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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  • http://64dollacologne.tumblr.com/ cramzy

    I love Bill Walton but he dont want it Sheed. Im sure of it

  • http://64dollacologne.tumblr.com/ cramzy

    *with

  • fruizm

    sheed wouldnt even last a 3 min round.

  • martey

    Walton is a piece of work.

  • http://www.fiba.com Darksaber

    Grantland is becoming a must-visit site.
    Nice job so far by TSG.

  • T-Ray

    You let the human race down? Really? I don’t think it was that extreme dude

  • LA Huey

    The master of hyperbole. Good thing for Walton, he wasn’t “any kind of man”. Sheed could have played the part of Kermit Washington to Walton’s Rudy T.

  • Dru

    Bill … shut up. Sheed would mop the floor with you.

  • http://gmail.com z

    Oooh, i remember watching this game back in ’01 and feeling for sabonis because he’s getting abused by shaq, inadvertently flails and whacks sheed, then sheed acts like a baby about it, refuses to let it go, and throws a towel in sabonis’ face during the ensuing timeout. While i hate bill walton (he’s a hyperbolic moron), he’s right on about this. Sabonis really shoulda let his russian side show for once–he woulda destroyed sheed in a fight.

  • http://gmail.com z

    again, i hate bill walton, but i remember losing some respect for sheed while watching this game. what a baby–sabonis is your teammate, dummy!

  • kbj

    walton you made the right choice..for your sake at least.

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    I agree with z. I remember watching hoping Sabonis would whoop the sh*t outta Sheed after that.

  • T-Money

    darksaber: meh. depends on what you’re looking for, i guess. i’m not really interested in the pop culture references and all the narratives they’re trying to shove down our throats.

  • hiphopcop

    Throw it down BIG MAN!! THROW IT DOWN!!!!

  • http://dsjfklfl.com Jukai

    Yeah, kinda upsetting that the only person who was angry enough and big enough to come to Sabonis’ aid during the whole Sheed thing was the only man with more foot injuries than Sabonis.

  • nicholas

    sheed wouldn’t take that from some hippie dead head

  • http://gmail.com z

    lol at juks, interesting observation

  • The Real Z

    Dude is NOT Russian. Like calling a dude born and raised in Shanghai Japanese

    (although he does speak the language)

  • bike

    Sabonis should have ripped Sheed’s head off and barfed down the hole.

  • http://gmail.com z

    lmao @ theReal Z, sorry man, didn’t mean to jack your “name,” and sorry for not being specific enough about sabas’ nationality (what is it, btw? just curious). I guess i’m enough of an a-hole to consider anyone from the ussr to be a “russian”

  • LA Huey

    Sabas is Lithuanian.

  • http://dksflf.com Jukai

    Interesting question to pose: who do you think has smoked more pot during a four year time period with the Blazers, Rasheed or Bill?

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    Z-Bo beats them both. Unless you combine a year of Bill’s UCLA days. Then he WINS. Rasheed was more of a coke guy.

  • kiwi

    Shred has a big mouth, often a cover for a girly fighting style, waltons old school sure he would’ve shut shred up

  • http://philosopher.view@blogspot.com The Philosopher

    Co-sign L.A. Huey.
    I’m a prince of hyperbole.
    Bill Walton is the king of hyperbole.

  • MrSuper

    I would be careful not to start a fight with Sabonis. In his younger years he was a bit of a hothead…

    http://youtu.be/1N1fbNAPeB4

    There is also an incident where he gets into a fight while playing with Real Madrid, although i cannot find it on Youtube anymore (probably deleted), but I remember watching it on the spots news. Imagine an injured giant running after a power forward (an afrcan american playing in Spain if I remeber corectly) while his compatriot is lying on the hardwood after receiving a “glasgow kiss” from the Lithuanian.

  • Allenp

    I find it funny that Walton was this upset. He did go to school in the 60s I am sure he saw a lot more human failures then and I have never heard him talk about punching people. Let us not discuss living in Boston during the height of the busing war and Lakers rivalry. Funny what makes people really upset.

  • http://philosopher.view@blogspot.com The Philosopher

    Ha!
    If Wallace threw a towel at a Black man, would Walton be as upset?
    Let me find out that Walton is an undercover racist. lol

  • http://www.slamonline.com Max

    Sheed and them towels man..

  • Allenp

    If you watched the Fab Five documentary it was obvious how Walton rolls.

  • http://philosopher.view@blogspot.com The Philosopher

    Nah, I already know.
    I’m just trying to troll.

  • http://dksflf.com Jukai

    Allen: be more specific please?

  • http://dksflf.com Jukai

    You know what, just don’t. If anyone thinks Walton is a racist after reading what Maurice Lucas had to say about him, you’re a god damn idiot.

  • doyouwantmore

    These are the same people who say the Tea Party is racist because they’re against democratic fiscal policies, Rush Limbaugh is racist because he says Obama hasn’t created any jobs, Fox News is racist because they don’t carry water for Obama like MSNBCNN, Christians are racist because etc. etc. – - – But I bet you don’t complain when people use that bull&hit accusation against someone you don’t like.

