The Dave Pasch Podcast - Bill Walton

of Famer Bill Walton, seventeen shift left. I've worked with Bill at ESPN for over fifteen years. My first time working with Bill was in two thousand and six on the NBA. I was just happy as a young guy to be doing national NBA broadcast. Bill being one of the greatest college basketball players of all time and one of the top fifty NBA players of all time and a legendary broadcaster who had done many NBA finals. I was just happy to be there. So we're doing a

game in Chicago. Lebron James is playing for the Cavaliers. Lebron takes his head band off, throws it towards the stands and Bill starts to yell on the air that that's a technical foul. And he goes off for about two minutes, and I don't stop him. I let him go because I'm afraid. I'm like, should I step in? And it's Bill Walton, I'm doing an NBA game, happy just to be here. I'm just gonna let him go. The next day, I get a call from Mike Tarico.

Mike had been Bill's partner that season, and I had filled in on seven or eight games with Bill, and Mike said a handful of words to me that stuck with me and played a big part in what would happen in two and twelve. He said to me, and this is again in two thousand and six, two thousand and seven. You have to stop him. In other words, that's your job to cut him off and to redirect

him back to the game. So five years later, ESPN gets the PAC twelve contract, which is a great thing because I've been doing Big East, and while I love the Big East, I've been traveling East a lot. Now I have an opportunity to do games close to home. And ESPN was hiring Bill Walton back. He had been off the air for a couple of years, So I'm reunited with Bill, and those words that Tarico told me you have to stop him, they stuck with me. I employed those words on the air, and here we are

ten years later, still working together. And you're probably listening to this and you're either or you're not in between. Either you absolutely hate the broadcast or you absolutely love him. If you hate him, I'm terribly sorry. If you love him, thank you. Keep watching. We're back for year number ten starting December twenty second, with Kansas against Colorado. As for this podcast, I tried, but as you're about to hear,

it's very difficult. I love football. Bill will talk about his love of football when it started, and he'll talk about his brother, the late Bruce Walden, who played at UCLA and then played for the Dallas Cowboys. In fact, Bill and Bruce are the only brother tandem to play in the Super Bowl and an NBA Finals. Very few people know that. Bill, we'll talk about that. You'll also hear a story about Will Chamberlain throwing a football on

a beach and how far he threw it. Plus Bill will get into all the players that he's known over the years, and what he plans to do in Boulder when we reunite for year ten. Here in a couple of weeks. All right, we are presented by betmgm, the official sports betting partner at the Arizona Cardinals and Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Sign up for betmgm today using code cards one thousand and get your first bet risk free up to one thousand dollars. New customer offer paid

in free bets. Visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions twenty one and over Arizona only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step, So here we go. Buckle your seat belts. It's mostly Bill, very little of me on this edition of the Day Patch podcast. So first of all, did you play football at all? Oh? Yeah, man, here we go. I love football. And here I was little Billy with his red hair and his big nose

and his freckles and his speech impediment. Oh my gosh, in San Diego eight years old, nineteen sixty. I followed my older brother Bruce as I did most of my life, and here he was going to football practice and we had this most remarkable coach. His name was Rocky and he was our town's fireman, and he had three children. We all went to the same school. And he saw a need and that was for athletics and sports and

group activities in the afternoon. So he volunteered at our elementary school in East San Diego at fifty sixth Street and Alcohol and Boulevard for fifty nine years of his life and he taught us everything and colding football. Ohaha, Cincinnati shift left thirty two seventeen. Let's go. Okay, we were called on. I got something to stay here. And it was absolutely incredible because Bruce, who was so fantastic

in my life. He played the entire offensive line and everybody else was a wide receiver or a running back because he was so big and so good. And we'd be in the huddle and the quarterback was trying to figure something out, and the quarterback would be looking at the sideline at Rocky, and Bruce would just lean right in the huddle and he would just mumble, follow me, and then we'd just give the ball to anybody and

they would just follow Bruce all the way down. He would just knock the entire team off and then I had this remarkable experience because the next year, well, first of all, I won my first championship in any group sports situation the very next year, and I was in fifth grade, and we won the championship in football, and it was played at USD in the current football stadium there where the football team plays still and the soccer teams play and they have graduation and it's just a

magnificent facility. And we had access to that field in the stadium for the championship, and yes, we won. And then shortly thereafter, in nineteen sixty one, the Los Angeles Chargers of the AFL, owned by Baron Hilton. He decided he didn't want to compete with the Rams anymore, and so he brought his team to San Diego and they chose as their practice facility a public park, Sunset Park, which was a half mile three quarters of a mile

from our family home. And every day I would get on my bike and get on my skateboard and ride through the canyon, up the hill and through the mountains and over the woods and all the stuff to get there. And then I would just cling on the fence and I would just watch all these incredible legends. The quarterbacks were Tobin wrote, John Haydel, and Jack Kimp. The running backs were Paul Lowe and Keith Lincoln. The receivers were Lance Alworth and Gary Garrison. Ron Mix anchored the offensive line.

