Editor’s observe: This launch was first printed by UCLA Athletics on uclabruins.com.
Former UCLA males’s basketball two-time NCAA Champion Invoice Walton has handed away on the age of 71 following a protracted battle with most cancers, as introduced by the NBA on Monday morning. He was surrounded by his household.
Walton, among the many most adorned school basketball gamers of all time, led UCLA to back-to-back NCAA titles as a sophomore and junior (1972, 1973), culminating in a string of seven consecutive NCAA championships gained by the Bruins from 1967 by way of 1973. He was a constitution member of the UCLA Athletics Corridor of Fame in 1984 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 1993, after taking part in within the NBA from 1974-87.
Walton, who grew up in San Diego and attended Helix Excessive Faculty, performed for legendary UCLA head coach John Picket because the Bruins’ beginning heart for 3 seasons (1972-74). Taking part in at UCLA earlier than freshmen student-athletes may compete on the varsity squad, Walton starred on UCLA’s freshman workforce in 1970-71. Walton performed on UCLA’s solely varsity groups to report back-to-back excellent 30-0 seasons in 1972 and 1973, serving to the Bruins compile an 86-4 total report in three years. His UCLA groups gained their first 73 video games, because the Bruins had prolonged their successful streak to 88 consecutive video games (the NCAA males’s basketball report). Throughout his three varsity seasons, the Bruins went 49-0 in Pauley Pavilion, as a part of a 98-game dwelling successful streak that spanned the 1970-71 by way of 1975-76 basketball seasons.
“On behalf of everybody with the UCLA males’s basketball program, we’re deeply saddened to be taught of Invoice Walton’s passing,” mentioned Mick Cronin, The Michael Value Household UCLA Males’s Head Basketball Coach. “My deepest condolences exit to his household and family members. It’s extremely arduous to place into phrases what he has meant to UCLA’s program, in addition to his super affect on school basketball. Past his exceptional accomplishments as a participant, it is his relentless vitality, enthusiasm for the sport and unwavering candor which have been the hallmarks of his bigger than life persona. As a passionate UCLA alumnus and broadcaster, he liked being round our gamers, listening to their tales, and sharing his knowledge and recommendation. For me as a coach, he was sincere, variety, and all the time had his coronary heart in the proper place. I’ll miss him very a lot. It is arduous to think about a season in Pauley Pavilion with out him. Our athletics division, our workforce and this college will miss him dearly.”.”
Chosen because the No. 1 total choose within the 1974 NBA Draft by the Portland Path Blazers, Walton concluded his collegiate profession in Westwood having damaged a number of college information. A 3-time All-Pac-8 choice (1972-74), Walton was honored as a consensus first-team All-America choice in all three varsity seasons. To this present day, he ranks among the many high 10 leaders in program historical past in a number of statistical classes. He stands No. 1 on UCLA’s profession rebounding checklist (1,370) and ranks No. 13 in profession factors scored (1,767). Walton additionally earned Educational All-America acclaim all three years on the varsity workforce (1972-74).
“We’re surprised and saddened in regards to the information of Invoice Walton’s passing,” mentioned Martin Jarmond, UCLA’s Alice and Nahum Lainer Household Director of Athletics. “Invoice represented so lots of the beliefs that our college holds pricey and embodied a number of traits on Coach Picket’s Pyramid of Success. He liked being again on campus at UCLA, calling video games in Pauley Pavilion, and being round our groups. We provide our deepest sympathy to his household, and we take solace in understanding that Invoice made every day his masterpiece.”
Walton and former UCLA nice Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (recognized in school as Lew Alcindor) turned the primary two UCLA males’s basketball gamers to have their jersey numbers retired. Walton, who wore quantity 32 throughout his UCLA profession, was honored together with Abdul-Jabbar and former UCLA girls’s basketball standouts Ann Meyers-Drysdale and Denise Curry at halftime of the UCLA males’s basketball sport in opposition to DePaul on Feb. 3, 1990. The halftime ceremony was a key second throughout the college’s “Pauley at 25” celebration throughout the 1989-90 season and marked the primary time by which any UCLA basketball gamers had their jersey numbers retired. Since then, UCLA has retired the jersey numbers of 10 former males’s basketball gamers
Walton performed 10 seasons within the NBA with the Portland Path Blazers, the San Diego Clippers (and Los Angeles Clippers) and the Boston Celtics. He helped lead Portland to the 1977 NBA title, ending second within the league’s MVP voting that yr. He was honored because the NBA’s Most Helpful Participant in 1978, his fourth yr within the league with Portland. In an NBA profession by which he battled a number of accidents, Walton returned as a key participant with the Boston Celtics within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. He helped Boston win the 1986 NBA Finals in a six-game collection victory over the Houston Rockets.
Within the years following his NBA profession, Walton turned to sports activities broadcasting and was concerned with a number of charitable and philanthropic organizations, clinics, and camps. He served as each a studio analyst and shade commentator. Extra just lately, he labored courtside as a shade commentator for ESPN and Pac-12 Community school basketball broadcasts. He routinely served on broadcast crews in Pauley Pavilion, along with a number of different Pac-12 basketball venues.
Walton began his sports activities broadcasting profession in 1990 as an analyst for the Prime Ticket Community. As well as, he labored for CBS Sports activities within the early Nineteen Nineties and later for NBC, together with protection of the Olympic Video games in 1996 (Atlanta) and 2000 (Sydney). He joined ESPN and ABC as an NBA analyst in 2002.
Walton is survived by his spouse of 33 years, Lori; his 4 sons, Adam, Nathan, Luke and Chris; and his three grandchildren, Olivia, Avery Rose and Chase.