  • http://twitter.com/#!/MichaelJR_NZ Michael NZ

    @Darksaber at 1.26pm: True. Site has been great.

  • http://dksflf.com Jukai

    doyouwantmore: Oh, you crazy conservative nutcase. I don’t want to say that the Tea Party OR Fox News OR Christians are racist because that’s generalizing an entire group, and I can not say that every person in groups that large are totally racist or not racist at all.
    However, you have to be a blind idiot if you don’t think Limbaugh is racist; something I already know you are.
    Here’s a few quotes by your friend Rush:
    -“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
    -“Right. So you go into Darfur and you go into South Africa, you get rid of the white government there. You put sanctions on them. You stand behind Nelson Mandela — who was bankrolled by communists for a time, had the support of certain communist leaders. You go to Ethiopia. You do the same thing.”
    -“A Chavez is a Chavez. We’ve Always Had Problems with Them”
    -“If homosexuality being inborn is what makes it acceptable, why does racism being inborn not make racism acceptable?”
    -“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
    -“The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.”
    -“Let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”
    -“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.” (To an African American caller)
    -“We need segregated buses… This is Obama’s America.”
    AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE: “They’re 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
    Rush Limbaugh also critisized Steinbrenner for firing a lot of white guys and making a lot of “African Americans rich,” called Obama an affirmative action candidate, said Obama and Oprah were only successful because they were black, said the “black frame of mind” was terrible during a rant about unemployment, played the absurdly racist Jim Crowe referencing song “Barack the Magic Negro” on his radio show about half a dozen times, has used the word spade to describe Obama, described Obama’s economic programs as “reparations”, said Obama would not have acted against the Somolian pirates had he known they were young, black muslims, mocked how the Chinese president spoke by using a stereotypical chinese voice and sounds, used the term “Massa” (racist term for master) when referring to Govenor Patterson…. I don’t really need to go on.
    I’m sure a couple of these are just misquotes, others can be debated as not racist at all. Good luck disproving everything I have listed which I can cite easily.

  • http://slamonline.com Ugh

    That was a quality pwning, Jukai. Top work.

  • http://www.slamonline.com UNFROZEN CAVEMAN LAWYER

    IVE ALWAYS SUSPECTED WALTON

  • DieselMechanic

    Maybe Sheed was trying to get him fired up so he could stop Shaq.

  • Thomas

    Jukai for the win……….YESSSS!!

  • Irocknroll

    Oh and do You Want more!?

  • Brahsef

    Ether

  • LA Huey

    I forgot about Walton’s stance on the Fab Five. The 30 for 30 documentary has a clip that tells me all he needs to know. Walton can be best friends with brothers in the house but only tolerates those in the field.

  • Allenp

    Exactly.

  • http://dksflf.com Jukai

    LOL, yeah, Walton called the Fab 5 overrated. He must HATE the blacks. That can’t actually be Allen posting, right?

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    Bill O’Reilly’s pretty damn racist too.
    I lean a lot more towards the conservative side when it comes to politics. I’m pro-guns, pro-life, pro-God, etc.
    But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna turn a blind eye to the fact that too many conservatives, Republicans and tea partiers are just downright racist. It’s horrible.

  • AQWORD

    la huey said it almost best.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    He didn’t call just call the Fab Five overrated. If that’s all you heard, then we aren’t talking about the same version of reality.
    And people need to stop acting like because some black person vouches for you, that means you can’t be a racist.
    If a child vouches for a pedophile as a nice guy, does that mean he’s not a pedophile?
    If a woman vouches for an abusive man, does that mean he’s not abusive?
    If a Jew vouches for Mel Gibson, does that mean he’s not Anti-Semetic?
    What type of dumb@ss logic is that? Seriously, think that through again.
    Personal testimonials are cool, but when they directly contradict actions, like Walton never saying ANYTHING about Boston fans that was negative, or never speaking out against Jim Crow era racism during college while rolling hard with hippies, tells me that he’s selective in who he directs his outrage towards. And the Fab Five documentary, taken with these comments, provides valuable insight about who gets his dander up.

  • http://gmail.com z

    LA Huey pretty much summed it up nicely. Thanks mane. Juks, you gotta admit, walton’s kinda…like all the other ex-hippies that have found new lives as pillars of conservatism

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    ^^AP so you think it got Walton more heated because it was a black guy that did it to a Russian white guy? As opposed to if Sasha Vujacic(wrong era, but trying to make a point) did it to Sabonis he wouldn’t have gotten heated? I think thats rediculous. Sheed is known for being a bit of a doucher. If Ray Allen had done it you think he would have wanted to go after Allen.(No) He wanted to go after Sheed because he was a big dude that was being a dork who had a rep for doing those things and no one was saying anything or stopping him. Not because it was a black guy picking on a white guy. At least imo.

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