Season of His Dreams : Walton’s Title With Blazers in 1977 Eased Pain of Injury-Filled Career

SAN DIEGO —  For one dream season in an injury-shattered NBA career, everything fell into place for Bill Walton.

It had been so easy for Walton through his years at Helix High School in La Mesa and UCLA. He was the best high school basketball player in the state and the best college player in the country.

At UCLA, Walton led the Bruins to two NCAA titles and was named player of the year in all three of his varsity seasons. His incredible 21-for-22 shooting binge for a record 44 points in the 1973 championship game against Memphis State still stands as the greatest single-game feat in NCAA tournament history.

After that, Walton barely found a home with the Portland Trail Blazers before he was beset by the physical problems that led to innumerable foot operations, premature retirement and serious doubt whether he will ever walk normally again.

But Walton managed to play most of the 1976-77 season, and he was such a dominant center at 6-feet-11 and 250 pounds that the Trail Blazers suddenly rose from obscurity to the NBA championship.

Chances are that if it hadn’t been for a wave of injuries that inevitably included Walton, the Trail Blazers would have made a run for another title the following year. They won 50 of their first 60 games, and Jack Ramsay, then their coach, says in retrospect, “That team was actually better than the championship team.”

Forced to finish with a patchwork lineup, the 1977-78 Trail Blazers were eliminated by the Seattle SuperSonics in the Western Conference semifinals after drawing a first-round bye. Nevertheless, despite being limited to 58 games, Walton was voted the NBA’s most valuable player.

As it turned out, he never played for the Trail Blazers again. And with their main man gone, they suffered through a long dry spell before finally reappearing in the current championship series against the defending champion Detroit Pistons.

Walton’s foot problems forced him to miss three entire seasons--1978-79 as a member of the Trail Blazers and 1980-81 and 1981-82 after being traded to the Clippers, then based in San Diego. He did play at least parts of four seasons with the Clippers, the last in Los Angeles, before being traded to the Boston Celtics in 1985 and winding up his career with them after the 1986-87 season.

While with the Celtics, Walton had one last hurrah, winning his second championship ring in 1985-86 as Robert Parish’s backup. Still, his fondest memories as a pro go back 13 years to that storybook season in Portland.

Relaxing in the family room of his home near Balboa Park, his omnipresent crutches nearby, Walton, 37, reminisced about a time when life couldn’t have been happier.

“I had a good feeling about that season from the start,” Walton said. “Over the summer, they fired Lenny Wilkens as coach and hired Jack Ramsay, who was a brilliant strategical coach and a real student of the game. He was just great. They also brought in many new players--Maurice Lucas, Dave Twardzik, Herm Gilliam, Johnny Davis, Robin Jones, Wally Walker and Corky Calhoun.

“I can remember two specific instances that gave me a tremendous lift and optimism.

“Lucas and Gilliam were in town to get their housing situations under control, and I knew right away that Luke would be a phenomenal player and teammate for me, and a great friend. Luke said, ‘We’re going to win it all this year,’ and I said, ‘You bet.’ That was a tremendous moment for me, for him to come in with such an upbeat attitude.

“The other thing was what happened in a preseason game against the Lakers. They had the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Luke won the game for us with a left-handed slam dunk over Kareem. I was sure then that we were going on to a good season.”

As the season went along, Walton’s optimism grew. Greg Lee, a former UCLA and Trail Blazer teammate and still a close friend, dropped in on Walton last week and recalled a letter he received back then. Lee teaches calculus and trigonometry and coaches the basketball and tennis teams at Clairemont High School.

“I was playing in West Germany that year,” Lee said. “This guy (Walton) wrote me on airplane stationery, and he said, ‘I really think we have the best team in the league.’ I thought he had flipped.”

Three teams had better records than the Trail Blazers’ 49-33 that season, and the Trail Blazers beat all three in the playoffs. After ousting the Chicago Bulls (44-38) in the opening miniseries, two games to one, they defeated the Denver Nuggets (50-32) in six games, stunned the Lakers (53-29) in a four-game sweep and won the championship by beating the Philadelphia 76ers (50-32) in six.

The Trail Blazers lost the first two games to the 76ers, then became the only team in NBA history to come back from a 2-0 deficit in the final series by winning four games in a row.

“The Sixers had just acquired Dr. J (Julius Erving),” Walton said. “He was going to dominate the league and establish a dynasty. But we liked our team, and we were confident of our ability to win in any situation.”

Erving had a great series, averaging 29.5 points with a final-game high of 40, but Walton had a greater one. He averaged 18.2 points and 18.7 rebounds and saved his best for the clincher--20 points, 23 rebounds, seven assists and a playoff-record eight blocked shots. He was a runaway choice as the most valuable player in the series.

Walton’s superb play led Philadelphia Coach Gene Shue to remark, “Bill Walton is the best player for a big man who has ever played the game of basketball.”

Even though they had a superstar in Walton, the Trail Blazers were a team in the true sense of the word. Teamwork was their trademark. With Walton and Lucas controlling the backboards and Gross, Lionel Hollins and Twardzik or Davis racing downcourt on the fast break, they ran opponents dizzy.

“The fast break was my game, and I was very fortunate to play with good passers,” Walton said. “Lucas was a great basketball player, and we all played very well together. We liked to run backdoor plays with Gross and give-and-go with Twardzik. We had a lot of depth, too.”

Walton cited the key factors in the Trail Blazers’ drive through the three preliminary rounds.

