Remembering Bill Walton: NBA Hall of Famer and Broadcaster

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Transcript

00:00 Bill Walton passing away. I know you have not gotten to speak about that yet. 71 years

00:07 old from Kansas. You brought up briefly with Gabe when you were talking about the dead

00:11 concerts but Bill Walton, Scotty, of course, tremendous player, Hall of Fame player, and

00:18 a very entertaining broadcaster, that's for sure. Doing the NBA in the Pac-12 games the

00:23 last couple decades.

00:24 Listen, I knew him and he did my show over the years when I lived in Los Angeles many

00:31 times. He was a trip, no pun intended. He was a funny guy and I don't know if I've ever

00:39 met anyone nicer in my life or with more zeal for life than that guy. He really, you know

00:46 they did that thing, I'm the luckiest guy in the world, that's really epitomized who

00:50 he was. He really was that guy. Like, you know, Carver High and I get out of bed and

00:57 we're not exactly the friendliest people on the face of the earth as we head toward the

01:03 Iron Horse or the city or stress. Kids, little kids, weather, taxes, bills, you know, all

01:13 these things make us angry. My man, Red, never got angry. I mean, this guy was always happy

01:21 and always smiling, always loving life, always having fun, always going to dead shows. I

01:26 thought his broadcasting talent was phenomenal. You know, I always believed in, when I did

01:34 play-by-play and entertaining people, no one ever said I sucked at calling a hockey game

01:39 because I was entertaining doing the games. I don't know everything and I'm not some know-it-all

01:46 genius better Mr. I-hit-everything. I know a lot of people around here hit every single

01:52 bet they make. I mean, they're just, I've never seen anything like it, the 100% accuracy

01:57 that we have around here, but I'm not that guy. I was like him in the sense of being

02:02 entertaining. And I thought he was the most entertaining broadcaster in the business of

02:08 doing basketball, bar none. I know they give all the credit to Mike Breen and Mike's excellent.

02:14 And he's won so many Emmys, I can't count him. He's excellent and he's awesome. And

02:18 I love Mike, but Bill Walton was way more entertaining than Mike Breen. When you watched

02:23 a game with Bill Walton, you laughed and you were like, what did he just say? Did that

02:28 just happen? What is he going to say next? He was half crazy doing games. And the one

02:33 thing I'll always remember about him when I was around him was he would always tell

02:38 me, "Pharrell, it's the Conference of Champions." He loved the PAC-12 like no other. I mean,

02:47 this guy thought that all other conferences in America paled in comparison to the PAC-12

02:53 and he would always say the Conference of Champions. And the way the guy loved the Grateful

03:00 Dead and music and partying and people. And he lived in an effing teepee in his yard.

03:07 I mean, this guy was a freak. So I loved him. I used to love having him on my show. He was

03:13 very entertaining, very funny and full of life. And they just don't make him like that

03:18 anymore. They make jerks like me.

03:20 Yeah, he'd always keep those entertaining late night PAC-12 games, right? It could be

03:26 a 20-point blowout between Arizona and Arizona State. Bill would have you laughing with eight

03:32 and a half to go in a 20-point game, giving you some kind of story from back in the day.

03:37 Who would you rather listen to? And I'm being honest. J.J. Ruddock, Doris Byrne, Stan Van

03:44 Gundy, Reggie Miller. I could go on and on and on. I think Kevin Harlan's great at doing

03:49 games. Bill Walton's better.

03:51 [MUSIC]

03:53 (upbeat music)