On defense, they had Ernie lad they had Earl Phase On, they had shut Allen. Sid Gilman was the coach man. And I fell in love on the radio with the San Diego Chargers of the AFL Man and they had a league, Oh my gosh, and the early days with the Raiders and the Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs in the West, and then they had the Jets and the Patriots and the Buffalo Bills and the Oilers down down in the East. And then they added quickly Miami

and Cincinnati. Ohha, Cincinnati, Saint Paul Schiff, Let's go thirty

two left. But then it was just absolutely incredible. And so every day they would come by the fence, all the players as they're coming out of their makeshift locker room which was probably just their cars or the public restroom, and they would come out and they would come out of the weight room, which was basically they had taken broom handles, and then they would taken coffee cans and poured cements into the coffee cans and then jam the broom handles into these coffee cans on both ends, and

that was their weight training. But these guys were so good, and they played their games on the weekends on Sundays down in Balboa Stadium, which is at the south end of Balboa Park. Imagine that Balboa Stadium at Dowbow apart. What a harmonic convergence of the high sch What a coincidence. And so I would ride my bike down there and I would get into the I never had trouble in

my life ever getting into things for free. I didn't have any money, and so I would get in and I would just roam the stadium and just meet everybody. Couldn't talk at all, but I was having such a fun time in the games were so absolutely fantastic. It was just an incredible amount of fun and excitement. And all the players they were just so nice to me.

I mean, Sid Gilman was the coach, and he'd come by and rubbed my little redhead hair, and all the other players would come by and say, hey, man, what are you doing? And I'm eleven years old? And the nine ten, and it was just absolutely fantastic. And I remember all the different coaches from those early days in the AFO, Hankstram or Lou Saban, Al Davis, Oh my gosh, Bill Walls, Chuck Noll, John Madden, and it was a phenomenal situation for a little young boy to just be

inspired and I fell in love with football. I was a radio guy. We grew up without a television, so I had the radio and they had all these remarkable voices in my ear. Now, I thought it was just me until I was talking to other people and then

they would say the same thing. But when I had Ray Scott, when I had Charlie Jones, and I had Kurt Gowdy, ultimately Dick Enberg and Brent Musferder, Jack Buck and Hank Strand, Howard Costell and Don Meredith and all these Lindsay Nelson and Chris shankl Dick Stocked and Pat Summer, all John Madden and Vermonquiz, all these people that over the course of my life I got to meet and worked with, and it was just such a dream come true because their ability to create the scene, to be

able to paint the picture, the canvas that enabled us on the radio to see what was going on to you. But most importantly, it was feeling it. And when they described the situation when Dan Pastorini for the Houston Oilers, a graduate of Santa Clara University, when Dan Pastorini was carried off the field four different times in the same game, and then he came back after the fourth time and won the game, I was just hooked for You know,

it's much easier. It's much easier for a play by play guy to call the game when the analyst isn't talking. But you've gone five minutes out. I haven't even asked a question yet. I don't I don't need a question. Man, Bruce. You brought up Bruce, and not many people realize that you were the only brother tandem to play in a Super Bowl and an NBA Finals. Your brother played for the Cowboys. You're trying to rush me. I wish you could get there, all right, go ahead, then go ahead, okay,

And so now I'm living this. I'm living this AFL dream. And then the NFL comes into my life with the Packers and the Cowboys from the sixties. Oh my gosh, I have no idea how old you are you a dinosaur? I mean, you still like Cole and that kind of stuff. But anyway, don't Vince Lombardi on the sideline for the Packers and the history of the NFL, John the Cowboys. Ultimately you get Tom Landry with his administrative team of Tech Shram and Gill Brandt, all these guys that I

came to know over the course of my life. But I fell in love with the Packers, with Jerry Kramer and Bart Starr and Bart Paul Horning and Max McGee and Ray Nichki, oh my gosh, Jim Taylor, Herb Ratterie, Willie Davis, Forrest, Greg Henry, Jordan, Willie Wood, all these players, and I got to meet them all over the course of my life and to see how they played, the performance levels of their of their championship style, the culture that Lombardi had had created there, and all the different

