One Basketball Fact: Bill Walton Joined The Clippers For The Boss
As well as being one of the biggest big men ever seen in the NBA, Bill Walton is one of the biggest characters probably ever associated with the sport of basketball. The 1977 NBA champion and MVP, considered to be the best player in Portland Trail Blazers history, is known just as much for being a larger-than-life character as well as his achievements in the sport.
His personality is matched by his wide and varied interests: he is a practitioner of yoga and meditation as well as a friend of the novelist Ken Kesey. The 6'11" former center is also dedicated, passionate music lover and a fan of numerous artists and bands including Bob Dylan, Neil Young and most of all The Grateful Dead, for whom he played drums on-stage at their iconic Rocking the Cradle show in Egypt.
At a pivotal moment in his career his love of music seemed to be an influence in making and important career decision. After five seasons in Portland, Walton entered free agency in 1979 and while a player of his caliber could have had a pick of the teams, he seemed to make an unexpected beeline for the San Diego Clippers.
At the time it seemed anyone would only play for the Clippers for lack of a better option. The team was struggling and showed no real signs of improvement, having only had three winning seasons in their albeit short history and winning just one playoff series. Yet Walton seemed set on making the move to San Diego, the reasons seemingly being largely sentimental ones.
For a start it was his hometown and he thought he could help the team see new success, but there was another, somewhat unusual reason for joining San Diego that off-season: Bruce Springsteen. The Boss had a week of concerts at the Clippers' home arena that October, all of which were long sold out even before free agency began. A big Springsteen fan, Walton was disappointed to miss out on the show, but maybe saw a way in with his new deal.
This is evident from the contract he negotiated with the Clippers, in which there was a clause where he would receive tickets to each of the Springsteen shows, tickets that Walton would pay the face value for. Just going to show how much Walton truly values music, that he insisted on not receiving them for free.
Hopefully they were all good concerts, because Walton's time in San Diego was decidedly underwhelming. Though hampered by injuries for much of it, his numbers on both ends of the floor dropped dramatically and he failed to help the team make the playoffs once.
Walton left the Clippers in 1985, calling his failure in San Diego as the biggest in his life and citing a reason for his departure being Donald Sterling's takeover of the team: "The basketball was awful, and the business side was immoral, dishonest, corrupt, and illegal. Other than that, it was all fine."
It has been said that one of the biggest reasons why the Clippers were the NBA's worst-performing team, from their days in San Diego onward up to the Lob City era, was their owner. Long before it became common knowledge that he was a racist garbage person, those in the organization knew Donald Sterling had almost no interest in basketball and ran the team poorly, from making misguided decisions with the team to balking over handing out the grand sum of $1000 to a fan contest winner.
The next season Walton went on to capture his second NBA championship with the Boston Celtics, also winning the Sixth Man of the Year award. His time with the Clippers then not the start of a downward trend yet merely a set back due to poor team culture. Under the coaching in Boston Walton still had some more miles in him at a late point in his career. The Clippers meanwhile continued to see inconsistencies and struggle for the next three decades.
The team was so misguided and directionless, you could almost say the Clippers were dancing in the dark...
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