Whatever your weekend plans are, cancel them immediately.
Bill Walton, Hall of Famer and NBA champion from the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, will be in Rip City Saturday at the downtown Powell’s signing his new book, Back From The Dead.
The title of the tale is brilliant in so many ways. For starters, the 6’11” center-turned-analyst is arguably one of the biggest Dead Heads on the planet. According to a 2015 Washington Post article, Walton has been to more than 850 Grateful Dead shows; he was also inducted into the Grateful Dead Hall of Honor back in 2001.
Counterculture aside, this book is set to capture Walton both at his highest as a professional ball player and his lowest following a spinal collapse in 2008. In a recent interview with 750 The Game’s John Canzano (h/t Oregonlive.com), the former Trail Blazer spoke on the unbearable pain he was forced to endure, and he offered the following terrifying reality that came with it.
“I wanted to kill myself,” he told the radio host. “If I had a gun, I would have done it.”
Remember, the book is titled Back From The Dead. For a man who pulled down so many boards throughout his NBA career, it’s undeniable that his most important rebound of all was rebounding from the trauma he went through in his post-basketball life.
But don’t forget that Walton’s history with health problems date back to his days with Portland. It was a broken foot following the championship season that ultimately became a catalyst to a career of injuries. And it was the inefficient treatment he received from team doctors that led to his requesting a trade in 1978 and subsequent season-long holdout.
Of course, every story has two sides.
Ex-Blazer team doctor fires fast and hard at Bill Walton, including drug abuse https://t.co/g0o0SPeuZ3
— Dwight Jaynes (@dwightjaynes) April 7, 2016
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CSNNW.com’s Dwight Jaynes posted in advance of Walton’s Portland appearance that an ex-Trail Blazers doctor isn’t buying what the big man is selling. “That book should be on the fiction shelves,” Dr. Robert Cook explains, via Jaynes, regarding Walton’s account of how the team treated (or specifically didn’t treat) his ailing foot back in the ‘70s.
It’s sad that to this day there’s such back-and-forth regarding what happened, and it’s even sadder to some Blazermaniacs that the dynasty-in-the-making during that time proved to be as mortal as it was short-lived.
What’s not sad? The fact that we now have a book and a podcast to let us absorb the inspiring voice of someone who has overcome so much—someone who was a key component in bringing Rip City its only championship.
Do yourself a favor: Listen to the podcast. Listen to the man praise Maurice Lucas. Listen to his genuine love and appreciation for both life and basketball. And, of course, listen to him recap pouring a beer on the Oregon governor’s head.
Do yourself another favor: Visit Powell’s at noon on Saturday. Buy the book and shake the man’s hand. Then go home, curl up to a fire and form your own opinion on his recap of what happened in Stumptown.
And if nothing else, appreciate a former hometown hero who has conquered the worst that physical pain and emotional depression have to offer.
So yes, clear your schedule. It’s going to be a Bill Walton kind of weekend.
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