things that were going on. And by this time now I'm sort of moving towards high school. And now in high school, my coach Rocky he said, now, Billy, when you get to high school, enough of this football stuff. Let's try some other sports. And so how tall are you at this point? Oh, I'm probably probably about six to five, I don't know now I was as a freshman in high school. I was five to eleven when I started, and then quickly I grew afoot yeah, in

the next couple of years. And it was just absolutely fantastic. So I get to this really terrific high school, Helix High School. Bruce is a star on the team, and we're in the Grossmont League. And every year at the start of the season San Diego State, which is just one mile from our family home, they would have in their football stadium on campus, which was called Aztec Bowl, which is now called the Vajas Arena, the Basketball Temple

and Mecca, absolutely beautiful, beautiful basketball arena. But they played football in that ravine, in that canyon, and at the start of every season, all eight teams would show up at Aztec Bowl at the gross Mont League would show up. They're all eight teams, all eight bands, the Charitaders from all eight teams, and they would have a draw and everybody would play one quarter against another team. And it

was just the most incredible and fantastic event. And we would go and have so much fun all the time. But while we were there, we start learning about the San Diego State as Tech football team, which is now being coached by Don Corriel, one of the absolute geniuses and legends, and he has coaches on his staff like Joe Gibbs Al Davis, and he has got players like Hay Even. It was just Gary Garrison, Fred Dryer and one of the guys from the Gross Moot League, Brian Sipe,

and so it's just an absolutely spectacular moment. And shortly thereafter, Marcus Allen is coming up right through the ranks of East San Diego and I got to see him play in high school football, and it was just such a spectacular experience for this young guy, little billy whose parents had no interest in sports. But I found sports, and I found hope, opportunity and purpose. And then it was absolutely great because Bruce was on his way to UCLA

and I was following him. Although Coach Wooden was very concerned as to how they were going to be able to feed the both of us, because when Coach came to dinner, he was astounded by the amount of food that My mom, Gloria, who still lives at ninety four in the same house that we all grew up in.

She'd been there for sixty nine years. You would put this immense plate of food on the table, and Coach Wooden thought to himself, Oh, this is very nice, and then he realized that that was for Bruce, and what were the rest of this conny. So when your own so Bruce comes in, you know, to UCLA, and this is on the heels of Gary Beeban, the Heisman Trophy winner,

who's a fantastic friend and incredible human being. And the coaches that Bruce had when he was at UCLA, Tommy Prothrow, Pepper Rogers, Dick Vermeal, Terry Donohue, and just an overwhelming roster of genius and compassion and humanity and inspiration and knowledge. And so across town they had USC with John McKay and everybody on his team was going to the NFL every year. Just absolutely spectacular teams, winning the Heisman Trophies all the time. Up at Oregon they had Dan Fouts,

they had a mod Rashad. At Stanford they had Jim Plunkett, soon to be followed by John Elway. And then up in the University of Washington, we call that you dub was Sonny sixth Killer and all these guys are still great friends of mine. And the only reason they got to meet any of them was because of my brother Bruce, who was All America football player, who was an academic All America and he was the perfect big brother, and

he always always looked out for me. And then during the course of our time at UCLA, the Los Angeles Rams, oh my gosh, I mean they had the fearsome forceom at the time they had Rosie Greer, Lamar Lundie Berlin Olson, Deacon Jones soon to be added to the Jack young Blood, Fred Dryer, you know. And then they had and their rivals in the west out here. I don't know where you grew up, was that Mars? Anyway, the Purple Peter people leaders up in Minnesota, Omaha hut Chef thirty seven

left on page Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, Garry Larson. There's no there's no game for me to stop you and distract you because this is a bad guest here. You invited me as a guest. You don't have to air this if you don't like it. But Bud Grant was standing there on the sidelines and it would be minus one hundred degrees and Bud, Bud would not wear a jacket because he layed in the NBA and he played in the NBA in the NFL. I think he might be the only guy to play in both. I don't

know that. Yeah, I just saw on the sidelines and the footballs outdoors in Minnesota in the middle of winter with no jacket on and just standing there saying, yeah,

we're here to play, how about you? But all this time, you know, following the Chargers and all the different great players that they had, and then the rivalries that would come in because when the Raiders would come into town, man, that that was just over the top incredible because in my life I became a huge fan and an incredible the incredible good fortune I had to spend so much time with Al Davis. How much football are you watching now? Do you watch a lot of football? Have you watched

the Cardinals watching? I'm getting there, please, all right, please, I'm trying to get there. But to learn they're quicker. You told me we had forty five minutes. Man, there were gonna be some questions in there. We're not gonna just why I'm telling a story football Omaha, Phoenix, Baha, MEXICALI shift thirty seven left. You go deep, I'll throw

it to you. And then so the Raiders, I mean the culture that they have with Art Shell and Gene Upshaw, Gene Otto and Ken Stabler ultimately Marcus Allen, how we long, Jim Plunk, Willie Brown, Jack Jadum, Ted Hendrickson. You don't have to list the roster. We know, we know who they are. You don't have to list the roster, we know who they are. All my friends. I want to talk about my friends. You're to talk about football, right, Phil Villipiano, Dave Casper, But Touzach Allowsado, Ray Guy, George

