Bill Walton dead at 71: Three-time Player of the Year was part of historic run at UCLA under John Wooden

Former UCLA star Bill Walton, who flourished at UCLA in the early 1970s under legendary coach John Wooden, died at age 71 after a prolonged battle with cancer, the NBA announced on Monday. Walton, a three-time Naismith Award winner and two-time national champion, is considered one of the greatest college basketball players of all time.

After a historic college career at UCLA, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Walton as the No. 1 pick in the 1974 NBA Draft. Walton became a two-time NBA champion (1977 and 1986) and won the NBA MVP in 1978. He retired from the NBA after the 1987-88 season ended.

Walton became a fixture on college basketball broadcasts after his playing career ended, serving as a color commentator on CBS, NBC and ABC/ESPN. While Walton was known for witty humor on Pac-12 basketball broadcastshe helped call NBA games for the Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings.

Walton’s individual awards at UCLA

Walton is one of the most talented college basketball players of all time. Walton helped UCLA win national championships in 1972 and 1973. Walton was named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player in both tournaments. In the 1973 title game against Memphis State, Walton scored 44 points on 21-of-22 shooting to give the Bruins their seventh consecutive national title. His 44 points in the title game remains an NCAA record.

“We couldn’t contain Walton,” Memphis State coach Gene Bartow said. told the New York Times after the game. “I’ve never seen a player as dominant as Walton.”

Walton played at UCLA before freshman student-athletes could compete on the varsity team. Walton played on UCLA’s freshman team during the 1970-71 season before becoming a three-year starter for Wooden. Walton averaged 20.3 points and 15.7 rebounds during his varsity career.

Walton would later be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Basketball Hall of Fame. Walton and former UCLA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (formerly known as Lew Alcindor) became the first two UCLA men’s basketball players to have their jersey numbers retired.

UCLA’s historic run with Walton

During Walton’s playing career, he helped lead the program to an 86-4 mark. UCLA had back-to-back 30-0 seasons in 1972 and 1973 and capped an unprecedented seventh consecutive national title. UCLA won back-to-back titles during the 1964 and 1965 seasons before beginning a historic run that included cutting down the nets in every season from 1967 (when the Alcindor era began) to ’97 (when the Walton era ended).

Walton’s UCLA team won its first 73 games and ended the streak by winning 88 consecutive games, which remains the NCAA men’s basketball record. The Bruins went 49-0 inside Pauley Pavilion as part of a 98-game home winning streak that began during the 1970-71 campaign.

UCLA is the only program in men’s college basketball history to win three or more consecutive titles and the only program to accomplish the feat twice. Oklahoma State, Kentucky, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Duke, Florida and, most recently, UConn are the only other teams to repeat as champions.

Broadcasting career with the Pac-12, NBA

Walton became a fan favorite because of his broadcasting style. Walton is best known for calling Pac-12 basketball games, but he also helped cover the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000 and joined ESPN and ABC as an NBA analyst in 2002.

Walton worked side by side with Dave Pasch calling Pac-12 basketball games for ESPN. Pasch spoke about his relationship with Walton during an interview with Arizona Sports 98.7 on Tuesday.

“Looking back, going to Syracuse (for school)… you learn a very professional way of how to broadcast a game,” Easter he said. “It’s traditional. We all sound very similar if you listen to a lot of the Syracuse guys in terms of cadence and how they call the game. But I think I didn’t really let my personality come out. First of all, I didn’t have a choice with Bill. It was good. He made me a better announcer because I had to think quickly, I had to determine when to stop him, when to play along, when to poke him, when to get back to him.

Walton stopped broadcasting Clippers games in 2009 due to back problems before returning to work calling Sacramento Kings games part-time. Walton won an Emmy in 2001.