YouSaid · the spoken record

Bill Walton

lines on the record
77
first
2016-06-20
most recent
2016-06-20
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Because failure always comes back to three things. Lack of honor. Selfishness and greed success always comes back to two elements sacrifice and discipline and I want to be a part of the winning team. I want to be a part of something that's moving forward. I want to be a part of the future. I want to be a part of happiness. I want to be a part of joy and I'm willing to stand up and do something about it. And that's why when I get off this phone, I'm going to go and vote today.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “And they said, we can do this. And then they had a team. They created their own culture. They developed their foundation. And then they just came back to the critical elements for group success. And that's...”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “It's all one song. It's all one song, David, and they just changed the verses, they changed the rhythm, they changed the beating. Excuse me. They take a little bit of a break so that they can catch their breath and change the mood. But these are guys who just who came Like you who came, like me from nothing, and they had a dream.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “They're my best friends. And I'm a deadhead. I've been a deadhead since I was 15 years old, 1967. It was the summer of love here in California. I went to my first show and things were never the same again. And I never left. And I just had the time of my life. And I've been to now more than 870 Grateful Dead concerts. I'll be out on tour all this summer. I'll be in Boulder. I'll be in Alpine Valley. I'll be in Portland, Oregon, the Gorge. I'll be in San Diego, my hometown where I still live. Irvine. I'll be in Sacramento. I'll be in Shoreline. And just, we're so lucky that they keep playing because it's so much fun. I would ask you.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Never been happier, and I haven't been this healthy since I was 13 years old. I never thought all these years, I never thought that I'd be free of pain. I never thought that I'd be happy in love. And I have both of those today. I am the luckiest guy on earth.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “I just gave up because it was just too hard and it was just too much pain and there was no hope and there was no path forward. And then this doctor, Steve Garfin, he steps up and says, I've got an idea. I've got a plan and I'm willing to take the chance. And I had to take the chance. I had no choice. My only other choice was suicide. And when you're in that space, when you're in that space, more people commit suicide from back pain than from any other malady. And it's just overwhelming. It destroys every aspect of your life. It destroys every aspect of all the people around you. And here's this situation where I had nothing. But then I had this surgery and I'm all better. And I take no medication. I have no pain. I go full speed ahead now. I've never been busier.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “You were coming to save the world. I was trying to be there on that train and I couldn't get off the floor. I missed. I spent half my adult life in the hospital. I spent so much time in my life just lying there waiting. And then at the end,”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Because of surgery. My spine surgeon, Dr. Steve Garfin, UC San Diego, has given his life to save other people. And then the medical device company that's come up with all the equipment and the techniques and the procedures and all the different things that go into life-saving healthcare. And that's invasive is that company. It's a San Diego-based company. I had no idea about any of this. I knew nothing about spine health other than my spine hurt all the time from the time I was. 21 when I broke my back, and then I had this bad foundation. When you have a bad foundation in life, you have a bad foundation in anything, ultimately everything up the line goes bad. And that was my spine. And so it was February of 2008 and it lay in.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “My fine failed and collapsed. I spent years on the ground and I lost everything, got fired. It was the worst of corporate America. Got fired from my job, lost everything, lost my health insurance. You've been down that road before with the health insurance nightmare. And oh my God.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “And so it was like perfect. It was my life, but I couldn't play because my foot was broken and they didn't know it. And so they kept telling me there's nothing wrong with you. I said, my foot is killing me. And so on this day, April 18th, the doctor pulls out this big, long needle with a big syringe full of xylocane on the back end of it and plunges it in the base of my foot and ankle. And I go out there and I try to play this game in the NBA playoffs to try to... Help the team win in that small undiagnosed stress fracture in my foot the bone split in half and I spent the rest of Trying to chase down that special thing of being part of something great, the thing that you have in your life. And you did it.