“When everbody thinks alike, nobody thinks.” - Bill Walton

On Monday, the world lost a great light in Bill Walton, who at 71 passed away after an extended battle with cancer. Walton was a two-time NBA and college champion, a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, and a beloved broadcaster. Despite the multiple championships and individual awards, Walton was known and loved as a teammate, friend, father, son, and husband. There are many kind words, fantastic stories, and interviews that are currently being shared. I would suggest you seek some out if you did not have the pleasure of knowing Bill with two L's as anything but a sports star.

My experience with Bill Walton was Bill the broadcaster. He was a staple of Pac-12 coverage, the "conference of champions," as he loved to remind us. Bill was such a treat to listen to broadcast that I often elected to watch normal sports telecasts and broadcasters on mute. Anchored by his patient partner Dave Pasch, Walton wandered from stories to metaphors to Dead lyrics and back to the game as he pleased. It made for a hell of a basketball game.

Celebrity deaths are weird, and more often than not, they leave me entirely unimpacted as I don't know these people despite the hours spent with them. But I wanted to dip the quill for Bill because he was my favorite person I never met to watch a game with. Go seek out "The Luckiest Guy in the World" if you haven't seen it, or listen to stories of his friends talk about him. You are already so missed by so many, Mr. Walton, myself included. Thank you for sharing your remarkable personality with the world.