Bland did you ever sends forty? You were friends of the Ray guy. I didn't think that you consult. You would have friendships with a kicker, a punter based on your history because you were a fighter, the team guy. Yeah, but you're a fighter. You like to fight and musical like the scrimmage. I like the line of scrimmage. And then as the Raiders were just fantastic, the Raiders, the Cowboys, the Steelers, the forty nine Ers, the Giants, the Redskins.

Because it was absolutely spectacular here to be able to go and see the Steelers come alive, because Art Rooney, Art Rooney and Chuck Noman that they're is finding guys as you'll ever come across. And then Terry, all of those guys, Terry Franco, Rocky Blier, Melon Blunt, Joe Green, jackham Jack, Lambert, Worth Swan, Mike Webster, l C. Greenwood forty years ago. Most of our listeners don't remember that and weren't alive. Let's let's why don't you have them

be the guests? You ask me, Look, why do you ask me to be your guest? And then tell me what to talk about? What kind of hosts that you didn't talk about? The Cowboys in the seventies, man, they played five Super Bowls in the seventies. Rogers, your brother, And what about Bruce? Tell me about Bruce? Which Bruce goes on and he plays for the Cowboys. And that's how I know all of those guys. Roger, Bob Hayes, Bob Lily, Drew Pearson, Mel Renfro, Randy White, Too Tall, Jones, Rayfield, Right,

Gil Brandtex shram, Don Meredith, le Roy Jordan, and Tony Dorsett. Now, now in that time when Tom Landry was the coach, Tom Landry and John Wooden became very very close friends for lots of reasons. Not to be discounted was the fact that the Cowboys would have their preseason training camp in Thousand Oaks, California, just in the San Fernando Valley at cal Lutheran College, which is coincidentally the same place

where John Wooden had his summer basketball teams. And so every day, every day Coach Wooden and Tom Landry would have lunch together and they would talk and Coach Landry would be talking about telling stories about how wonderful Bruce was, and Coach Wooden was scratching his chin ins and what that doesn't sound like the one I had then? And then Greg Lee and I would go and we would put on the clinics for Coach Wooden's basketball camps, and then we'd see all the Cowboys all the time, and

it was just absolutely super fun. Now Bruce his friends, I mean, basically that entire team on the Cowboys from the Chevities, they're all in the Hall of Fame, and they were so supportive of art efforts, particularly in Portland when the Blazers were fighting for the championships and the

Cowboys the big dudes. Man, they would show up. They would show up just to make sure that everything turned out okay when the bullies of the world were trying to ruin everything and just committing crimes against human decency and common sense there. But then the Steelers, I fell in love with the Steelers man just the way they played, and they're off the field activities and just so very

very nice. And then ultimately I went to I moved to Palo Alto and Stanford in Menero Park when I was injured and couldn't play anymore, and so I was going to law school and a new career. And at the same time I was there in Stanford, John Elways a quarterback at Stanford, and we become friends. I'm in the law school, he's an undergraduate. And then at the same time, the forty nine Ers they choose as their

practice facility Stanford University. So they've got Bill Walsh and Eddie de Bartelow, and then they got Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Fred De Dave Wilcox, Randy Cross, Jerry Rice, John Taylor, and this is in the in the shadow of John Brody, who was a fantastic friend growing up. And then ultimately they got Steve Youngs, and so at the same time this is all happening. Then I'm having all these operations on my feet and I can't play anything. I can't I can barely walk. You know, they're going to cut

my foot off. And so is that true? Are they really gonna But I was having this. I had this pioneering experimental surgery that had never worked on anybody before, and I had it in nineteen eighty one, just before I went to Stanford Law School. And I get there and the boys growing up, Adam, Nate, Luke and Chris they're just coming of age and they're starting to watch these forty nine ers that who are just playing incredible

football every week. And then they want to come over to Stanford Law School so they can go peep down and hang on the fence like I did as a child at Sunset Park. They want to hang on the fence at on Stanford's campus and see all the guys. So we let it. We did that they did, and everybody could not have been nicer. And so then we're on Louise Street in Menroe Park, in a dead end street where we lived, and the boys they wanted to play football in the street, but I couldn't stand and