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Devastating, devastating. I mean, that was my problem in life, in that I wanted to be a basketball player. I wanted to run and jump and play all day long. And the more I did it, the worse my feet got. My feet hurt all the time and ultimately I pushed it. I drove it so much that the bones of my feet would just crack, not from falling down, not from somebody jumping on me, no, but just from running and jumping. And then the bones would crack, and then the more I tried to run, the bigger they would crack. And so this one day, April 18th, 1978, the MVP of the NBA were the youngest team to ever win the championship. We got this incredibly great team in Portland. We got Jack Ramsey. We got the Blazor men. Jack Ramsey. We're winning a great great.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Because of the structural congenital defects in my feet that led to the endless string of stress fractures, my injuries. That had grown between at birth between the calcaneus and the navicular bone, the centerpiece of the arch. And so when you watch all these other guys run and play and move as their feet hit the ground, accommodate and flex, all the stress, all the impact, all the pressure, it gets dissipated up through the musculoskeletal system, through the tendons, the ligaments, the joints and everything. I didn't have any of that.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “About two and a half seasons I played. I only finished 14 years in the NBA, David. I only finished the season twice. The other 12 years I finished the season in high school.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Right, because my life was over. There was no reason to believe that I was ever going to get any better because I couldn't get better. I was doing everything I possibly could.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “That was my favorite part of the game starting the fast break And before I hurt my knee when I was 14, I was out in front of the fast brakes. But then I hurt my knee. I grew six and a half inches in three months. Couldn't run or jump anymore. And so I had to completely change my game. And that's the way life goes. You can whin and complain about it, or you can make an adjustment, make an accommodation. So I did. And so I just said, I'm going to start the fast break instead of finish it. You were as good as that.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Dream about tomorrow, but live for today. And that's what Steph Curry, that's what Clay Thompson, that's what Igadala, and that's what Harrison Barnes and Bogut and Sean. And they just, and Draymond Green, they just keep coming at you. They come to work. They come to celebrate, and they don't care who gets the basket. They care that they win. And that's the egalitarian nature of basketball, in that the peer pressure and you're coming. And I was so lucky, David, to be part of UCLA, to be part of the Portland Trailblazers, to be part of the Boston Celtics. These great teams that would just mow down the...”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “I work for USBN, and ESPN has changed the world because now everything has, oh, this is the greatest or this is the worst. And every time a team wins a change, Every time a team in any sport wins a championship, guaranteed five minutes after the championship has been won, ESPN.com has got the biggest banner headline. This is the greatest team ever. And that's just not the way life works. Enjoy the moment.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And the skill level and the passion and the fitness and the selflessness and there's no Crazy people with egos out of control and whining and complaining and making excuses and saying, where's mine? It's all about let's go get this done. And at the end of the day, they got this guy, Steph Curry, who's just so funny. Have you ever seen a better”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “And all the Papovich and all these great guys. And then he gets this chance and all of a sudden this is the greatest testament to leadership in the world and the value of coaching. I'm the biggest believer in that guy who sits in the decision-making chair and how valuable that guy is. Because Golden State, they had They already had the team, but they had the wrong coach And so the owner saw this. The owner fired the coach, Mark Jackson, and they bring in a new coach, Steve Kerr, and with the same team, they win the championship and go on to the most incredible run, two-year run in the history of the NBA.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “And I see everything. I see leadership at the top. Joe Lake and Peter Guber. I see Jerry West. I see Bob Myers. I see Rick Weltz, all these fantastic guys, low-key guys, not looking for the light. And then I see the coach Steve Kerr, who has the great privilege, Steve Kerr, growing up at UCLA fan, was a UCLA ball boy, goes to Arizona, plays for the 21st century version of John Wooden Lud Olson, then goes and plays for the Bulls with Phil Jackson and Michael and Scotty and all those guys. And then he goes down and plays in San Antonio with Timmy and David”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “I've got a chance I've got a chance. And the great thing about basketball is that you do not have to wait for somebody to give you the ball. You can go get that ball. And it drives me crazy as the broadcaster. When I hear these guys whining and complaining, the coach doesn't call my play. The other guys don't give me the ball. Are you kidding? Go get the ball. Get a rebound. Play some defense. Block a shot. Make us steal. Let's go. We got a game. We got a championship on the line. Who can play? Who's in shape? Who really wants this and who's got a game”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “And Muhammad Ali on the sporting fields. What they did, that ability to inspire little Billy to just come out and say, wow, if they can do that, I can do that. And then all the books that my mom would bring home from the library. I'm a non fiction reader. I like history, biography, adventure, accomplishment, discovery, and risk and failure and uncertainty and all the different things that go into making life and they go into creating history.