We don’t deserve Bill Walton. The NBA legend is a legendary broadcaster in his own right, and his presence on ESPN’s college basketball programming should basically have its own section here on Uproxx Sports.
He’s unafraid to give his honest opinions and loves teaching, even if what he wants to teach isn’t exactly about basketball. That was the case on Thursday night, as Walton and broadcaster Dave Pasch were on hand in Arizona to see the Wildcats host UCONN. The No. 18 team in the country wasn’t holding his attention, though, so Walton decided to explain how the Earth gets seasons thanks to its elliptical orbit around the sun.
In a segment that Kyrie Irving simply isn’t interested in believing, Walton broke out an orange — the sun — and a globe bank that obviously stood for Earth as he explained how Earth rotating on its axis and making a yearly sojourn around a gigantic ball of gas gives us the holiday season we are currently in.
Bill Walton educates Dave Pasch about the earth's axial tilt and rotation around the sun. With props! pic.twitter.com/pyA3GVR77e
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) December 22, 2017
Walton explained that the Earth rotates on an axial tilt — at 23.5 degrees — which is responsible for different exposures to the sun’s rays. He also correctly explains the time it takes for the sun’s rays to reach Earth — about eight minutes — while Pasch essentially pleaded with him to get back to basketball.
Look at how skeptical Dave Pasch is when Walton starts working into his spiel. He is either playing the straight man for laughs here, or he’s clearly not having it. It’s a great Jim from The Office impression.
The segment wasn’t exactly news to anyone who took a few science classes in high school, but it’s certainly educational if you were a one-and-done point guard at Duke. It was also, by all accounts, hilarious in its own right. I’d let Bill Walton teach me basic high school science topics any day.