I couldn't run. I really couldn't walk at all. So I would bring a chair out into the middle of the streets. There was a dead end street, and I was sitting in the chair, and I would organize the game, and I would be the permanent quarterback. I would be the sport keeper. I'd be the referee, I'd be the commissioner. I was everything all they want, and they would be

the receivers and the defenders. And so over time I got to the point where I could stand up, and then over time I got to the point where I could walk a little bit. And then one day I'm back there and I'm standing up, and I throw the pass and one of the children intercepts it and he's running and he's running it back for a touchdown, which all the other children are yelling and screaming, Dad, You're terrible. You're the worst dad ever. You're a horrible quarterback. Dad,

you're cheating for the other team. Dad. It was one of the four children. I remember everything else about this story, but it was one of the children. And so as I see him running for the touchdown on the interception that I had, ill advisedly thrown. I take off running after him, and for the first time in years, I had been able to run. And everybody stopped and they looked at Dad and they said Dad could run. Dad could run. And so I from there I went ultimately and I made it back and I got to the

Boston Celtics. And then when we got back to Boston, it was all really cool because we had big we had been big Patriots fans. Nick Bonecani and all the guys plumped it when he was when he was there, Randy vatah when he was there. But things had changed and the Patriots weren't any good at the time, and so at that moment, that was when the New York Giants with Lawrence Taylor and Harry Carson were just tearing

it up. And so being in Boston and the Patriots weren't any good, but the Giants were on every week, and it seemed like they played the Washington Redskins every single game, and so we would watch these games and the children would just be absolutely fascinated because Joe Gibson was a friend, Bobby Bethard, all these guys, and then John Riggins and Joe Weisman Dexter Manley, the Hogs Man.

We'd love. I love the linement, the guys that just get down and dirty, Jojo Kobe, Martin may Art Monk, Mark Moseley, the only kicker to ever be money was a receiver. I know I've already transitioned out from the Hogs. Please Mark Moseley, Joe Washington, and then Doug Williams who took the place of Joe Fisman after he got hurt, Sonny Jurgenson from the old days, great friend Billy Kilmer and went to UCLA. All these just spectacular human beings.

And then I was just going on and living this dream, this dream of football. Yeah, MEXICALI Blue or San Antonio, Omaha shift left right, Hut hut, let's go. And then and then I spent four four years in the hospital in the late eighties. And then when I got out of the hospital and I could no longer play, I could no longer walk or run or anything like that. And a huge football fan. But then I made the ill advised choice to go into television, and everything changed

because while advised, though white white sail advised. I don't think I've heard you say that before. I had no idea what I was doing, and it was the most unlikely career choice ever because you were a stutterer. When you were a stutterer, I got red hair, big nose, freckles, shoopy, nerdy looking face, and I'm a deadhead. And so anyway, I said, I'm gonna go into television, and I had no idea what I was doing. And I tried it,

and I tried it, guys couldn't get anything going. And then I've stumbled and struggled and labored my way through it to this point where I've been invited to this show and I keep getting interrupted by the host who who said, did you please come on my show? And now I come on your show and you just destroy

me here. So so, in the course of the thirty two years since that took place, I have not been able to funnel fall because one of the things that I love about my job, and there's endless things, is that no matter how much you do in terms of research, in terms of preparations, in terms of study, in terms of knowledge, in terms of memorization, in terms of trying to learn something that you don't know anything about, it's never enough. And so one of the things that got

sacrificed was watching the NFL. I still do watch the Super Bowl, and I still do see the guys all around, all the guys that I know. I don't really know too many of the new guys. But when I say new guys, anybody from nineteen ninety on, And you still have the hat I gave you? I gave yann know if you remember this, I gave you an NFC West Division champions championship had for the Cargoes from twenty fifteen. Do you still have the hat? I had it. I had it and then Conrad Dobler came over and he

ate it you. Did you know Conrad Dods Yeah? Yeah, okay, former Cardinal obviously who else? Cardinals, Jim Ray Harden and all the Cardinals from the baseball teams. And it's different, that's a different sport. I'm I'm a football card same deerf did you know? Yes? I did. It's just fantastic. Larry fitz you've met Larry Fitzgerald. I remember introducing you to Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Bidwell, the team. I was at the Basketball Hall of Fame. Larry Fitzgerald came and

I got to sit next with him. I don't remember you introduced me to him, and you've never introduced me to anybody, and you just seem to, you know, to have something in for me, trying to, you know, elbow me out of the way. I'm just trying to get buy out here. But I sat with Larry Fitzgerald when Jim Gray went into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and it was absolutely one of the special moments of my life.

