilliant" character in other genres of "film." Perhaps this clip from Jeopardy, via In Game Now, explains why that is. Or perhaps it just points to his ego. Or id. Or whatever.
Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Wednesday, there are 20 days remaining.
It's tough to imagine another assistant coach in the NBA getting a welcome back like Maurice Lucas will when the regular season opens for the Portland Trail Blazers later this month.
They don't forget their heroes in this town.
The Blazers retired his No. 20 jersey -- the only No. 20 in the NBA to be retired -- back in 1988, even though he played only five seasons in Portland. That's how much he meant.
Lucas -- a huge part of the Blazers miraculous NBA title run in 1977 -- has been on the Portland staff since 2005, but he is returning to the sideline now after an ongoing bout with bladder cancer that included surgery in the spring.
You may not know what he looks like, who he was and why people felt he was special enough to teach them but Pete Newell was one of the best coaches college basketball has ever seen.
Newell died yesterday at the age on 93.
Newell was a legend and held the respect and admiration of the game's other legends. Newell coached for 14 years at San Francisco, Michigan State and California. He compiled a 234-123 record and won the 1959 NCAA Tournament while at Cal. His final head coaching gig came the very next year when he took an Olympic team with Oscar Roberston, Jerry West and Jerry Lucas to a gold medal.
He also beat UCLA's John Wooden the last eight times they met.
He's legacy lives on with his "Pete Newell Big Man Camp". The camp has been going on for over 30 years and has taught the likes of Lew Alcinder, Bill Walton, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. The camps have become a mandatory stop for any big man wanting to get into the NBA.
Quick, NBA fans, who are the three most reprehensible broadcasters in the sport? In no particular order, this list would have to include Bill Walton, the self-styled oracle of senile wisdom; Stephen A. Smith, whose volume and nervous energy overshadow any actual content; and Stuart Scott, known primarily for saying "boo-ya!"
What if I told you that all three of these men would be together as a team, and that this would ESPN's way of kicking off the season? Would you ever recover? Well, get used to this new dark age. From Sports Media Watch:
While ESPN has not officially released its NBA announcing schedule -- it may do so in the next few days -- the team of Scott, Walton and Smith could be the trio ESPN goes with for the balance of the season. A listing of NBA announcers for the first month of the season does not include Walton, which could indicate a move to the studio for the long-time NBA analyst.
Thankfully, the network will also employ the considerable talents of Hubie Brown and Jeff Van Gundy. And given the programming priorities that reign in the NBA, the Unholy Three will most like be stuck on games I won't watch anyway. You know, those designed to help LeBron James and Dwyane Wade sell more shoes.
I guess Forbes is an authoritative publication if you're into being rich. But they clearly have zero clue what they're talking about when it comes to this fair sport of ours. Need4Sheed pointed me toward the mag's list of elite pundits. And who should come in at number ten but Bill Walton, bane of serious NBA fans everywhere.
Here's their reasoning:
Public describes him as: Confident, Experienced, Good Energy
Highly rated pundits don't lack for confidence, an issue Walton doesn't have to worry about. Given his stature as a former basketball great, NBA fans take to Walton's willingness to pull no punches when it comes to criticizing players and teams. His enthusiasm for the game is also infectious.
That's funny, I always thought Walton was pompous, fatuous, and vaguely delusional. In defense of Forbes, the list was generated through some sort of weighted polling system. But between Walton and some of the other names on there--Rosie O'Donnell, Geraldo Rivera, and Lou Dobbs, for instance--they might want to reexamine their methods. Or maybe the point is that, any way you slice it, "pundit" equals "buffoon".
Anything featuring young Bill Walton in 1970's street clothes is worth watching. Period.
This clip also seems to have been posted on YouTube by an original participant. He's included a long description of the experience that almost as interesting as the footage:
We went to his home on the Willamette river south of Portland. I remember it because the custom house had been built to Bill Walton scale and I felt so small. I remember his beautiful German Shephards which you see in the film.
Oddly, today when I hear Walton call games, I feel he is very small.
