INDIANAPOLIS — Basketball-reference.com tells us that exactly 515 men have played at least one game for the Boston Celtics. For many, and perhaps most, among that fortunate 515, wearing the green and white was a high point of their lives, a treasured time and opportunity.
Some may have cherished being a Celtic as much as Bill Walton did. No one could have cherished it more. The stunning news Monday that Walton had died of cancer at age 71 brought a visceral, aching reaction from basketball lovers across generations.
Older fans might best remember Walton, perhaps the greatest college player of all time, from his days as the fulcrum of the later phase of the UCLA dynasty. Or maybe the main memory is of Walton as a young, long-haired NBA champion with the selfless 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, before foot injuries stole him away from the court for far too much time. Younger fans? They knew him as the perpetually smiling, trippy, tie-dye broadcaster, most recently on ESPN’s Pac-12 broadcasts.
Advertisement In New England, we best remember him for one delightful flashback of a season, when he thrived for the best single-season basketball team there has ever been. After a series of lost seasons with the San Diego Clippers, Walton came to the Celtics before the 1985-86 season for Cedric Maxwell after pleading with Red Auerbach to trade for him. As the story goes, Larry Bird was in Auerbach’s office when Walton called.
Red asked Larry’s opinion. “You go get that guy,” Bird.