I love to meet smart, interesting, curious people. Do you do you remember when we sat with Richard Sherman during a Stanford game. Do you remember that you called him Bob Marley? We told him Harley. I remember he came to the game. Richard Sherman was on the air with us for two segments, and after the second segment we told him he was done, and he kept the headset on, so we just talked him for an entire half. He was having a blast. I think he liked the fact

he called him Bob Marley. He couldn't get enough for you. No, that guy is really, really, really good. I saw him play after that man, and he could sing to it and and here and that atmosphere and after I do have to ask you. I do have to ask you about UCLA basketball because obviously last year because football, man, they're playing in the Holiday Bowl this year. Yeah, so what about Yes, Kelly, Lorie and I are gonna go good. What about what about the basketball team? How high are

you on this team? Because last year he came so close to get into the championship. This is a football podcast, please we talk about everything else. Mexical every twin falls, pocatella, shift, hike, hull, go deep and I'll throw it. So, like, what was it like for you emotionally last year win Gonzaga at the last second shot? What was that like for you? Because I saw the Vino Show to show I want

to talk about Wilt. So one day at the beach, everybody who playing volleyball, having a great time, playing cards, having a great time, and it starts the conversation shift to football and who's who's everybody? You said, everybody's there? Who? Yeah, I mean all you and people down at the beach. So you said, Will se and Wilt and so and so. Will says I can throw the football and everybody scoffs. Everybody goes, yeah, right, Will and so Will Will tells

one of the other guys. He says, just go out there, run down the beach, and I'll throw it to you. So the guy runs down the beach, you can barely see him, and Will keep waving them on so further further, and everybody is just like laughing at Wilt. Will steps back one crank of the shoulder there to loosen it up, takes the football and throws it underhand over the guy's head, who's now about ninety yards dallasto. Come on, now, come on, I'm not I was there. It was incredible. Will couldn't

do anything in ninety yards yards sey air underhand. What were you guys doing on that beach? We were having a great time. Yeah, I'm sure you might have thought it went ninety yards. We were amazed and even stayed inside the Earth's gravitational force. Did Kareem play football at all? Did you see? I don't know he was from he was from Manhattan, he was from you know, harm And I'm not sure how many football players are coming out of there, but you know, basketball was his game as

far as I'm sure he played. I mean, he's a huge baseball fan. And what about Larry Bird, who just turned sixty five. Did he played football at all? Larry Bird? It's his birthday today. Well, I know, but this isn't airing today. That's why I said this was a live show. No, it's it's a we only did live shows and thought about misrepresentation show, scheduled my whole day and then you just interrupt me constantly, and then you tell me what to talk about. I mean, it sounds like the other

parts of our lives together. Have your birthday December twenty first. By the way, we will have a Kansas and Colorado year ten. It's hard to believe I had a full head of hair and it was black hair ten years ago. Although I actually worked with you in two thousand and six on NBA, you still claim that never happened. But I do have I know that I do have proof that we actually didn't stay together. Tell me about tell me, okay, you want to only talk football, your say out. So

I was give me a junior say oh story. Fine. So I was tight end and middle linebacker. And when I was a tight end like Kevin Winslow, I was a middle linebacker like junior who played really anywhere. Junior was like Lawrence Taylor, He's like dextra man. I mean,

they did not have a position. They just they watched the other team come to the line of scrimmage and then they figured out, Okay, they're going here, so I'm gonna be right there and they're gonna have to change the play seventeen MEXICALI, Dallas San Antonio, you need to go on the Manning Cast. I have you been invited yet by Peyton and Elie. I assume you know, yes. I never get invited anywhere. I got invited on this show,

and I'll never be invited back. Grateful then wrote wrote a song but wherever he goes, the people all complained and so but Junior say Out just as fine a human being, and we love that guy. I played basketball one time. This would I forget when it was, but it had been more than thirty six years ago, because

I haven't been able to play basketball since then. And it was a it was a charity game, right, And it was a bunch of guys like me against a bunch of NFL players, and Junior say Out and Kevin Winslow and uh, it's just all these studs were playing and it was a huge mistake on my part. Because these guys were just out of control. I mean, it's

basically like playing against artist Gilmore with no referee. But you just got well, you know, look, their idea, you know, a defensive stop is to you know, just to inflake brain damage. And so you know that that's not my deal and uh so, but I assure having incredible respect for those guys and I watched them play and the

skill level, the fitness level. I'm just always amazed at the guys who have the square muscles, uh that you know, then bulge out of their uniforms, and how fast they are, and the hands that he used to catch and Tom Brady what he does each and every year just fantastic. And I'm glad you brought Brady up because I'm curious, do you think NBA players will start playing until they're in their early to mid forties like Tom Brady, who still is at the top of his game at his age.

