YouTube Gold: Bill Walton’s Greatest Game At UCLA
And still the greatest game in Final Four history
(Original Caption) St. Louis: Bill Walton, UCLA, shooting a foul shot during NCAA Finals against Memphis State. The late Bill Walton occupies a unique place in basketball history.
He ranks with the greatest centers – Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Hakeem Olajuwon, among others – but injuries greatly limited his career. But when he was healthy, he was indisputably great. Boston Celtics teammate Robert Parish was speaking to former Celtic Cedric Maxwell recently and said as much.
He talked about how much Walton pushed him in practice, how he made him a better player. Keep in mind that this was quite late in his career. Walton won the title as a Portland Trail Blazer in 1977, but played in just 65 games.
He only topped 60 games three times in his NBA career, but made 80 in 1986 with Boston, where he helped the Celtics win the championship for his second ring. In college, Walton was a massive success. He was probably the most fundamentally sound big man who ever played the game, and his best game came in the 1972 championship game against Memphis State.