He was also extremely based off the court

There’s a hypothetical world where, if Walton stays healthy, Portland win the championship in both 1977 and 1978. Then, rather than needing to use the pick on a big man to cover the absent Walton, Portland can instead use the 1978 pick they got from Buffalo for Moses Malone to draft Larry Bird, who joins the team in 1979…

He lost 6 games in 6 years of high school/college, if not for his injuries he would have been on par with bill russell as a winner

Amazing player.

I love his redemption arc with the 86 Celtics. Man, having a healthy Bill Walton coming off the bench is fucking insane.

I truly believe that he was the only player of the era to have a solid argument for being the best player in the league against Kareem during that short peak (could make a weaker case for Erving but he split his time with the ABA during the decade).

More impactful defender and was the same blueprint of player that dominated that pre-3pt era (Bill Russell DPOY rim protector + big man passing hub). He couldn’t score as well as Kareem but like Russell, Unseld, Wilt (when he became a more willing passer), that archetype could spearhead all time level defense + good enough offense which was the recipe for most champions of the time. Playmaking and defense was the winning formula for most impactful player

Imagine if he had been injury free. Walton, Moses, Dr J, Magic, Bird, Kareem competing all at the same time

Thrown it down big fella!!!!

A lot of people believe that if Walton didn’t have bad feet and could stay healthy, he would’ve been a top 10 player of all time. I’m not sure if I’d go that far, but he was absolutely incredible. At his peak, he was the only guy that had a plausible argument against Kareem for best player in the league.

Bill Walton happy beavers noises

Bill “big red” walton was jokic before jokic with elite shot blocking . Hes an all time great

What could’ve been man. I remember watching him play and his BBIQ seemed like it was head and shoulders above the league at the time. From running the full length of the floor, outlet passes, help defense, finding the cutting man, Walton could absolutely do it all for a big man.

It was so unfortunate that he had lower leg issues that medical science wasn’t able to resolve. I think had he come into the league say 15 years later, he would’ve had a much better chance to stay healthy than back in the early 80’s.

i never knew just how good he was until a couple years ago reading more about him and trying to see highlights

In 1977-78, the Blazers were 50-10 when he went down. At the time he went down, only one other team had even 40 wins. The 50 wins were even more amazing because they played in by far the toughest division, with 4 out of the 5 teams making the playoffs, and the last one (GSW) having 43 wins by the end of the season.

Remember, this was right at the start of the ABA absorption, where all the ABA teams and stars joined the NBA, causing the biggest talent level infusion the league had ever seen.

The Blazers were going to be a dynasty if he stayed healthy.

Most “what-ifs,” like Rose, Grant Hill, and Len Bias, etc., were “could have led a team to a championship.”

Walton was “did it and was rolling the league again before he went down.”

He was like a video game 

points upwards Throw it down, Big Man 🫡

The night the Celtics won the 1986 championship, Bill Walton wasn’t done celebrating and ended up at Larry Bird’s front door.  Larry had already turned in for the night but let him in, saying Bill could stay as long as he liked but that he was going to sleep.

So he stayed up the whole night sitting in Larry’s kitchen, drinking red wine, listening to Grateful Dead bootleg tapes he brought with him, basking in the moment.