Rage against the Kareem
GLORY DAYS
In 1977 Sports Illustrated’s Curry Kirkpatrick witnessed something he thought he’d never see: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar obliterated by another center, as Bill Walton’s Trailblazers swept the Lakers on their way to a rendezvous with Dr. J’s Playground All-Stars, and Destiny. He noticed one play in particular:
In the middle of all of this came the play which approximately 78 billion Oregonians and their grandchildren will swear they witnessed long after Walton's red beard is down to his toes. Maurice Lucas started it by missing a jump shot, which he rebounded and threw out to Walton in the foul circle. Walton paused, roared down the lane and flung himself into the air. Abdul-Jabbar went up to meet him somewhere north of reality, where few mortals dare to tread. Boom! A mountain symphony. Incredibly, all of us survived.
This was not some lightweight Walton was going to town on. Kareem was the best player in basketball, at the peak of his form, winner of the MVP award in four of the last six seasons. NO ONE did this to Kareem. But Walton didn’t fear him….
Let me sing you the song of my people
Walton was as big and strong as Kareem, just as skillful. Fitzpatrick saw it, and imagined the possibilities:
What the shot did was proclaim to the world that Bill Walton has finally arrived on the same plateau as Abdul-Jabbar; that his classically balanced passing and rebounding, his quick shots and outlet bullets, his savage defense and intelligent command of all phases of the game are more than enough to match his adversary's greater offensive powers. The play showed that pro basketball has a brand-new Russell-Chamberlain rivalry to savor.
It was perfect - fire against ice, black against white, city guy vs. mountain man - every Blazers-Lakers game of the next 10 years would be an event, and the mind reeled at all the incredible Western Conference playoff matchups to come.
Except…it didn’t happen. After winning the championship in 1976-77, Walton came out with guns blazing the next year, played in 58 games, won the MVP, got severely injured, and went home. No one realized it yet - Walton least of all - but the good part of the ride was already done, the Peak Walton era was over. His feet were so damaged he played hardly any basketball over the next four years.
Many years later Bill Simmons asked Walton if he’d ever read The Breaks of the Game, David Halberstam’s epic chronicling of the era.
Walton estimates that he started Breaks fifteen times. He never made it past the first few pages.
“It’s too sad,” he said wistfully. “Such a special part of my life. So fantastic.”
“Wait, wouldn’t that make you want to read it?”
“I know how it ended,” Walton said grimly.
THE WILDERNESS
In 1982-83 Walton managed to scrape back into the game, testing his fragile feet with a last-place Clippers squad in his hometown of San Diego. He turned in a somewhat normal 1,100 minutes that year, and the Clippers won 25 games. He moved to more-or-less full-time status over the next two years, and the Clippers improved - very slightly - winning 30 games in 1983-84 and 31 in 1984-85.
Walton wanted out. He knew he needed to be with a better organization.
And so he called the logical best team for him, the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers, just up the road from his house, employers of his onetime nemesis (and fellow UCLA alum) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was getting older and might appreciate a little rest now and then. Hey, Walton asked, do you guys need another center?
I have obtained a transcript of the call, and here is what the Lakers said: Ha Ha (they said) Ha Ha, you are finished, washed up, and no championship contender would consider employing you. We already have an excellent backup center named Mitch Kupchak, and we think it very unlikely that you could bring us the kind of quality minutes that he delivers on a nightly basis. Enjoy oblivion Bill, top-flight basket-ball has no further need of you (they gloated, lighting their cigars with hundred dollar bills as they lounged in their hot tub with Jaclyn Smith and Victoria Principal). Ha Ha (they concluded, and hung up) Ha Ha (they continued) can you believe that guy.
Magic says he’s lost his mobility
Chastened, Walton tried Plan B. This time he called Red Auerbach, President and Vice Chairman of the Boston Celtics. Walton asked if perhaps an organization like the Celtics might have need of a slightly damaged but still-serviceable backup center. Sitting across from Auerbach, Walton learned later, was Larry Bird. Auerbach put his hand over the mouthpiece and whispered to Bird - “Bill Walton?” Bird nodded.
HELLO! MY NAME IS BILL WALTON!
The players welcomed Walton with deference and respect. “We all worshipped Bill Walton,” said Danny Ainge in a 2016 Celtics video. Kevin McHale expressed similar sentiments, noting in particular Walton’s game against Memphis State (44 points, 21-22 from the field). But McHale also admitted that they wondered how much gas Walton had left in the tank.
The Celtics already had a Hall of Fame front line, so they brought Walton in for a few minutes per game to spell Robert Parish, do what damage he could, and return to the bench. As the season progressed it became apparent that these little rests for Parish would not be restful for Celtics opponents. Walton, it turned out, had plenty left in the tank. He ended up playing in 80 games for them, averaging 19 minutes a night. This transformed a very good team into an historic one.
