Bill Walton's passing & defense was insane! | Greatest Peaks, Ep. 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ย. 2020
- Support at Patreon: / thinkingbasketball - How good was Bill Walton when he was healthy in Portland? Was he in the running for best center of all-time? Was he the best passing big man ever? And could he really guarantee a team a championship?
This is the 2nd episode in a series on the greatest peaks in NBA history (focusing on 1977-2020), featuring detailed scouting reports and film breakdown on the best players in NBA history at their best, along with analysis of their impact using historical data & stats to size up the highest peaking players ever.
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Book: www.amazon.com/Thinking-Baske...
Podcast: player.fm/series/thinking-bas... or at www.stitcher.com/podcast/ben-...
Website: www.backpicks.com
Twitter: @elgee35
Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.
Stats courtesy:
www.pbpstats.com @bballport
www.basketball-reference.com
stats.nba.com
For more, see the Thinking Basketball stats series: • NBA Stats 101 Series
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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.
Thanks to 70sFan for providing footage for this video: / @70sfan
Series music:
csus (instrumental)
Hair (fairlight)
Imperfect Place
Lost by Alter Ego
Restless Knight
#ThinkingBasketball #GreatestPeaks #NBAGoat - กีฬา
Patreon Insiders & Deluxe subscribers get early access to each episode before it is released: www.patreon.com/posts/44458948 They will also able to vote at the end of the series on their top-10 after seeing all of profiles -- I'll include those results in the series finale when stacking up the top peaks.
I just don’t see how or why you don’t think Wilt Chamberlain is one of the greatest of all time. You give Russell a lot of credit for getting his team involved, but that was because he had to...Russell didn’t have an offensive game. Switch Wilt and Bill ‘s teams and you’ll see Wilt with more rings and Russell with less.
All that being said...I do love this series you’re doing. You are one of the few people who understand basketball as well as I do, it’s refreshing to see! 😊👍🏻
By the way....the elite 11 are:
1.)Jordan-6 of 6(6)
2.)Magic-3 of 9(5)
3.)Wilt-2* of 6(2)
4.)LeBron-4 of 10(4)
5.)Bird-2 of 5(3)
6.)Abdul-Jabbar-2 of 10(6)
7.)Shaq-3 of 6 (4)
8.)Russell-4* of 12 (11)
9.)Kobe-2 of 7 (5)
10.)Olajuwon-2 of 3(2)
11.)Duncan-3 of 6(5)
Finals MVP’s/appearances & (Rings)
* look at stats for finals mvp’s
If Kareem and magic were truly top five of all time then they would have more rings. Go back and look to see what magic did without kareem and then what Kareem did without Magic.
p
y
haha
When I was younger I thought he was just some pot head who was very passionate about basketball.
I mean... you're not all wrong lol
@@elowe5937 😂😂
You're not wrong, he just also was a great player
He looks like a mutated Shaggy
I mean, he was the ultimate pothead who loved basketball.
“Bill Walton hit cutters like no other”
Bobby just erases the shot
if only you could've finished your film study on him
Hey I talked to you about old players on discord one time
He did hit the cutter tho
That was my homage to Bobby.
Bobby?
aight. Bill Walton? Ty for having so much insight on these older players that I don't really know about. Really appreciate it! 👍
Bill Walton that year is the only one who can makes Kareem look like a 2nd Best player in 70s. It happened only once for 70s Kareem.
Bob Pettit is fr criminally underrated you should look into him
Normally when people say someone is underrated they're capping but this dude is severely underrated. Videos like this should be getting millions of views regularly
@@evanrichards1576 petit did not play during the 70s
I already know I’m gonna love this entire series
i would laugh my head off if the GOAT OF GOATS is like Dennis Rodman or Lamebeer or some co-star player.
@@injusticeanywherethreatens4810 Benjamin Morris of Skeptical Sports and 538 wrote a deep dive some years ago that make a stats-based argument for Rodman first skepticalsports.com/the-case-for-dennis-rodman-guide/
Its been FANTASTIC so far thru the 1st 5 episodes
@@za5528 I remember this, it's a pretty solid argument, though we've seen a heck of a lot from LeBron since this was written... And I'm not convinced LeBron is past his prime (as ludicrous as that sounds, I know)
@@injusticeanywherethreatens4810 we all know they're not.
This guy deserves his own tv show or TH-cam premium exclusive like he's that talented and good
He has a Patreon, which is even better
I knew he was great, but I didn't know that he deserves a "best peak" argument, excited to watch
Him and Wes Unseld are probably the two overlooked beasts that we'll have in this era.