“We came so close to losing the Chicago series,” he said. “Lucas, Twardzik and I all fouled out of the last game, but we hung on. Robin Jones made a huge shot, a 15-footer. Artis Gilmore blocked it, but it still went in. And overall, Hollins’ clutch play won the series.

“Then we moved on to Denver, and while we didn’t have the home-court advantage from then on, I think teams that have it tend to defend their position as favorites rather than attempt to win. Lucas made the clutch play of the series in the first game. We ran a play designed to go to me, but Luke looked at me and said, ‘Forget it.’ He sank a 15-footer, and we won it at the buzzer.

“Against the Lakers, everybody played so well, and we blew them out. I loved playing against Kareem. I loved that competition. They had control of the second game in the second half, but Gilliam had a run of about four minutes when he was the best basketball player on the planet.”

In the championship series, the 76ers won the first two games in Philadelphia, 107-10l and 107-89. Then the Trail Blazers took control, winning the next two games in Portland, 129-107 and 130-98, the fifth game in Philadelphia, 110-104, and a classic finale in Portland, 109-107.

Walton’s point totals of 26, 17, 20, 12, 14 and 20 were not astounding, but his rebound numbers were--20, 14, 18, 13, 24 and 23.

There isn’t much about that historic series that Walton doesn’t remember. He recounted some of the highlights, beginning with the second-game fight in which Lucas, the team’s enforcer, scored a technical knockout over massive (6-11, 285) Darryl Dawkins.

“It started when Dawkins swung at Gross,” Walton said. “Gross stepped back, so Dawkins hit Doug Collins, his own man, right in the mouth. That cut Collins’ lip, and he was terrible for the rest of the series.

“After that, Lucas came flying across the court and duked it out with Dawkins. He hit Dawkins in the head, and Dawkins was stunned. At that point there were fans on the floor, including Dawkins’ brothers, who were as big as he was.

“When Dawkins got to the locker room, he went out of control. He ripped a toilet stall off the wall, tore down partitions between the stalls and broke some lights. He was rampaged fury.

“The Philly fans booed Lucas after that, of course, but that was old hat with him. He had come from the ABA, and he told me, ‘I punched out people all over the league.’ He was one tough guy.”

The most memorable quote that followed that scuffle came from Gross, an alumnus of Cal State Long Beach. Asked if any words had passed between him and Dawkins, Gross said, “Dawkins didn’t say anything, because I don’t know if he can talk.”

Down 2-0, the Trail Blazers needed a lift, and they got it from their fans when they took the court for Game 3.

“The Blazermaniacs acted like we were on the verge of the championship instead of on the verge of elimination,” Walton said. “It was an electric moment in all our lives.

“We started rolling and got our fast break going. Plus there was a remark made by Dr. J after the second game. He said, ‘We can beat them handily because we know everything they’re going to do.’ Hell, we didn’t know what we were going to do ourselves.”

With their fans going bonkers, the Trail Blazers blew out the 76ers in consecutive games and went back to Philadelphia with the series even. After they won again and took a 3-2 lead, they received a tumultuous welcome at the Portland airport.

“There were tens of thousands of people there,” Walton said. “It was unbelievable. The sixth game was on a Sunday afternoon (June 5), and when we saw it was a beautiful sunny day, we knew Philadelphia didn’t have a chance.

“In the pregame warmup, the Philly players were talking a lot of trash about how they were going to beat us. It was a great game, the only one in which both teams played well at the same time, but we got a good lead and fought off their late run.

“We were two points ahead, and they had the ball, and they must have had four shots. Finally World B. Free shot from the corner. I saw it was going to miss, and there was a battle royal under the hoop. I went up, and all I had to do was get my hand on it. I tipped it to Davis and he ran out the clock.”

When the final buzzer sounded, Walton peeled off his sweat-soaked jersey and heaved it into the stands. He and Lucas embraced, then sought out Erving to exchange handshakes.

“When we got to the locker room, I just sat there in what was left of my uniform,” Walton said. “I must have sat there for an hour while the champagne was flowing. I don’t often show emotion, but this was so great. It was one of the greatest moments of my life.”

The next day the city of Portland celebrated with a lavish victory parade, and Walton observed the occasion by riding his bicycle.

Ramsay, now an analyst on 76er cable telecasts, called the season “the most satisfying in my 37 years of coaching.” He was general manager of the 76er champions in 1967-68 but said, “Coaching is what it’s all about.”

Walton’s former life style and off-beat political opinions made him a controversial figure in the past, but he said, “I think most of the criticism was for being unable to play. If you’re a great player, and you play, people love you. If you’re a great player, and you can’t play, you’re sort of a bum.”

Now more conservative and the father of four boys--he is divorced--Walton devotes a large share of his time to worthy causes. He works with handicapped and underprivileged youth, and on June 30 and July 1 will serve as host of a celebrity golf tournament in Las Vegas to raise money for men who played in the NBA before the pension plan was inaugurated.

Early this year, Walton was inducted into the Breitbard Hall of Fame at the San Diego Hall of Champions. If he isn’t elected to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame some day, it will be only because of his endless siege of injuries.

“He could do everything,” Ramsay said. “He could score, rebound, block shots and run the floor; he was a great defender, and he was the best outlet passer I ever saw. Plus he was a very competitive guy. He loved for his team to win.

“If he could have stayed healthy, he probably would have been the greatest center of all time.”