Bill Walton

William Theodore Walton III (November 5, 1952 – May 27, 2024) was an American retired basketball player and television sportscaster.

Walton in 2008

Quotes

• I’ve had 37 orthopedic operations. I ground my feet up into dust. I’ve got a new knee. I‘ve got a new spine. I’m the lucky one... I never thought going through all of it that I would be healthy at the end. And I almost wasn’t.
  • "The Thing Bill Walton Still Can't Forgive Himself For", interview with GQ (March 26, 2016).

Quotes about Walton

• As usual, the vegetarian tiger played as if he had dined on red meat all week: as if he had slept sweetly and spent all his waking hours on the practice court: as if his knees were made of steel cables; as if his only icons were the ball and the hoop.
  • "Sport: Walton: Basketball's Vegetarian Tiger", TIME (February 25, 1974).

• The nights those guys aren't going good and Bill Walton's needed to do something else, he'll do that. He's the most unselfish star player I ever saw [sic].
  • Houston head coach Del Harris, "Rebounding Walton guides Clippers to 105-97 victory", USA Today (January 12, 1983), page 7C.

• When future basketball Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton was winning NBA championships for the Portland Trail Blazers and others, he was the best-known vegetarian in sports. A 1974 Time magazine article dubbed him “Basketball’s Vegetarian Tiger.” But folks wondered how he had such stamina without eating meat. He answered critics saying the vegetarian diet made him stronger. A recent study 40-some years later bolsters his claim.
  • Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, "The docs: The magic of green leafy veggies", Idaho Statesman (March 11, 2016).