The basketball world was still mourning the Monday death of the beloved former player and broadcaster Bill Walton when “Inside the NBA” went on air Tuesday ahead of the Mavericks’ Game 4 battle against the Timberwolves.
The “Inside the NBA” crew took time to remember the basketball and broadcasting legend, with Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal paying somber tributes to him along with Reggie Miller who came on the pregame show in order to discuss Walton.
Walton passed away at the age of 71 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
“When I got that news yesterday it hurt,” Barkley said. “Because you talk about great at basketball, great in life, great as a broadcaster, but just a good person. I never seen a person who was more joyful to be around, who was always in a good mood.
“The world is not as good of a place as it was yesterday. The world was better for having Bill Walton in it and it’s not as good a place as it was. We lost a legitimate person. Obviously, our basketball hearts are heavy. But the world was not as good a place as it was yesterday, because we lost Bill Walton.”
Walton became a legend at UCLA where he helped lead the Bruins to 73 consecutive wins and back-to-back national championships in the early 1970s before embarking on an NBA career where he won titles in Boston and Portland.
After he left the game as a player, Walton embarked on a broadcasting career, most recently calling Pac-12 games on ESPN.
O’Neal said during Tuesday’s pregame that “we definitely lost one of the forefathers of The Big Man Alliance.”
“I saw Bill last year at the Final Four. We hugged. He told me he just wanted to make me better,” O’Neal said. “Luke, the rest of your family, my condolences go out. I’m definitely gonna miss him. He was hard on me and I’m glad he was hard on me. Me, growing up the way I was raised, I’m not soft. It just made me who I am today. Thank you for help forming the Big Man Alliance. We’re gonna miss you, Big Man.”
Shaq acknowledged that the two had not always had the best relationship over the years, as Walton criticized him.
“What I call, the things I’m doing to all the big men now, Bill, all those guys, Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], they were doing it to me. It’s called the Big Man Rites of Passage,” O’Neal said.
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