@@dusk6159 i'll die happy if he does a wes unseld video. wish there was more footage of him
Same
Well it says much that wilt has him very high on his list of top centers. Wilt said that Walton was the one other Center besides himself, who did it all. Obviously, he meant who did it all at a high-level like himself. Russell was a decent but never a great scorer. Kareem was well-rounded too, but his rebounding fell off greatly in the 2nd portion of his career.
Bill is great and in the Hall, in spite of short term greatness/dominance. Grant Hill too, was great a for a bit longer, though a still relative short time. Though Grant came back as a serviceable player afterward. I would say their short term greatness put them in the Hall.
Then u have other's with long term good, solid play. A Jack Sikma, for instance. Maybe Robert Parish. But they weren't as high as impact players as Bill or Grant in their primes.
I’ve never seen Walton play and the footage of him is rare, so when I say this take it lightly. But, according to my dad and great uncle Bill could’ve been the GOAT big if his body didn’t degrade at the rate that it did
Bill is probably the coolest player to watch because how hard he worked to learn all the plays to become a playmaker for his team! If only his body could hold up, great career anyways.
I remember My uncles and grandparents (who would now be 85-100 years old) sitting around restaurant tables talking about the greatest basketball players of all time, and the three who constantly came up time and time again were Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bill Walton.
Bill considered suicide several times in the early 90s after his feet needed to be fused to his legs, preventing him from being able to turn his feet whatsoever for the rest of his life. He had only considered himself a basketball player for his entire life, and for a while, he no longer felt his life had a value without his ability to play.
@@TRJ2241987 WOW!
@@TRJ2241987 do you have any other crazy story’s I’m a young fan and I want any info you got
I watched every game of the 1977 finals, and I hated Walton, because he was so damn good. It took me years to get that out of my system, because Dr. J was my hero. As I got older, I realized how fantastic that 1977 run was--they were facing teams with more star power, but the won because of great D, and team basketball, led by Big Red.
As a young nuggets fan who hasn’t seen much bill walton footage before this, much of his game, especially passing, is very reminiscent of jokic, or perhaps the other way around
He was pretty much a a more athletic and defensive jokic honestly.
@@jwpdsrp693 much more.
Jokic is probably the best i have got to see. But, i would consider walton, wilt, russell, and unseld better passers. We will see how things go for Jokic as time goes on.
@@demonkingbadger6689 better passers than Jokic?
@@filipbabovic5914 wilt did lead the league in assists one year. I cant say they were as flashy, but as effective, yes.
A guy at work described Walton as "95% of Gobert's defense, paired with 95% of Jokic's offense".
At this point, hes most likely less than 95% of Jokic's offense but nevertheless a great perspective
50% at best.
@@wallstreetzoomer 50% of what?
@@reedfreida1215 and that's where you get to the what ifs, he was an improving scorer when the feet caught up with him but no he probably would never have the finishing ability of a jokic
Walton was a BEAST until that idiotic macrobiotic diet of his destroyed his body. What could have been....
I loved watching prime Bill Walton so much because not only was he supremely skilled on offense and defense, Big Bill was a TEAM player. Why? Walton had a very high basketball IQ and on offense he was like Larry Bird in that his game encouraged total team basketball and pin point passing. Even though he wasn't tremendously mobile he was effective in the paint and could score in multiple ways within the parameters of his skill set and mobility. Maybe he wasn't very mobile, he was extremely quick, had a soft touch, his footwork on offense and defense was high level, and he was the perfect big man for a team to play off of like in Portland. His rebounding and outlet passing were some of the greatest of all time and his quick shot blocking was great. On offense he could have scored a lot more points but he realized team basketball won more. His half court vision and passing skills were some of the best in history at the center position and was so quick when he looked to score either to his right or to his left. Prime Bill Walton was a GREAT player.
He was quite mobile before the injuries got so severe.
@@Amick44 Walton's best mobility was at UCLA but after he became a pro, the injuries started piling up and he was less mobile. Compared to centers like Russell, Hakeem, Willis Reed, David Robinson, etc... he wasn't as mobile and pretty much stayed around the paint. Even in his prime NBA years, he seldom ventured away from the basket too far.
Don't pause at 2:49. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist thinks that form is bad.
looks like my 8th grade teacher's shot
All that matters is that It goes in
I think it's useful. You never know which basket he's aiming for.
he does it again at 0:28. if it works it's actually kinda cool
Walton's back to back alley oops in the 1977 Finals is still one of the greatest sequences in NBA Finals history, as well as Brent Musburger's best calls, and had gone completely forgotten in the modern era
All time franchise player/mania and top Blazers all time franchise player to this day.
