The Portland Trail Blazers are set to celebrate the life of the best player on their only championship team in history, the late former MVP center Bill Walton, next season.
By Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden ReportPortland announced that the team’s March 9 game against the new Detroit Pistons will be the night the Blazers will celebrate the 6-foot-11 big man, who died at the far-too-young age of 71 last spring after a battle with cancer.
Trail Blazers News: Former Portland Finals MVP Bill Walton Dies at 71
Luke Walton, Bill Walton’s only son to play in the NBA, is currently an assistant coach under new Pittsburgh head coach JB Bickerstaff.
After winning two championships and three National Player of the Year and All-American honors under legendary head coach John Wooden at UCLA, the San Diego native was drafted first overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974. He quickly became one of the greatest passers in NBA history, quickly becoming a two-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA Teamer and two-time All-Defensive First Teamer during his first four seasons in Portland.
He led the Trail Blazers to their only title in 1977, while also winning the Finals MVP award. During that year’s playoffs, he averaged 18.2 points on 50.7% shooting and 68.4% free throws, 15.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 3.4 blocks and 1.1 steals per game in 19 contests. In the Finals, the Blazers defeated Julius Irving’s Philadelphia 76ers in a six-game series.
Walton did even better in 1977-78. He helped Portland win 50 of its first 60 games, and despite suffering a season-ending foot injury after playing just 58 games, he was still voted league MVP. Walton tried to return to the team (which finished the season with a lackluster 8-14 record), but re-injured the same foot just two games into Portland’s second-round series against the Seattle SuperSonics. An X-ray showed that Walton had broken the navicular bone under his left ankle. He demanded a trade that summer, frustrated that the team had—in his view—mishandled his injuries. Portland obliged, trading him to his hometown team, the San Diego Clippers.
Walton missed the 1978-79, 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons with the club due to various destabilizing illnesses. After the 1984-85 season, he contacted the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, looking to join a winning club. Walton completely reinvented himself as a vital two-way sixth man (and Sixth Man of the Year) for the defending champion Boston Celtics in 1985-86.
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