If you need a breather from lottery-mania, here's a good read. Over at The Orlando Sentinel, Tim Povtak has put together a chronicle of this crucial NBA accessory.
He traces its origin back to Bill Walton and former Sonic Slick Watts. Others, including Wilt, had rocked it before, but no one made it stick like these two seventies ballers. Walton had practical reasons: He wasn't going to cut his hair, and it couldn't be wet and scraggly in his eyes. While Watts was also concerned about perspiration, for him it was also part of an overall look:
Watts first wore his in college at Xavier College in New Orleans, primarily because he sweated so profusely. And even then, he already was shaving his head, long before Michael Jordan made that popular.
"I didn't like being called nappy," he said. "You could hardly find them anywhere, so I'd wear mine for weeks. Imagine how that smelled."
By the time he reached Seattle, where he played from 1973 to 1978, the headband was part of his uniform. It was his trademark, adding to the look and the smile and the friendly nature that made him so popular.
Watts, who currently works in the Sonics organization, goes on to reveal that he "felt naked" without his headband. I'm pretty sure that "feeling naked" is a violation of the dress code, so someone had better get at Scott Skiles ASAP.
In all seriousness, both men feels their contribution has been cheapened through over-exposure. Watts thinks that only players with game should be allowed to sport headbands, and Walton sees it as yet another sign of rampant egomania. Then again, the real innovators are always bitter in the end.
The NBA honchos must have urged ESPN announcers to keep their critique of referees to a minimum. The J.R. Smith foul of Manu Ginobili was not in the least a flagrant foul. Ginobili was never hit in the head or near his head. Smith hacked his arms ensuring that there would be no layup. Ginoblili went into his patented, 'I was just assaulted' flop and the referees fells for his tactic - for the umpeenth time.
The "pundits" who believed there would be a backlash by officials for the suspension of Joe Crawford are out of touch with the game. The referees today have as little in common with Crawford as Jerry West does with today's player. The officials of the NBA today mirror society; self-centered to a fault - protecting their own hides is paramount - and after the instant gratification of a good postgame report. Joe Crawford cared little for today's way and for the newer refs, it was a good thing to see him go; one less old school referee to look at them in disgust when they overrule on of their own because of what they thought they saw while out of position; one less old ref to admonish them after a game.
What makes all of the aforementioned so painfully obvious is the kid glove treatment of the Spurs in their series against the Denver Nuggets. The Spurs, like a few other teams in the league, foul early and often knowing officials won't call everything - knowing that in the end the referees adjust to the Spurs rather than the opposite, and more often than not, end up not calling anything.
This game is depressing and Bill Walton is annoying me as if for the first time. So why not take a look at this clip from the first nationally televised game of the 1979 season? It's Lakers versus Clippers, Magic's first professional outing, and there's breaking news that Walton's in street clothes. This after CBS has spent several minutes worth of highlights and hot air talking him up.
Then there's a Magic interview, which leads to an interesting trivia question: have any other rookies been the pre-game interview in their first game? LeBron, obviously. Who else?
Legend Bill Walton has been laid up for a couple years due to serious back issues, which has not only deprived us NBA fans of absurd superlative commentary on ESPN broadcasts, but more important has prevented Walton from getting around much. But a surgery has helped out, and Walton is on his feet. It's only appropriate that those feet -- once cursed -- have taken Walton to Portland.
You may not know what he looks like, who he was and why people felt he was special enough to teach them but 
Quick, NBA fans, who are the three most reprehensible broadcasters in the sport? In no particular order, this list would have to include 
I guess Forbes is an authoritative publication if you're into being rich. But they clearly have zero clue what they're talking about when it comes to this fair sport of ours. 
If you need a breather from 
The NBA honchos must have urged ESPN announcers to keep their critique of referees to a minimum. The J.R. Smith foul of Manu Ginobili was not in the least a flagrant foul. Ginobili was never hit in the head or near his head. Smith hacked his arms ensuring that there would be no layup. Ginoblili went into his patented, 'I was just assaulted' flop and the referees fells for his tactic - for the umpeenth time.