I have never met anybody who voluntarily retired from basketball. The only guy I met who did that was Ernie Van Dewey, Kiki's dad, who in those days when he played in the fifties, one of the founding fathers of the NBA. As a player. You know, salaries were five thousand dollars, and Ernie came from a well to do family, and so he said, I'm not to do this for

five thousand dollars. So he you know, he became a doctor and married Miss America, who was the sister of one of his teammates on the Knicks, and moved to move to Los Angeles and then the the mansion on the hill right across the street from UCLA. And so, but Karl Malone didn't stop playing because he wanted to. John Stockton, Kareem, Vince Carter. These guys don't stop because you want to. It stops because they can't play anymore.

Lebron Chris Paul. You could see guys, those guys, I mean, they don't I hope so, because they're sure fun to watch, you know, and you know, the the incredible opportunities, and you know, the more money you make, the more good things you can do in the world, and so you know, it's a great way and the business of sport has changed completely. Did you ever watch that movie Al Davis and Pete Roselle that that yes, that was Yeah, it's fantastic and tremendous movie and uh so with Al Davis.

I was spending a lot of time in the Bay Area during the seventies and for a lot of different reasons. And I'd always go in and to Francesco's right near the Oakland Airport, and how would be in there having lunch or dinner every time, and we just sit and talk and just uh dream and drift and go all

over the place. And he'd tell me everything he knew, and I would try to tell him about the few things that I knew, and all the different experiences that we would have, and then John Madden would be there and it was just a wonderful, wonderful time. So but now I'm now I'm in today's game. I know more the owners that's as opposed to the players and the coaches. And the culture has changed in sports because of the incredible success that David Stern has brought across the board

to all sports. Is that there's no longer the interaction with the fans. I mean, the experiences that I had clinging on that fence watching the San Diego Charger legend that are you still get to do that. You still can go to training camp practices. There are plenty of Cardinals practices where you can go to and training camp and go sit in the stadium, get autographs after the game.

I do again. I want to talk to the UCLA basketball I just want your thoughts on what you've seen too far, because we're going to talk about in a different podcast. We can't. This is the only podcast. This is the only podcast, the only day fash podcast that's going to run. This is the only time you're on. So let's get it in here. We don't need to do that. So you're not going to answer that it's bad enough you want to answer my question about basketball

during a basketball broadcast. I do that all the time. That's all we do is look. I look around in your studio there, and you've got a countdown clock which shows that the Cardinals to go before the game starts.

And so let's just talk about the beauty of this game and how many wonderful people have played this game football, who have been able to create a world where someone like me could just get so much out of it and to be able to spend the time over the years with all the different guys who I've mentioned, and I just want to express because at the beginning they gave me to that already he already purpose. What it really gave me at the end was pride, loyalty, and gratitude.

The satisfaction with the choice that I made to ride my bike up to Sunset Park, the loyalty that I developed with all my personal friendships with all these guys. And then the gratitude they respect, the admiration, appreciation because I know these football players, man, they go through a lot, their bodies get destroyed. Well, you can relate. I mean you you had a rough. I'm doing great. I know you're doing great. Now. I'm talking about when you're playing.

You know you obviously went through a lot, and you touched on that earlier. By the way, we don't take forty five seconds. You have forty seconds, ten seconds. Nine. Have you eaten any cupcakes lately and have they been lit when you've eaten them? Yes, I do that regularly. I like my food hot and that This year's PACK twelve media day in San Francisco, on the rooftop high above the rest of downtown San Francisco, they had a great display of cupcakes. I lit all the candles and

I way too many cupcakes that day. Oh, it was fantastic your shoulder that we're at a time the game is going to start. Do you do you burn your mouth when you do that, because you've done it now several cans. Well, that's true. Your teeth aren't real, so it's hard to know. All right, I'll let you go. I love my teeth, I love being alive, I love football. I have incredible respect for all these guys or what

they've done. I mean, these dudes are tough. So you got nothing on the Cardinals, nothing on the two twenty one NFL season, nothing, nothing on the Buccaneers, on Aaron Rodgers, on the Packers. I'm working Cardinals, Cardinals, Rams, Monday night footballing on this game when you've got nothing one today? What's today besides Larry Bird's birthday? And then it sprinkled in San Diego today for the first time in memory. So when I see you in Boulder, are you going

to ignore me? I'm going to be high in the Rockies looking for roaming buffalo who are starting stampeding for fresh fields of green grass. That's what I'm going to be looking for. Are you going to ignore me before tip off as usual or since it's the first time I'm seeing you since March at the Pactical Tournament. Will you at least acknowledge me? What's your name? What are we doing? What time does the game start? Boulder the