I'm pretty young and Brent musburger calling a basketball game sounds joyous
I will never forget that series. My 1st time watching basketball on TV('77 playoffs)and my 1st NBA finals.🏀🏀
@@coreygolphenee9633 Musburger was awesome with that series. . . He called Bill Walton. . ."The Mountain Man"
I was watching that sequence with my dad at home. I remember yelling
"The glory might go to the preening pretty boys on the perimeter, but this is a game that is still decided by men who make their living in the paint." Bill Walton
Something this video glosses over, Walton's 78 was likely better than 77. He peaked as one of the greatest players ever and he was still improving.
He definitely agrees with that on a per game basis but he missed so much time in 78 that its hards to confidently pin it down
This studies isn't about single season anomalies as he stated before. So he has to considered both.
@@qwikscopez6619 this comment wasn't a strike against Ben at all. Just a tangent on how insane Walton could've been
@@starfyre59 fair, and true
Walton in late '77. At that point I think there was a lot of optimism that the Blazers would be the first team to repeat as champions since the '69 Celtics. It all fell apart in early '78. The Blazers had a 1st round by in the Playoffs, back when that was a thing in the NBA, and still lost 2-4 to Seattle in the 2nd round and Bill could barely play. He was 25 years old, and the peak of his career was over.
People don’t understand how good he was. Bill single handedly brought the Blazers a championship in a insanely competitive era.
I didn’t think Walton would get an episode but happy that he did
He joined the Celts in 86 as 6th man and they won the chip and a spot in the debate of best teams ever. Watching him and Larry Bird dance was magic.
no, Magic was the black guy
Bill Walton is a guy I never really looked into, knew he was a college stud and won a championship in the 70s and was derailed by injury but that was pretty much it. Thanks for all the great info in this video!
I think Bill's best skill was that of an unselfish teammate who just wanted to win and was just as happy when someone else scored.Team chemistry.
The numbers this guy was throwing up before the injury did him in were legendary. He's the greatest unknown GOAT in basketball
Dude, how is this content actually freely available on TH-cam? It is honestly amazing quality with the research, the graphs, and also the narration - brilliant work, Ben. Looking forward to future episodes in the series.
Fr
I never hear ANY MEDIA PERSON SAY HE'S GONNA BE THE NEXT BILL WALTON 🤦🏿♂️ DUDE WAS GOATED
I was watching TH-cam on my phone, but opened my laptop to watch this, since this deserves to be seen on a larger monitor
Same. I have to give these ideas the respect they deserve and watch on my smart TV for max screenage
Literally the same
private screening in local imax
🤣🤣 nbs
HELL YES
Peak NBA Walton '76-'78 was so brief, and yet he ranks among the top 10 greatest players I've followed. Walton played in a small market of Portland, and growing up in the 70's, the big markets for tough teams were Boston, Philly, NY and even Baltimore. In the rare times that we'd get Blazers' games, they were usually at 11 PM. The '76-'77 team was making a lot of noise. The world got to see just how good that team was, and how GREAT Walton was when they steamrolled a heavily favored, star-studded Sixers squad. We can argue who the best passing center was/is, but in that time, with no 3 point shooters to spread the court, the style of play was Walton as traditional low post and mid post center, with lots of pick & roll and back door cutting. In that style, there's never been a better interior passer or rim protector (outside of Russell's D) in the game.
Dude your quality is so fucking good. Keep up the good work man.
A healthy Bill Walton’s game would translate pretty well to today. Sort of like a more athletic version of Jokic. He would have easily been First Team All-NBA from 2012-2016.
Indeed
Jokić vindicates him. If he was even more athletic than Jokić then no questions asked he would be great today.
Peak Bill Walton is one of my favourite players ever! Easily a top 20 peak ever imo. Probably top 15.
By peak, I mean a one year peak.
@@carusohighlightreel4275 I'd say 2 yrs.
I can’t believe there was a Tom Boerwinkle highlight in this, that’s amazing
Nbs
Tom boerwinkle gave knee surgery / oldies 30s wilt trouble ; good rebounder tom boerwinkle ; he was like very tall ken benson.without ken benson lefty hook shot at indiana
This old footage is so dope to watch. Didn’t know Walton had such a beautiful and well rounded game.
He did. As well rounded as any C who has played. Though not as dominant offensively as some.
