Hall of Fame basketball legend Bill Walton dies at 71

The world of basketball has lost one of its most colorful characters. Hall of Fame basketball legend Bill Walton has died at 71, the NBA announced Monday, after battling cancer in recent years.

Born on Nov. 5, 1952, in La Mesa, Calif., just east of San Diego, Walton had a renowned college career at UCLA under iconic coach John Wooden. During his career in Westwood, the 6-foot-11 center won two national championships (in 1972-73) and three national college player of the year awards, and was a three-time All-American. His teams only lost four games in his three seasons as a varsity player, going 86–4 overall.

His success continued in the NBA. The No. 1 overall pick in the 1974 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers, he won an NBA championship in 1977 and MVP award (averaging 18.9 points and 13.2 rebounds) in 1978. But he struggled with chronic foot injuries that limited him to 209 games (out of a possible 328) played in four seasons.

After sitting out the entire 1978-79 season to protest how his and his teammates’ injuries had been treated, Walton signed with the San Diego Clippers as a free agent. Yet he only played in 169 games over six seasons, missing two full campaigns due to foot injuries.

In 1985, Walton was traded to the Boston Celtics. He played a career-high 80 games during the 1985-86 season and won another NBA championship as the sixth man for a team with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. Walton only played 10 games the following season and retired after injuries prevented him from playing the 1986-87 campaign.

He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Generations of basketball fans likely know Walton better as an eccentric basketball broadcaster. For the first 20 years of his broadcasting career, he called college and NBA games for CBS, NBC, the Clippers and ESPN/ABC.

But after a three-year absence while recovering from back surgery (alleviating injuries that went back to his playing career), Walton returned as a full-time analyst for ESPN. He also called NBA games on NBC with Greg Gumbel and Steve “Snapper” Jones.

Frequently going on tangents that had little or nothing to do with the action on the court — which sometimes referenced recreational drug use, bizarre trivia, his love of the Grateful Dead and his political beliefs — Walton became an enormously popular color commentator. Play-by-play partners including Dave Pasch and Jason Benetti had to frequently maintain a deadpan sense of humor knowing that Walton could go anywhere with storytelling and analysis.

In 2009, Walton was named as one of the top 50 sports broadcasters of all time by the American Sportscasters Association.