launching pad to the universe. Paul Horney, Oh my gosh, what a what a spiritual force of angel bart Star. Oh my gosh. Again these real players from like thirty years ago? All right? Who care? I said? When I started this thing. They were the people who made me love football? And did I ever love football? Man? And then to hear on the radio, you know, Ray Scott, he made me fall in love with football. It was absolutely incredible, all these guys. And then I got to

work with all of them. Did Scott what, Kurt Couty? You did games with them, You broadcast with Ray Scott and yet to broadcast a football game. That's what I know, a basketball that's one of my dreams. Well, hey, there's an invitation here. You want to come to a game with me sometime? Do a Cardinals game season? What's your name? What are you so? What? Analyst? What? I thought you were just a fan, But you're a fan that had a podcast and just wanted to talk about football. And

then I call in here and we're already in overtime. Yep, because you talk so long with I didn't even get a question. So Ron Wolfley is who I do the Cardinal Games that there are a lot of people that want to hear you and Ron Wolfley on a broadcast. Oh Wolfee, let's go how already if you lead us in with Werewolves of London? How that can be arranged? That can arranged? All right? So as a as a young person to hear the broadcasters that that have had such an impact on my life. For the Jack Buck

and Hank Stram, their show was over the top. How do you know Joe at all? Did you get to know Joe Buck at all? I know Joe little? Yeah, Okay, I didn't. I'm trying to trying to tie this to the Cardinals. Jack and Joe both connected opposite. Is the same those Cardinals days? Yeah, that was Saint Louis Is. It's still the same team when they even though the

same team just a different names. Louis. Yeah, I've been there. Yeah, I got thrown off Nelson Man oh wow, and then Dick Stock and all these ledge and the fact that that I've been able to develop lifelong friendships with these guys and learn from them so much. Yeah, all right, so we're gonna do We're gonna somehow orchestrate for being a part of a Cardinals broadcast at some point. And it's probably preseason because in the regular season you actually

have to talk about the game. And it's radio. And I know you always say that when I'm doing TV. I'm doing that. It's not radio radio different radio, right, So you like, you don't we just put it on TV? Why don't we just put it on a YouTube chet That's why I said preseason. It is TV, so there's a little bit more room. Yeah. Yeah, we'll do it on TV next year. All right, again, we'll be in touch. Now. Branch is still doing the Raider games, right, he does

the Raiders. Yes, you're looking live. Oh my god, Branch job that he did in that Al Davis Pete Roselle movie. Just oh yeah, Charlie Joe, which was instrumental in me, uh taking this plunge to be on this show. I would never have been on this show I had not been for Charlie Jones. Now you're talking about getting into broadcasting. Yeah, well, Charlie, you know he moved. He's from Arkansas. But Dick Enberg too. I thought you and Dick Enberg were really close when

he was the Lola Games who you were playing there? Yeah, but Dick was our Dick was our local broadcaster. Yeah. And then he went on to as great a career as anybody's ever had. But you can say that about Kurt Goudy, about Brent Musberger, about a lot of these guys, and and so all these guys, you know, were fabulously encouraging and supportive of me. And and then I met you. And on that note, Bill over time, ohaha, seventeen shift left, you go along, fake draw, I'm running, get out of

the way, stiff arm. Yeah, in your face. Thank you, Bill. What's your name again? So there you go, Bill Walton for about fifty minutes, talking most of those fifty minutes about football and the history of the game and a lot of the players that he grew up loving. And then also Will Chamberlain. That story was interesting, throwing of all ninety yards underhand. Somehow, I think Bill's memory about that might have been clouded by an external factor as

they were hanging out together on a beach. I'm just guessing. But also a very serious story that Bill told that I'd never heard before, just knowing Bill's injury history and how it cost him a good part of his career, and how he went to law school at Stanford in between his career as an NBA MVP with the Blazers and then going back and winning a championship with the Celtics, and how the first time he ran was when he was playing football with his four sons out on the street.

I'd never heard that before, so that was interesting, and Bill is always entertaining. Hopefully you enjoyed this edition of the Dave Pash Podcast. If you didn't, I apologize. We'll get back to football next week with Chris Spielman, and then in a couple of weeks you'll hear from former Cardinals Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hilo River Hotels and Casinos. You can follow

us on Twitter at Pashpod. You can hear clips from previous podcasts, and also there'll be news about upcoming guests. Thanks again to Hall of Famer Bill Walton, and thanks to you for listening to the Dave Pash podcast Happy Everything Forever,