THANK YOU!!! Bill Walton is so underrated and underappreciated, glad I can recc this video to ppl who don't know
“I could smell sounds! I could hear colors! Watching Detlef Schremph shoot from the outside is unbelievable!”
I’m loving this new series. It’s way more interesting because we often forget that some of the best peaks belong to kinda middling HOF type players rather than the GOAT argument most of us are familiar with.
Great stuff!
❤ Bill walton master rebounder, outlet passing, defender, passer, good score etcetc
I always love bigs that find cutters at ease like Duncan and Jokic. Maximizing their height not only on defense but to the overall game of basketball. Would love to back in time and experience a whole nba season with bigs like this.
I LOVE Bill Walton, thank you for this video! And for the Wes Unseld mention. Two of my all time favorite players and they arent much talked about.
This is gonna be an incredible series. Awesome job!
Just know we appreciate the work you put into these videos, dont stop, this is good content
Bill has been one of my favorites since I discovered him he could do it all sad his career ended short by injury but he still did so much in a short time its incredible
Props on the quality content Ben. This series can be easily packaged and sold as a documentary
I absolutely LOVE this series.
Your content is far more in-depth and goes beyond what’s expected from content like this! Thank you so much for these awesome videos!
Woah, ok Ben. This is exactly how I wanted to start my day!
I really enjoy this videos man! Thanks you!
The range of data this channel collects is amazing. The analysis is so comprehensive and insightful that my mind gets stressed from thinking too much.
Seeing a thinking basketball notification always puts a smile on my face
Thank you for blessing us with quality content Ben 😊😊
Nice, I’m too young to have seen Bill in Portland, but him coming off the bench in Boston is one of my early basketball memories. I remember the fans going absolutely nuts for him when he came into the game.
Years ago I got UCLA basketball season tickets through a friend. It was the season before they redid Pauley Pavillion, so there were occasional presentations about Pualey’s history. I remember someone saying UCLA won 150 of their first 151 home games at Pauley during a halftime presentation. Unbelievable until you remember they had two of the greatest college (and professional) centers of all time between 1965 and 1975 (not to mention Sydney Wicks and Jamaal Wilkes).
Thanks for making this, I'm trying to learn more about all the basketball greats. Your content is above any other basketball youtuber's content
Just picked up the book, got delivered yesturday, cant wait to get into it!
Easily the best NBA content on TH-cam! Keep it up Ben
1:53
Or as Kareem once put it in an interview, "Bill Russell strangled the league for 11 championships"...
There's a reason Boston led the league in "least scored against" almost every year Russell played....
Unreal content! please keep up the in depth, knowledgeable, and exceptional work!
Man such a cool episode. Love these glimpses into great players from different eras
Love the series. Keep it up!
Congrats on the episode and the series, excellent work. There are so many good stories about Big Bill (most of them told by him!), one of my favorites since your video touched on it...The story on Walton's controversial height goes that Bill walked into UCLA, and first day/first thing the coaching staff did was weigh and measure every player...as soon as Bill stepped up to get measured, coach Wooden interrupted and told the assistant coach --Walton is 6'9" put that on your clipboard. Of course Wooden wanted the advantage of having other teams be surprised by a 6'9" center...that was actually 7'2"
Walton averaged 5.5 assists per game in the ’77 Playoffs. Russell averaged five assists or more in seven different playoffs,20 PPG in 7 different playoff/finals including 6.3 a game in the ’65 Playoffs (when it was much tougher to get credited for an assist). For his career, Russell averaged playoff (4.7) than any center (except jokic) who ever played more than 30 playoff games.
Great video and great series!!! Hope we see Maravich in one of these videos... He deserves praise
So excited for this whole series
This video was so well-made, at one point I thought my screen was cracked. 😅 Looking forward to the next one!
Bill had hops in college. He started having foot problems his very first pro season. There are pictures of him with his hand close to the top of the backboard while at UCLA.
Always interesting to have a look at older players, we get a taste of how it all evolved!
So happy you did Walton for the first episode!
I love how you take the grainy footage & actually break everything down in layman's terms rather than sensationalize it; gives great perspective on exactly who the players are instead of knowing them just for the "legend" so to speak. The older analytic darlings from the early days should get love too, and the stuff that doesn't show up un the box score (i.e contests, motor) should get the focus and attention since we nerds have been studying the numbers for decades. This opens a door to a whole new way of watching basketball, just like sabremetrics is shifting the way us baseball nerds look at baseball & player value now. Thank you for this FREE content & I'm excited to see how this Big Data Basketball progresses in the 20's!