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “That I get the chance It gets really hard and it's really tough. I always tell myself do you know how many countless numbers of people would do anything to be in this spot right now? And that chance to have the outcome be determined by what you do. And that's the way I try to live my life. And that opportunity to have that ball in your hands and say, yeah. What I do is going to determine what happens here. And as we stand in that fork in the road, that constant decision as to which way we're going, this is what I want it to be like. This is how I want it to play out. And I can do something about that. And I was always just, my dream, David, was to be a part of a special team. I don't like it when people talk about individual statistics. I'm not a statistic guy. I'm a people guy and I'm a guy who played to win. And myoes growing up.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “My dad grew up in California Central Valley, the son of educators, and he went to Berkeley and was an honor student there, finished second in his class, then got drafted in the World War II, went over and fought in Europe, and then he came home, never said a word about the war, came home and spent the rest of his life trying to convince people to get along, always on principle, always on foundation, always on moral ground. And here was this guy, and then Rocky and then Chick Hearn and then Rocken Woods, Bob Bill. And so those people, they showed me the light. They showed me that basketball could be my vehicle”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “One of those athletes. What's that quality? What happens is that some person, some moment happens early in your life where the light comes on. And you see that this is what I love. And for me, that was rocky. That was Chick Kern. Yeah, but didn't you get nervous? My dad was a stand-up guy.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “I said it, and the Nixon resigned. It was incredible. I didn't write these letters forever trying to make things better, trying to make things better. Oh my God. Going back to basketball.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “I also insisted that Nixon resign. And then I thanked him in advance for his cooperation. And I asked all the other players on the team signed the letter. I asked Coach Wooden to sign that he wouldn't sign it. And he said, Bill, you're not going to send this in because he was aghast that I had written it on his stationary. But he handed it back to me. In perfect condition. He could have crumpled it up. He could have thrown it into the trash can”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “I went down to his office. He went home to his wife now. Now, can you imagine what Nell you would say that Coach wouldn't after my days with him? Oh my gosh. And so I go down to his office and I ask his secretary, who was still there late in the day. Her name was Al Dean. I said, Hey, Al Dean, hey, do you have any stationery? And she said, Yeah, Bill, is everything okay? I said, yeah, but, you know, Coach, he wanted me to write a letter. And so I took this stationary, you know, John Wooden stationery, and I took it back to my dorm room, and I scripted this letter, typed it just, you know, I'm a terrible typist, but I scripted this letter to Nixon, outlining all his crimes against humanity and demanding an immediate end of the war in Vietnam, bring all the boys home.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Then he just was livid. And he said, this is just awful. And we had this big confrontation. And I would ultimately say to him, hey, look, coach. You can say all you want, but those are my friends. Those are my classmates, those are my peers who were coming back from Vietnam in body bags and wheelchairs, and we're not going to take this nonsense anymore. And so then he turns and he says, Bill. I don't like this war either. But Bill, what your involvement in these peace rallies, that's not the way to go about getting what you want because you're infringing on the rights of other life. Yeah, right. He said, what you should do, Bill? He said, you should go write letters. I said, write letters and you can, that's the worst idea I've ever heard. Anyway, so when we separated that day,”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “During the Vietnam War always wanting, I always wanted to know why I had to cut my hair, why I had to shave, why I had to wear the...”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Are you kidding? That was the greatest privilege and honor of my life. And one of the great things about Rocky, Rocky, he taught you how to love pressure. He taught you how to love responsibility. He taught you how to be that guy that wanted to stand up and say, yeah, give me the ball. I'll take care of this. Let me be that guy. Let me leave the charge. Let me go out there in front. I'm ready to go. And so that was the life that I had in that culture. I was John Warden's easiest recruit. That's all I wanted to do was go play for him. I ultimately became his worst nightmare. Sadly drove the poor guy to a hard to imagine.