The Legend of Bicyclist Bill Walton (Yes, He Was a Legendary Basketball Player, Too)

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Like we all did in college when we were not feeling well, ESPN broadcaster/basketball legend Bill Walton took a gulp of all-purpose Robitussin at his T-Mobile Arena courtside TV broadcast table Saturday night. He was also drinking some funky-looking brown and raspberry-colored liquids out of two bicycle water bottles as the Oregon Ducks wiped out the Washington Huskies in the Pac-12 basketball tourney final.

 

It was a decisive 68-48 win for Oregon and Ducks alum Phil Knight who was in the house — and Walton had a way of having fun no matter the score.

 

 

The game’s fate had already been sealed when a six-foot, two-inch guard for Oregon by the name of Payton Pritchard dunked with his left hand with about a minute to go in the final. Walton went into uber Bill-mode, his broad smile lighting up his face and his arms pointing and gesticulating. He was sitting only six feet in front of me as I sat on press row, a perfect ringside seat to watch the many sides of the amazing Walton. I smiled watching this Grateful Dead-following, bicycle-loving six-foot, 11-inch 66-year-old man behave as if he was a college freshman seeing his first live dunk at a basketball game.

 

Walton’s funny, off-the-wall, non-sequitur comments during ESPN basketball broadcasts can range from speeches on solar and wind power to travel stories about exotic locales around the globe. His broadcast mate, ESPN’s Dave Pasch, works in play-by-play around Walton’s worldly and out-of-this-world observations. Pasch is the ultimate Henry Bibby of the broadcast team, serving up verbal assists to let Walton shine while also amusing viewers on ESPN. There is no other TV sports broadcaster who can be equal parts daffy and earnest in the same sentence like Walton can. Nobody.

 

But years before he was a broadcaster, Walton played basketball at a Hall of Fame level at both the collegiate and professional levels. When I was a kid, I convinced my mom to allow me to stay up later than usual so that I could watch the college basketball national championship game between UCLA and Memphis State on March 26, 1973. UCLA’s decorated center on that team, a redhead named Bill Walton, dropped 44 points on Memphis State on 21-for-22 shooting as the Bruins won easily, 87-66, for a seventh consecutive national championship and 75th straight win at the time. (UCLA would win 88 straight before Notre Dame snapped the string the following season.)

 

Walton was one of college basketball’s greatest players and a Hall of Fame NBA pro who won championships with the Portland Trailblazers (1977) and Boston Celtics (1986).  But it was only when I was an adult in my 40s did I realize Walton loved bicycling as much as I did. I first met Walton at the Interbike bicycle trade show in Las Vegas about five years ago.

 

And then a year or two later, I met up with Walton again on a Tour of California bicycle ride called the “Chairman’s Ride,” when we chatted about bike routes from Carlsbad in north San Diego County to San Diego, where the affable tall cyclist lives. You can read about that May 2015 bike ride here.

 

 

I knew Walton was in Las Vegas this week for the hoops tourney being held by his beloved Pac-12 Conference of Champions. I saw him on Day 1 of the Pac-12-tourney on Wednesday and asked him if he had brought his bicycle. Because if he did, I was going to offer to take him on a bike ride through Red Rock Canyon this week. But Walton said he didn’t have his bicycle with the gigantic oversized frame.

 

So Saturday when I saw that Pac-12 tourney PR staff placed my work seat nearly behind Walton for the Oregon-Washington championship game, I took my book out of my backpack two hours before the game and waited at my seat for Walton to show up because I planned to give him a signed copy of  Long Road Back to Las Vegas.  I finished my book in November because I needed to share my story of getting run over by a distracted motorist while I bicycled in Florida two years ago and returning to Las Vegas to launch LVSportsBiz.com in June 2017. The book outlined my journey from a hospital ICU room in Fort Pierce, Fla. to creating a news site in Las Vegas that covers this market’s exploding sports industry from a business vantage point.

 

I gave Walton the book and told him I hoped he would like it. He was thankful and so gracious in receiving the book. He placed it on his table in front of his two water bottles and the ESPN computer screen.

 

Here’s the part of Walton you may not know. While he mixes in his basketball wisdom and esoteric anecdotes on life outside the basketball court during his game broadcasts and can come off as a fun-loving goofball on TV, Walton takes his preparation for his ESPN game assignments stunningly serious. I saw it firsthand, just a few feet in front of me. Walton quietly talked with Pasch and other ESPN staffers before the Pac-12 tourney final, scrawled notes on several pieces on paper and even politely asked a radio crew next to his table to lower their voices so he could focus better on his game prep. There was no irritation in his voice. Just a man taking his job seriously in a manner that contrasted with his on-air persona that showcases his sometimes goofball comments and funny observations that ESPN viewers have come to enjoy during basketball game broadcasts.

 

After I gave Walton his signed book, I kept a second one next to my laptop because I always like to have a book ready for someone who either loves bicycling or could appreciate overcoming a trauma and near-death experience to move forward in their lives.

 

And an ESPN worker with a headset who worked with Walton looked at the book and we began chatting about bicycling. His name was Jon Beil, an ESPN tech who also worked on the broadcast of the Tour of California bike race put on by Anschutz Entertainment Group every May. (Los Angeles-based AEG is a partner in T-Mobile Arena with MGM Resorts International and Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley.)

 

I gave the book to Beil to leaf through, and he quickly read a few paragraphs before the Oregon-Washington tip-off. We then chatted about the death of famed Tour de France commentator and cycling broadcaster Paul Sherwen, who was only 62 years old when he passed away in early December, a mere three and a half months ago. Beil and I also talked about the upcoming Amgen Tour of California, which is set for May 12-18., only two months away. After the game, I gave a signed book to Beil, too.

 

 

Before the game, Walton ignored fans screaming his name for photos and selfies from the first few rows at T-Mobile Arena. He had an ESPN staffer explain to the adoring fans that Walton prefers photos after the game, not before it. Walton was still in prep mode before the game began.

 

And indeed, after the game ended, Walton was accommodating and generous with his time after Oregon cruised by Washington in the second half to claim a ticket for college basketball’s national tournament, better known as March Madness. On St. Patrick’s Day eve, green confetti to celebrate Oregon’s Pac-12 tourney title was shot into the air inside T-Mobile Arena.

 

 

And jubilant Ducks fans cruised by Walton’s ESPN broadcast table at center court to bump fists. Others took selfies with the basketball legend. And even several players stopped by, too, like Oregon’s six-foot, four-inch guard Ehab Amin from Alexandria, Egypt.

 

I watched the body language of the admirers who came over to Walton and there was a genuine happy connection between every person and Walton. Fans of all ages stopped by. True, there was an element of adulation, But more than that, Walton’s fans had this “what a cool dude” look on their faces after they took photos with the tall man.

 

Then it was my turn. I told Beil it would be great to get a photo of both of us with Walton. And after the fans took their photos with the Big Man, I was flanked by the cool dude nearly seven feet tall on one side and a friendly ESPN cameraman on the other.

 

I’m going to keep this photo around for a while and call Michael Roth, AEG’s communications chief, Monday about covering the Tour of California in May.

 

And before we left, Walton told me he has plans to be on his bicycle for that race event. It makes perfect sense. The basketball legend, after all, is a bicycle man, too.

 

I wrote on the first page of the book I presented to Walton, “Keep on pedaling, Bill.”

 

 

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