Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 at 12:52 pm  |  113 responses

Bill Walton: ‘I Should’ve Punched Rasheed Wallace in the Face’


There’s a really great feature about Arvydas Sabonis on Grantland today, but we couldn’t get through it without laughing about Bill Walton’s take on a Rasheed Wallace-Sabonis conflict, during which Walton was broadcasting the game on national television: “In the following season, Wallace threw the towel at Sabonis during a timeout of a game against the Lakers. Sabonis had accidentally smacked Wallace’s face earlier when he collided in the post with O’Neal. … Walton, who was broadcasting the game nationally, still feels remorse over the incident. ‘It was one of the lowest moments of my life,’ he said. ‘If I was any kind of a man, I would have got up from that broadcast table and walked across the court and punched Rasheed Wallace in the nose. But I let Sabonis and the game of basketball and the human race down that day.’”

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  • Jukebox

    I watched that game as well & sheeed qowas a moron for that. He wasn’t man enough to guard shaq & dimdnt want any part of him so he took it out on saboninis

  • http://Slam Larry

    Hey Bill ” Tenderfoot” Walton you mean you should have limped accross the court and………….. probally got the dust kicked out of you!

  • bill

    Bill Walton backed into the HOF. If He had raised one cowardly hand towards Wallace he would have needed a stretcher.And he knows that. When clubfoot played for the title with Portland,it was a smaller guy, the late great Maurice Lucas who was the enforcer or tough guy.He won that title for Portland because the 76er’s were scared shi#$%^s of him.

  • GroovyDude

    I happen to personally know a girl who knew Sheed and Jerry Stackhouse on a personal level while they were at UNC. This girl, who is now working for a law firm in NYC and is BLACK, described Sheed as a “Philly NI***R! She also described Jerry Stackhouse as a gentleman.
    Case CLOSED!

  • Blaze Benedict

    THROW IT DOWN OLD MAN! THROW IT DOWN!

    Methinks Rasheed would have been too high to care about Ol’ Wild Bill, but if it came to fists, I would have to take Rasheed hands down because he’s from Philly.

    Walton grew up in the all-white township of La Mesa, California. He don’t want none of Sheed, and that’s why he stayed his ass in the broadcast chair

  • Ken

    this is Bill Walton being Bill Walton. This is Bill Walton saying I let my friend and teammate down in that situation. I was a coward and I have regretted that I acted cowardly in that instance and i have felt shame and remorse from it all this time…. Bill Walton will stand taller for making his public admission… while the rest of us stand around talkin dirt….. well, anyone here wanna admit publicly to the whole world where they were a coward one time???? not me…. takes a big man….

  • Moosa

    Jukai and LakeShow for president! This has been one of the most interesting comment sections in a while here at SLAM. I for one do not understand how anyone can call Walton a racist, and I dont think anyone he’s ever played with would say that either. Walton is old school, he doesn’t like flash, especially when it doesnt get backed up. I miss Walton as an announcer, he was honest and old school, he put a lot of things in perspective. I would have loved to hear him in the booth for a few Miami games, he would have gone nuts over all the camera posing those guys do after every single play. The game evolves, in both positive and negative ways. It’s important to have guys like Walton remind people of the things that really matter in the game, beyond the shiny suits, posing and PR-machine. He’s all about the purity of the game. And that has nothing do to with race.

  • Moosa

    Oh, and wallace was always a punk, totally regardless of race. He threw a towel at a hall of famer for an accidental elbow. Nuff said. Walton is a hyberbolic kind of guy, he’s not saying he would punch Wallace, he’s saying Wallace is an a**hole. Which is correct.

  • bill

    Hey Bill,Believe me.You did the right thing by keeping your NO playing ass in your seat.You and that no playing son of yours can’t handle SHEED.

  • D Paul

    The number of reverse racist comments are expected but astronomical. Sabonis was a big and awkward Lithuanian. O’Neil was mobile and probably pushed Sabonis into Wallace. Wallace is the poster child for “street thug”. Walton was one of the few non blacks who played unafraid. There is constant agitation by African-Americans against anyone who is not. This is physical and constant. The recent episode of Carmelo Anthony rearranging the face of Hedo Turkoglu is well within these racist parameters. He also ran his coach out of town and undercut the success of Jeremy Lin. The hero of the Syracuse run to the 2003 NCAA title is nothing more than another Rasheed Wallace street thug whose gym shorts are just a little longer.

  • http://twitter.com/Powerhouse233 Cornelius

    Wow, what a scumbag you are making this about race. Nothing in the article remotely sounds racist.

  • http://twitter.com/Powerhouse233 Cornelius

    Your ignorance is astounding.

  • http://twitter.com/Powerhouse233 Cornelius

    How, how is it even remotely racist? Because he’s white and Sheed’s black? That’s all you got?

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