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “He was my hero. I wore number 33 in high school because of Kareem. The same with magic, the same with Larry. Everybody wore 33 in high school because of Kareem. He was the greatest player I ever played against by far. Did you feel such an outstanding writer what he's doing today in his life in terms of shining the light and delivering the message and calling people out like that? It's just absolutely fantastic. No, he's.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “And I got to this place, whether it was Australia or Texas or South America or Africa or Europe. I got to these places and it was completely different than anybody had ever said it was. And so I realized at that point that you have to go out and learn it for yourself. You have to get in that game. Don't wait for the game of life to come to you. Take a chance. Take a risk. Understand that risk, uncertainty, and failure are part of everything you're ever going to do in your life. And that's the greatest thing about sports is that it teaches you that on a constant basis.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “And then I would also go back, and I would also redirect the youth culture of sports in basketball, which I'm most familiar with. And I would have it focused not so much on the travel. Although travel is important. Whenever I go, I love to go hear great speakers. And whenever I hear these guys who have made it to the top of the mountain and they come and they tell their story to the young dreaming entrepreneurs, every one of them always says, The thing that changed their life the most was when I had nothing and I was just getting started and I went on a trip where I didn't know where I was going”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “No. If I were in charge of the NBA, if I had Adam Silver's job, rule number one would be you have to be 21 to play in the NBA. You want to work in finance? You want to work in marketing. You want to work in sales. You want to work in tickets. You want to work in maintenance or event production. You can be whatever age you want. But if you want to play on the court, in the game, and travel around the world on a constant basis and every night living as an adult, you better be 21 years old.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “And a future for themselves because the ultimate champions, they win because they're smarter. Mental acuity and then emotional commitment. Do you care? And that's what you learn when you go to college. And while the players today are bigger and stronger and faster and can jump higher and do all these remarkable athletic things, if they don't take advantage of these incredible, remarkable opportunities to learn from other people. Because to be a student, to be a part of something so great that to be a graduate of UCLA, I went to Stanford graduate school and the law school up there and that opportunity, all those relationships, that foundation because to make it to the top of the mountain, you have to have a dream, you have to have a teacher, you have to have a team, you have to immerse yourself in the culture. You have to”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “That is the choice of the student athlete when they go there. And in the vast majority of the numbers of the student athletes, it is. But what happens is in the big-time money-making sports like football and basketball, the young players, they think it's all about stuff. They think it's about material accumulation and physical gratification. They don't understand this remarkable opportunity that they have to go and be a part of something special to change their life forever, to train their mind, to learn how to be a part of a great team, to search for, find, and learn from Master Teachers, to go and expose themselves to these phenomenal professors and great students alongside them, their peers, that they can use to build a network, a life.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “Yeah, but he was a legend until Walt Hazard came. Walt Hazard was the turning point. There's always this tipping point in life when something happens and then from then on things are never the same. And while John Wooden had 15 years of coaching at UCLA, it was fantastic at developing young men and the team coming together, you have to have that special player. And that special player was Walt Hazard, who was a combination on the basketball court of Magic Johnson and then in the political and social and leadership arena of Martin Luther King. And this guy, he just came to Los Angeles in 1962 or 63. First, as a student athlete, as a tennis star, as the tennis coach ultimately, and then from nineteen sixty three on as the athletic director.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Well, in basketball, it's the ultimate entrepreneurial situation. It's if you can play, you know, you're going to get into that game. And so I mean, no, I was playing with these guys. But they were professionals and I always played up. I love to play up. I love the speed game. I love the John Wooden style of basketball, which was physical fitness team game, fundamentals, footwork. Court pressure defense, which leads to your relentless fastbreak offense, get it going up and down. To have played in Southern California under the auspices of John Wooden, because every coach I ever had was a John Wooden disciple. Rocky took me to see John Wooden when I was like 10 years old.