29 Facts About Bill Walton

1. Bill Walton led the league in blocked shots and rebounding, was named to the NBA all-defensive team, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1977 play-offs.

2. Bill Walton was named the NCAA player of the year in three consecutive seasons.

3. Bill Walton was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of both tournaments and established an NCAA tournament career record for field goal percentage at 68.6 percent from 1972 to 1974.

4. In 1971, Bill Walton joined the powerhouse basketball team led by legendary coach John Wooden at the University of California, Los Angeles.

5. Bill Walton was born on November 5, 1952, in La Mesa, California.

6. On Monday, Rogers County Sheriff Scott Bill Walton told KJRH that a lawyer came up to the third-floor courtroom at the Rogers County Courthouse with bugs falling out of his clothing.

7. Bill Walton returns to his alma mater, one of his happy places along with Maui and any concert featuring members of the Grateful Dead.

8. Bill Walton attended more than 850 Grateful Dead concerts, including traveling with the band to Egypt for its famous 1978 performance before the Pyramids, and quotes Grateful Dead lyrics in TV and radio interviews.

9. Bill Walton began calling Oregon Ducks guard Ehab Amin "The Egyptian pharaoh" because of his Egyptian heritage.

10. Bill Walton is widely known for being the ancient Greek God of Hyperbole.

11. Bill Walton was added to the San Diego Hall of Champions in 1990.

12. Bill Walton attempted a comeback in February 1990, but injury intervened and he retired from the game.

13. Bill Walton signed with the Trail Blazers but his first two seasons were marred by injury and the Blazers missed the playoffs both years.

14. Bill Walton appeared in an episode of the reality TV show Shark Tank on January 20, 2012, where he helped to sell the "Clean Bottle", a water bottle that unscrews at both ends for easier cleaning.

15. Bill Walton is a playable character in the video games NBA Street Vol.

16. In 1990, Bill Walton was inducted by the San Diego Hall of Champions into the Breitbard Hall of Fame honoring San Diego's finest athletes both on and off the playing surface.

17. Bill Walton considers himself a fan and friend of the late writer Ken Kesey.

18. Bill Walton is particularly attached to the Grateful Dead, whose concerts he started attending in 1967, while he was still in high school.

19. Bill Walton currently resides in his hometown of San Diego with his wife Lori.

20. Bill Walton typically was paired with Steve "Snapper" Jones for national NBA games because he and Jones had a point-counterpoint banter during games.

21. Bill Walton had his number 32 retired by the Blazers in 1989.

22. Bill Walton was inducted into both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.

23. Bill Walton spent more time on the disabled list than on the court with his hometown San Diego Clippers.

24. Bill Walton returned to action for the playoffs, but was reinjured in the second game of a series against the Seattle SuperSonics.

25. Bill Walton received the USBWA College Player of the Year and Naismith College Player of the Year as the top college basketball player in the country three years in a row while attending UCLA, at the same time earning Academic All-American honors three times.

26. At age 17, Bill Walton played for the United States men's national basketball team at the 1970 FIBA World Championship.

27. Bill Walton was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 10, 1993 and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame that same year.

28. Bill Walton became known playing for John Wooden's powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early 1970s, winning three successive College Player of the Year Awards, while leading the Bruins to two national titles.

29. Bill Walton calls it "the greatest accomplishment in my life", referring to the speech.