On Wednesday night, ESPN held their annual “crossover” games, during which they mixed and matched NCAA and NBA broadcasters to add some variety to the on-air proceedings. The first game paired up the legendary Dick Vitale with Mark Jackson to call the Celtics-Clippers game at TD Garden.
The second game featured the always entertaining – and often baffling – Bill Walton, who returned to his old stomping ground in Portland to be part of the telecast for his former team’s marquee matchup against the visiting Golden State Warriors. The result was just as we’ve come to expect from Walton, whose stream-of-consciousness utterances sometimes border on incoherence and/or experimental soliloquies.
It would be nearly impossible to try to parse out all of the territories Walton managed to cover – just in the first half, mind you – so we’ve rounded up a bunch of tweets comprising his various comments and observations for your enjoyment.
Doris Burke: “any thoughts about this game”
Bill Walton: pic.twitter.com/3fhYGfcYfn— DOFLANEGRO (@LeBandz_James) February 15, 2018
“Jusuf Nurkic, that’s a big dude out there! This is the best I’ve ever seen him play.” — Bill Walton
“This is the first time you’ve seen him play.”
“Both of those statements are correct.” — Bill Walton— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) February 15, 2018
Bill Walton said he saw five volcanoes today.
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) February 15, 2018
(We feel compelled to point out there that this is maybe technically an accurate statement, given that Walton is in the Pacific Northwest, although depending on which ones he’s referring to, most of them are long-dormant and/or currently inactive).
https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/963990057840467968
https://twitter.com/Jesse__Foster/status/964003858904158208
“I’ve never lost more faith in humanity than that moment.” — Bill Walton talking about losing the ESPN Celebrity Game as a coach.
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) February 15, 2018
https://twitter.com/freedarko/status/963990753847345153
https://twitter.com/freedarko/status/963992898529247232
“He’s Steve Jobs.” — Bill Walton about Kevin Durant after a spin move
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) February 15, 2018
https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/963996789157322754
if you’re watching warriors-blazers and under 30, understand that we used to get bill walton for the nba game of the week. i appreciate it more now than then.
— bomani (@bomani_jones) February 15, 2018
It is, indeed, difficult to remember what it was like to have Walton on an NBA broadcast on a regular basis, and god bless ESPN for bringing us this rare treat.