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Absolutely. They'd call me up and they'd say, Billy, we want to play the skull. And so I'd go and my parents, you know, my mom. Oh, one day my mom answered the phone, and there was this big deep voice on the other end of his belly there. I'm like 14 or 15 years old, right? There's belly there. My mom says, Who's this? Is Billy there? My mom says, who is this? I'm Billy's mother in this deep voice in the other says. You just tell Billy that it's the biggie on the phone. I need him to open the gym tonight. Melvin Hayes is at the other end of the house. My mom puts her hand over the phone and says, Billy, Billy, who's this guy, Biggie? Are you okay? I said, mom, that's Elvin Hayes. Come on, give me the phone. I was never so embarrassed in my life.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “I would be able to open the gym on my own. And so all the San Diego rockets, Elvin Hayes, Rudy Tomjanovich, Calvin Murphy, Pat Riley, Don Kogus, John Block, all these hambone Williams and the coaches Pete Newell. Alex Handham, Tex Winter, all the Dack McMahon”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Absolutely. Oh, yes. So I had my, we had nothing growing up, David, but we had everything because I had books. Parents love me more than they cared about themselves. And I had a bicycle, a skateboard, and a basketball. And so I could get around town on my bike and on my skateboard and carrying my basketball. And you can just show up in basketball and you get in the game and you start playing. And so that's what I did. And so then in 1967, the San Diego Rockets, they get an expansion team from the NBA. And so I, by this time, am in high school, and I've got a key to the high school gym that I had finagled from, I'm not even going to tell you who it was, but the statute would probably run on.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “You had to put structure to life, and it was just such a joy. We could not wait to get. Practice every day. We wanted school to be over so that we could get out there and be with Rocky. It was just fantastic.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “So from then on, but Rocky, Rocky, who coached every sport, you know, flag football, basketball, baseball, track and field. I cannot tell you today. And Rocky, you know, he was everybody's best friend. He built the community. But I cannot tell you today that after 59 years of him being the coach, that he knew anything about sports, that he knew anything about basketball, that he knew anything but life He made it fun. It was such a joy and he knew how to organize. And then you beat you.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “And so they put me in the game, and the very first time they threw me the ball, I'm at half court, and the ball's bigger than my head. I'm eight years old. And I looked down the far end of the court, and my teammates wide open. I had no idea what was going on. He's waving for the ball frantically, and I wound up and I threw the ball as far as I could to him. The ball swished through the basket.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “Absolutely. First time I got in the game, I just showed up. I had no idea. I just followed my older brother Bruce, who was playing for Rocky. And I said, Bruce, where are you going? The bus is going to take us over. He said, no, no, man. I'm going to play ball today. So I followed Bruce down to the gym. And I went and sat on the bench. I just had a pair of tennis shoes on, a pair of cut-off jeans, and maybe a t-shirt. Rocky kept looking down at the bench. Who was that little red-headed freckle face guy with the big nose who can't talk? And they said, oh, that's Billy. That's Bruce's little brother. So Rocky just looks at me. He says, Billy, get in there and see what you got.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “From the very first day. Basketball was a piece of cake for me. My problem was that I couldn't stay healthy because my feet kept breaking. Even then, even when you were”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “How much fun it was, how exciting. It was like reading a book, but you were using your body and running and chasin' the dream down. And when Rocky, after he organized our school program, he went around to every other fire station in San Diego and walked in that door and looked at these other young firemen and said, look, this is what I've done at our neighborhood. You need to do this in your neighborhood so we can have leagues so we can build a community so we can have championships and competitions.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Absolute first persons I ever met there and everything good in my life From 1970 on ultimately could be traced back to Ernie Van Duy. But there's guys like John Wooden and Rockney and Ernie all over the place. And our job Our job is to go find them.”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Profession. That's what he loved most. And then, because he needed money, he became a basketball coach because even though baseball was his first love, Coach Wooden was the first great basketball player back in the 20s and the 30s in Indiana. Martinsville High School and then Purdue University in the Big Ten. And then he got hurt. Like everybody else. I've never met a single player who stopped playing. The only guy who ever stopped playing on his own was Ernie Vandoi. It was Ernie who came up in an entrepreneurial family. He said, I can't make any money in basketball. I'm going to go become a doctor. I'm going to go become a businessman. I'm going to go become an entrepreneur. So we quit the Knick and he came to Los Angeles. And from the day I met Ernie Van der Way, everything good in my life. And that was in 1970, 46 years ago. When I first got to UCLA, one of the biggest...”

    2016-06-20 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 59 - Bill Walton · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source