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Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton died at the age of 71 on Tuesday after a prolonged battle with cancer. A three-time national champion at UCLA and three-time Naismith award winner as the nation's top collegiate player, he was one of the greatest college athletes in history. His 44 points in the 1973 national championship game remain a record.

The No. 1 overall pick in 1974, Walton's career didn't quite reach the heights of his college career due to injuries, but you're still talking about a guy who won the 1978 MVP and was named to both the 50th and 75th Anniversary teams. Walton won a pair of NBA championships, one with the Blazers in 1977 where he was also named Finals MVP, and one with the in 1986 when he won Sixth Man of the Year.



Despite such a decorated playing career, Walton will probably be most remembered, at least by younger generations, as ...

how shall we say this? ...

the most commentator to ever grace television screens. Dude was a flat out nut of the most soulful and joyfully stoned variety. The actual basketball he was technically there to analyze served as mere background noise for the wandering soliloquies he was always looking to unleash.

And that's what we're here to remember and honor. If you want the basketball stuff, there's plenty of that out there. But we're going to smile with this post as we watch Bill Walton is his most memorable element: eating cupcakes with burning candles, taking his shirt off and lathering himself with dirt on live televisi.

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