I got my first inkling of what was to come on January 22nd, 1986, when the Lakers played the Celtics at the Garden. It was the teams’ first meeting since the Lakers’ victory in the Finals. It was also the first time Walton had seen the Lakers since they mocked him, spit upon him, and denigrated his ancestry.
Here is a video summary of the game:
A few points of interest:
1:35 Walton blocks Kareem
1:52 Walton blocks Michael Cooper (?)
2:13 Walton blocks Mitch Kupchak
5:35 Walton again blocks Kupchak, who had the insane idea of trying to post him up
5:51 Walton dunks on four Lakers
6:13 Walton blocks A.C. Green, and rips the rebound of out his hands to start a fast break
6:30 Kareem catches ball, looks at Walton, attempts skyhook. Walton blocks it —> ”Timeout Lakers”
7:04 “Good cut by McGee…WALTON WITH ANOTHER BLOCK” —> Standing ovation
Walton’s line for the game: 11 points, eight rebounds, seven blocks…in 16 minutes.
There was nothing subtle about it - suddenly the Celtics were epic: a quality team that could hit the turbo button, wheeling out an MVP-level talent for 15-20 minutes a game. They could run him out against the other team’s backup center, or play him at power forward next to Parish, with both scenarios resulting in hilarious mismatches (A.C. Green, meet Bill Walton).
Walton did a bit of everything on these adventures, but his defense was just insane. Interviewed 30 years later Robert Parish said “when he was feeling good…there was no layups, and no points in the paint. That’s how good Bill Walton was. SCARY.”
DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM TELLING YOU
What Walton did for the Boston Celtics in 1986 is a legend that will never die, in fact, you couldn’t kill it with a stick. “I knew the basketball would be good,” Walton would say later. “I didn’t know how good.”
Beyond the defense there was the passing (memorialized in the “Beautiful Game” video linked below). Consider the Bird-Walton give-and-go:
Bird makes entry pass, Walton secures the ball. Will Bird go right or left?
Bird goes right. Walton obliterates Bird’s man and flips the ball over his shoulder.
Bird catches the ball in stride
Uncontested reverse layup.
Scheme against that. This was not something they did one time. They did it a lot, with all sorts of crazy variations. I cannot think of any pair of players in basketball history (Russell-Pippen…maybe?) that could hope to defend it.
It was an amazing season, full of great memories. Bill Simmons, in his enjoyable but frequently wrong Book of Basketball said the Celtics were basically announcing “our front line is going to notch 75 points and 33 rebounds, protect the rim, shoot 50-plus from the field and hit wide-open shooters and cutters all night; you will be foolish to double-team any of them, and you will not get a break from them for four quarters … good luck.”
Simmons believes Walton has earned a place among the greats:
I value someone who was great for a short period of time over someone who was good for a long period of time. Give me two transcendent years from Bill Walton over fourteen non-transcendent years from Walt Bellamy. I’m not winning a championship with Bellamy; I’m winning one with a healthy Walton. So I’d rather have two great Walton years and twelve years of patchwork nobodies than fourteen straight Bellamy years, if that makes sense.
Many agree, and that is why Walton went right into the Hall of Fame, despite having only a 2% chance based on his career statistics, according to basketballreference.com.
But even if we accept the premise we still need to be a little careful. Walton was great, but most of the time, he wasn’t there. Here are Kareem’s minutes per season vs. Walton’s. Unfair I know, but give The Machine its due - Walton was a comet, Kareem was the sun:
Still…we’ll always have Boston. I was there when it all happened. I couldn’t believe my luck: I got to watch one of the greatest teams in the history of the Association rise up and fly to a single, pristine championship. Walton got hurt the next year and never came back, McHale broke down, the Lakers got their revenge. But that one season was Ingrid Bergman, in a convertible, in Paris.
No kidding baby, you shoulda seen it. Seven blocks in 16 minutes. In an NBA game!
THE PRICE OF STARDOM
I remember a Sunday afternoon, right after they had won the title. I was coming out of a bookstore in Harvard Square. The skies had opened up without warning, and torrents of rain were coming down. The deluge had driven everyone off the street and into the stores, but I needed to get home, so I pulled my hood up and went out into the elements. Then, as suddenly as it started, the rain stopped.
Up the hill toward the Wursthaus I saw a very tall man crossing the empty square, and realized immediately it was Walton. I couldn’t help myself, and shouted at him: “way to go Bill!”
Walton turned toward me briefly, a huge grin on his face, and pumped his fist up in the air.
It was a happy moment for both of us.