05-29-2024, 01:18 PM
So many great remembrances. Thanks everyone. I hope Paradise is what Bill thought it would be. I very much remember him in the NBA, but not so much his UCLA days other than I know he thought David Thompson (my hoops idol when I started playing just enough to know I sucked) was the greatest ever, so that meant Walton was A.O.K. in my book. As I become older I realized that Walton got it. Maybe it was schtick, but everything and everyone wherever he was at a given time was the greatest ever. What a great way to go through life. I'm glad he did not succumb to his darkest thoughts during those times of extreme physical pain. We would have lost so much.
Thinking he might have been at that same Dead show at Frost in.....must have been '86 (before I knew the future Mrs. Jacketree because she for sure wasn't there), I dropped needle on Blues for Allah in his honor on Monday rather than watch a hoops game in which I only had very peripheral interest.
To me the greatest legacy of Bill Walton is that he affected people he never knew he affected, even if in very small ways. While my son was away at USNA and especially during his three deployments with USMC, far flung text commentary on Stanford sports was the way I knew he was OK even if he couldn't talk. I distinctly recall one winter evening when he was off in the Far East somewhere, receiving a text from him with two words and punctuation. "Detlef Schrempf!" That meant that somehow using whatever means necessary, he was watching the same Stanford game I was, with Pasch and Walton. My son and I used to work on our Walton impersonations and I think somehow Frank Caliendo's impersonation made it into our public domain. Thus, Detlef Schrempf, who must have been at some point the greatest player on Earth according to Bill Walton.
Thinking he might have been at that same Dead show at Frost in.....must have been '86 (before I knew the future Mrs. Jacketree because she for sure wasn't there), I dropped needle on Blues for Allah in his honor on Monday rather than watch a hoops game in which I only had very peripheral interest.
To me the greatest legacy of Bill Walton is that he affected people he never knew he affected, even if in very small ways. While my son was away at USNA and especially during his three deployments with USMC, far flung text commentary on Stanford sports was the way I knew he was OK even if he couldn't talk. I distinctly recall one winter evening when he was off in the Far East somewhere, receiving a text from him with two words and punctuation. "Detlef Schrempf!" That meant that somehow using whatever means necessary, he was watching the same Stanford game I was, with Pasch and Walton. My son and I used to work on our Walton impersonations and I think somehow Frank Caliendo's impersonation made it into our public domain. Thus, Detlef Schrempf, who must have been at some point the greatest player on Earth according to Bill Walton.