NBA gives Bill Walton his own Manningcast-style show on the league app

Bill Walton, the basketball renaissance man known to everyone from Jerry West to Jerry Garcia, is getting his own NBA platform.

The league is taking a page from the NFL by giving the ‘Redhead Deadhead’ his own NBA simulcast, where the famous Walton can speak at length about anything he can think of. Like ESPN’s Manningcast, where brothers Peyton and Eli Manning reflect on the NFL during Monday Night Football, “Throw it Down with Bill Walton” is an alternative broadcast, only instead of appearing on cable, fans can watch it on the NBA League Pass subscription service. .

“This incredible dream is the thrill and the honor and the privilege of a lifetime,” said Walton, a UCLA legend who won NBA titles with the Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics, not to mention the 1978 MVP award. .

Bill Walton, 70, has his own NBA simulcast show on the league app

“Wow, and on the global, intergalactic NBA platform too!” Walton’s statement continued. ‘I’m the luckiest guy in the world. Please help me throw it away as this volcanic eruption celebrates the best in life, nature, sports, the NBA and everything in between.

“We promise to break through the real, imagined, and self-imposed boundaries of the known universe and beyond.”

And like the Manningcast, Walton’s show will also take place on Monday beginning with the San Antonio Spurs taking on their Trail Blazers. He too

Fox Sports’ Jason Benetti will try to rein in Walton as co-host of the show, but that will be a struggle.

Walton will continue to call college games for ESPN and the Pac-12 Network, where some viewers have complained that his commentary strays too far from history or philosophy and away from basketball.

Former Boston Celtics player Bill Walton cheers with fans in the third quarter during Game 3 of the 2022 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

From left, Boston Celtics’ Bill Walton, Larry Bird and Robert Parish laugh on the sidelines in the final minutes of the game. The Boston Celtics host the New York Knicks in an NBA regular season basketball game at the Boston Garden on March 15, 1987.

Bill Walton poses with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart before the Sacramento Kings take on the Dallas Mavericks on February 9, 2011 at ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

UCLA’s Bill Walton (32) during the dying moments of the NCAA Photos via Getty Imagess via Getty Images Basketball National Championship Semifinal game at Greensboro, NC, Greensboro Coliseum. North Carolina State defeated UCLA 80-77 in two overtimes

When asked to give a description of his new program, Walton told the New York Post.

“We have the intergalactic platform of the NBA,” Walton said. ‘We have the best basketball players in the world. We have the business. We have the entertainment. We have the world of sports.

‘We have the celebration of life and health and all things good here. We have fantastic guests. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. We are ready for takeoff and volcanic eruption on Monday night, January 23. Seven o’clock Pacific time, be there. Lose this at your own risk. You have been duly warned. I’m excited.

‘Throw It Down’ will be like life. It will be like an amazing book. It will be a phenomenal concert. It will be an extraordinary basketball game. He will represent all that is good in life, in sports, the business of the NBA, in the world. But one of the things that I love so much of all the things that I just mentioned to you, you have no idea. Do you have a dream. You have a vision. But you have no idea how it’s going to play out. It’s going to be live.

As a basketball player, he was a two-time national champion and MVP of the Final Four at UCLA, and after being drafted with the first pick in the 1974 NBA Draft, he won the title with the Trail Blazers (1977) and the Boston Celtics. . (1986). He was also the 1977 NBA Finals MVP, the 1986 Sixth Man of the Year and a two-time All-Star, but his career was plagued with foot, ankle and knee injuries.

Former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson (right) takes a photo of the scene leaning his head over NBA great Bill Walton (second from right) as he watches a photographer shooting Walton with Mickey Hart (far left) of the Grateful Dead as he speaks. with former NBA player and current media personality Jalen Rose (second from left) about two hours before kickoff. The Boston Celtics visited the Golden State Warriors for Game One of the NBA Finals at the Chase Center in San Francisco, CA on June 2. Jefferson is a family friend of Walton’s and played with the 70-year-old son, Luke, at the University of Arizona.

To the uninitiated, Walton is a larger-than-life figure in both basketball and Grateful Dead circles.

As a basketball player, he was a two-time national champion and MVP of the Final Four at UCLA, and after being drafted with the first pick in the 1974 NBA Draft, he won the title with the Trail Blazers (1977) and the Boston Celtics. . (1986). He was also the 1977 NBA Finals MVP, the 1986 Sixth Man of the Year and a two-time All-Star, but his career was plagued with foot, ankle and knee injuries.

His son Luke played in Arizona before being drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers and has coached in both Los Angeles and Sacramento.

In addition to his own career as a broadcaster, Walton spent much of his retirement attending Grateful Dead shows and interacting with members of the band’s community. He was even seen attending NBA Finals games with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart and guitarist Bob Weir.

He also spent much of his youth as an activist, marching in protests while playing for John Wooden at UCLA, and later befriended members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The group was later involved in a shootout with the Los Angeles police, but Walton has not been charged with any crimes involving the SLA, including the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst.

Bill Walton wrestles with Boston Celtics legend Dave Cowens for a rebound during a 1970 game