Late NBA great Bill Walton touched many lives in and around the basketball circle, including Richard Jefferson . Jefferson played with Bill’s son, Luke, at the University of Arizona, but the 2016 NBA champion grew very close with the elder Walton during his broadcasting career.
Guesting on Mark Jackson’s podcast at the Come and Talk 2 Me network, the 17-year NBA veteran paid tribute to the former Trail Blazers and Celtics center and detailed the closeness of their relationship.
“It’s still tough talking about. I was fortunate to find out, kind of, accidentally, not accidentally, a couple of months early because it was very private. He didn’t want anybody to know because that’s just Bill,” Jefferson opened up.
RJ and Bill were scheduled to do an Arizona-UCLA game in March, a dream come true for the former Wildcat. However, Jefferson received word that Walton couldn’t make it, so he started to ask around. When RJ found out what his mentor was going through, he admitted it was a tough pill to swallow.
“What made it really, really difficult was that as soon as the playoffs started, he’s sending me messages before every game, like only Bill can,” said the retired forward. “It would be like, ‘Richard, we love you. Keep doing an outstanding job,’ and this is before every single game that I was calling. ‘Cause he would sit on his hospital bed, sitting in hospice care, and they would just be watching basketball with his boys, who are my brothers.”
“He’s like, ‘We need to send Richard a message.’ And it would be like this long Bill Walton message. So right before I’m about to go on air, doing a job that’s one of the most important men that I’ve ever met in my life used to do. He’s sitting here encouraging me on his deathbed. It was a difficult, but surreal time,” Jefferson added.
Mentor-mentee relationship
As the one-time champion alluded to, he was already a fan of The Big Red before he learned he would play with Luke in Arizona. RJ arrived on campus a year before Walton and became best buddies. However, he got more than he bargained for in a positive way. As his son's best friend, Bill let Richard know he could go to him as a mentor, which the latter appreciated so much.
“To have my best friend’s dad be like, ‘Okay, I know what happens in college, I know what happens in the NBA, I know what happens in the broadcasting space. When you retire, I’ll give you the guidebook,” Jefferson recalls. “At 17, to have your best friend’s dad being a legend in so many fields, I didn’t even know how blessed I was.”
“No stopping this man”
The late 6-foot-11 center was indeed an unstoppable force in college and during his short NBA prime. The UCLA Bruins only lost four out of 90 games during his tenure, as Big Red averaged 20.3 points, 15.7 rebounds, and 5.5 assists while shooting 65% from the floor. In his lone NBA MVP season in 1978, he was good for 18.9 points, 13.2 rebounds, five assists, and 2.5 blocks a night.
Persistent foot ailments slowed him down the rest of his hoops career, but every time Bill was on the air, no man nor injury could put the brakes on him. RJ brought this “fact” to fans’ attention when he posted a reel on his Instagram account , showing Walton talking for eight minutes straight in what was supposed to be a single-question interview.
“I just want to ask you one question, Bill. I haven’t gotten to my question, but that was a heck of an intro” Jefferson awkwardly interjected.
“You asked me how I was doing, and I’m telling you,” Walton replied with a big smile on his face.
There was the guy everyone loved. Bill may not be with his friends and family physically, but his ability to light up a room remains timeless.
Related: Danny Ainge shares a story of Bill Walton being obsessed with chess but being at it: "We thought he was a chess genius"
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