Bill Walton

Bill Walton has died of cancer at the age of 71

Walton might have been the greatest college basketball player I ever saw. He was also awesome for the first few years of his NBA career, until chronic foot injuries largely ruined him as a player.

He later became an extremely entertaining announcer, who approached his craft with the same oddball energy and obsessiveness that marked the rest of his life, both in basketball and beyond.

Walton was no doubt the most famous Deadhead of all time, and an open proponent of marijuana use and legalization, at a time when doing so was far from helpful for a public figure’s career.

The recent ESPN documentary about his life is excellent.

RIP.