Didn’t know much about Walton as he played in an era far before my time. But I have gained a new respect for this man and the impact he had on his teams. I’m hoping the rest of the series can shine some light on older, maybe under appreciated greats of the game.
It is beautiful to see the influence of the GOAT series here
The first greatest peaks got my subscription, love your insight of the game
The '77 Blazers were the youngest Championship team in history! Imagine if Walton had stayed healthy & they had battled the Lakers in the early '80s
Grant hill, and Derek rose should make this list too if you’re going to just imagine what could’ve been.
As a kid in '78 my dad had season tickets to the Bullets. I'll never forget watching the game against the Trailblazers that year in the old Capital Center arena. I remember thinking to myself how Walton was SOOO much better than everyone else on the court. He made the Bullets look like the Generals. He would have racked up a lot of titles had he stayed healthy. Sigh.
Just finished Halberstams book a couple months ago, so this video was a great statistical addition. My takeaway: There aren't 10 players in NBA history I would rather have on my roster during their prime. Thank you very much for the excellent breakdown!
This is such a great series
The first basketball TH-camr to recognize how similar basketball passing is to water polo 😤🐐😤🐐
great thumbnail and a FTW viddy on bill walton. he certainly is a unique figure in the history of basketball.
Great video!
Finally, Coach Nick is validated after all these years
Couldn't make the argument for Bill better than Ben
I was kind of worried that you would only talk about the more famous ones. But man no this is amazing.
i love this series so much
I have only glanced at a picture of him before and thought he was some okay player in the 80's not realizing that there are some great players in the "middle ages" of basketball. See this really opens my eyes to the greatness of the earlier generations.
Great data analytics!
Walton was one of my favorite players to watch, when he was on. He had to be 7'1", or more, though always listed at 6'11". He had a commanding presence at the center position. Always with the knee pads, he looked like an accident waiting to happen, though, and I guess he was. If he fell, it took him 2, or 3 body lengths to finally hit the floor.
Walton said he was measured a shade under 7 foot when he came to UCLA, most people in the NBA add an inch or 2 to their listed height, so to be consistent with the heights of other players he should have been listed at at least 7' 1"
Thanks for this. This video cleared up some misconceptions I had about him as a Blazers fan. Are these only NBA peaks? Because Sabonis would be a great one.
I only really know Walton from the Big Book of Basketball so thanks for this!
Please do add the other greats so people would know them like Gervin, Isiah Thomas, Barry, and etc. Your channel is really great with the analysis.
Starting this series off with big men I see coach! Love to watch it. Are you going to keep it post centric before moving onto other positions? If so, I'd love to see you create a mashup of all their best skills to create your all time big man as a fun aside. Love the content man, cant wait for the next one!
Probably. It's going to be chronological and initially it was a big man's game.
God I love this channel so much
If Walton hadn't suffered from the foot injuries, he'd be talked about in the same breath as Chamberlain, Russell, and Kareem.
Nice job! I have known Bill since high school. Quality man and certainly the best of all time in my opinion. Bill had given me a bunch of pic's before leaving San Diego last year...one clearly shows him blocking Kareem's Sky Hook!
For those two years Bill Walton was the best player in the NBA. 1977 NBA Finals MVP and Champion. 1978 NBA MVP.
Oh man this was perfect timing
Really enjoyed and appreciated your video. Great to see Walton get some of the well-deserved respect he's due. Most people know how good he was in leading the Blazers to the 1977 NBA title. Yet, very few people remember how devastating he was the very next year. It's a shame that he couldn't have played out the entirety of the 1977-78 season injury free. If he had, history may have been completely different. The 77-78 Blazers surely would have been the first NBA team to reach (and most likely surpass) the 70 win mark. They were 50-10 when Walton was lost for that season. They would have gone down as one of the greatest teams in NBA history, and it might have been them, not the Lakers, who would have become the dynasty in the West. Most of all, we wouldn't have had to hear the years of dumb questions about whether Walton was deserving of all-time great status. He was putting together a season for the ages that year, and still was the runaway winner of the NBA MVP award, even though he missed the final third of that season.
I’ve seen Walton dominate games while scoring few points. He controlled the offense as well as the defense.
Exactly. It's almost like he was a PG playing the low post.
Great series
Like before watch, knew it will be a good video
Awesome. Despite his injuries, Walton showed that he was one of the most impactful 2-way team basketball players ever in his short prime.
He reached his true potential but it was cut short
This might be the best content on the internet
Great stuff
You really put into perspective how elite Walton was.
Another masterpiece
How old is this channel? Just discovered it and this content is AMAZING 😃!!!