People always talk about what the late Bill Walton could have done in the NBA if he had stayed healthy. Despite his extensive injury history, Walton’s brilliance is hard to ignore. The only center to have his total grasp of the fundamentals of the game was Arvydas Sabonis and not many had his absolute focus on winning. Perhaps only his idol, Bill Russell, surpassed him there.
When he was at UCLA, Walton dominated college basketball to a ridiculous degree. Keep in mind that he showed up in Westwood in 1971, just one year after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar left in 1969 (Walton was at UCLA in 1970 but there was no freshmen eligibility at that time). That was a very tough act to follow.
Walton did okay: he won two national titles and helped lead UCLA to an absurd 88-game winning streak.
In 1973, UCLA played Memphis State in the NCAA finals. Walton scored 44 points on 21-22 from the floor. What you’ll see here is not just a 6-11 guy with game. You’ll see a young player who is agile, unbelievably well grounded in the fundamentals, and with a burning desire to win. This is still arguably the greatest performance ever in the NCAA finals.
