SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — After a playing career that included individual and team accolades at the high school, college, and professional level, Bill Walton went on to a second act that achieved almost as much acclaim as a broadcaster. Yet, as told by his close friend and longtime broadcast partner Ralph Lawler, this second career began almost by pure chance.
Walton died of cancer Monday at the age of 71, according to a statement from his family released by the NBA.
In a Zoom interview Tuesday from his home in Bend, Oregon, Lawler spoke with ABC 10News reporter Jeff Lasky about the beginnings of the pair's broadcast partnership.
The two had met during Walton's playing days. Lawler was the play-by-play voice of the San Diego Clippers and Walton was traded to his hometown team. They had not seen each other for several years, when they happened to bump into each other in 1989. Lawler, by then having moved to Los Angeles with the team, was back in San Diego visiting. He and his wife were in Pacific Beach when they decided to pop into a convenience store for a drink.
“There in line was Bill. So we had this mini-reunion in line at 7-Eleven. I said 'What are you doing?' And he said 'I haven’t any idea.' He was a lost soul. Basketball had been his entire life.”
Lawler suggested Walton look at a career in broadcasting, something Walton had not seriously considered, due to issues with a speech impediment. However, as Walton wrote in the foreword to Lawler's autobiography "Bingo", Lawler's suggestion took root. Walton volunteered to broadcast CBA games on radio to get some experience. A short time later, the spot opened up to be Lawler's partner on Clippers broadcasts.
“I go to the Clippers and say 'Hey, Bill Walton’s available. He’d be a tremendous fit to have this Hall of Fame guy be my right-hand man," Lawler said.
The two would be a team for the next 13 years, a period in which the Clippers were rarely competitive. This led to Lawler and Walton leaning into their natural senses of humor and personality to make the broadcasts interesting.
“The team was very bad. The games were often very bad, but they were always entertaining because of Bill," Lawler said. “We just found a way to have fun and make people go 'What are these guys going to talk about next, for crying out loud?' And Bill was the absolute master of that.”
Though Walton left the Clipper broadcast crew to do national broadcasts, he and Lawler remained close personal friends, visiting each other often. Walton even returned to serve as Lawler's partner on his final broadcast before Lawler's retirement.
“Bill made me feel like and said I was the best friend he ever had," Lawler said. "There’s no question he’s the best friend I ever had. But what’s remarkable, and I fully understand it, is there’s probably a hundred other people who felt the same way, felt Bill was their best friend and that person was Bill’s best friend. He just had that way.”
“I just do not know how to fill the void that exists without Bill.”
