Hall-of-Fame NBA Player and 2x NBA Champion Bill Walton Passes Away at 71

On Monday, May 27, 2024 the NBA issued a press release announcing the passing of two-time NBA Champion, Hall-of-Famer, NBA 50 Greatest Players-member, and NBA 75th Anniversary Team-member Bill Walton.

Bill Walton's storied basketball career began with NCAA men's basketball dominance at UCLA . Walton was the number one draft pick in the 1974 NBA draft, selected by the Portland Trailblazers.

Walton's NBA career was highlighted by two NBA championship seasons that both included playoff series against the Chicago Bulls. In 1977, Walton and his eventual NBA Champion Portland Trailblazers team faced the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Western Conference first round, best-of-three series . The Trailblazers defeated the Bulls 2-1 in the 1977 NBA Western Conference first round series.

Walton in the resurgent twilight of his career would face the Bulls in another playoff series in 1986 as a member of the Boston Celtics . Earning individual accolade as the 1986 NBA Sixth-Man of the Year, Walton provided key bench minutes in the Celtics' NBA Eastern Conference first-round matchup against a young Chicago Bulls team led by second-year emerging superstar Michael Jordan.

The 1986-87 NBA season proved to be Bill Walton's final season of active NBA playing time. Walton spent the 1987-88 NBA season on the Celtics injury list and formally retired from the NBA in 1990.

Starting in 1990, Walton transitioned to television broadcasting as a basketball color commentator, initially for CBS, and notably for Bulls fans on NBC from 1990 to 2002. Bill Walton was a prominent broadcast voice during the Chicago Bulls second three-peat era of NBA Championship victories from 1996 to 1998, both in-studio and in live-game broadcasts.

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