SAN DIEGO — NBA basketball champion and Southern California sports legend Bill Walton died today, according to NBA officials. The longtime San Diego resident was 71 years old.
Walton, who died after a long battle with cancer, was a Southern California sports hero who played college basketball for coach John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins. From 1972 to 1974, he won three consecutive national College Player of the Year awards while helping lead UCLA to the NCAA championships in 1972 and 1973.
Selected as the first overall pick in the 1974 NBA draft, Walton then led the Portland Trail Blazers to an NBA championship in 1977, earning the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award. He won another NBA title in 1986 as a member of the Boston Celtics. Walton was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993. “Bill Walton was truly one of a kind.
As a Hall of Fame player, he redefined the center position.
His unique all-around skills made him a dominant force at UCLA and led to an NBA regular-season and Finals MVP, two NBA championships and a spot on the NBA’s 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated on Monday.
Walton later became an Emmy Award-winning sportscaster. “Bill translated his infectious enthusiasm and love for the game to broadcasting, where he delivered insightful and colorful commentary that entertained generations of basketball fans,” Silver said.
Walton was born on Nov. 5, 1952, in La Mesa, where he grew up and played basketball at Helix High School.
The NBA reports that the San Diego resident is survived by his wife Lori and sons Adam, Nate, Luke and Chris. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Walton “never strayed far from the city, owning a now-iconic home near Balboa Park and traversing San Diego’s communities on his bike.”
Just last month, he attended the Neil Young and Crazy Horse concert at San Diego State University, along with sporting events, the U-T reported.
Walton considered himself a lifelong San Diegan and had lived in the same home for over 40 years, NBC San Diego reported.
“I love San Diego; this is the greatest place on Earth,” Walton told the California Now blog in 2020.
“It’s a welcoming city with dizzying possibilities and anything and everything that you could want.”
In recent years, Walton has publicly criticized the city of San Diego for its response to the growing number of homeless people in the region.
In a September 2022 news conference, Walton issued a scathing rebuke of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s policies regarding the problem, calling him a “failed mayor” and asking that he step aside to make way for different leadership.
Walton had long supported the city but said he could no longer do so as the homelessness crisis worsened.
“Paradise Lost: This is the city of San Diego, a once great city,” Walton said during the Sept. 27 conference with members of the nonprofit Lucky Duck Foundation. “Sadly, and with a broken heart, I can no longer claim San Diego is the greatest place on Earth.”
Walton said he had been harassed, chased and attacked while riding his bike in Balboa Park, near a large homeless encampment he dubbed “Gloriaville.”
