Bill Walton

About

Bill Walton was an American professional basketball player and television sportscaster for ESPN and other media outlets. Walton appeared in several films, TV shows and also lent his voice to video games like NBA 2K5 and NBA ShootOut 2004. Online, the sportscaster's memorable quotes and images have been featured in photoshopped images, parodies and exploitable memes dating back to 2014. In late May 2024, Walton died of colon cancer at the age of 71, resulting in a wave of posts on social media.

Career

Bill Walton played college basketball at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego / Los Angeles Clippers and Boston Celtics.^[1] After retiring from the NBA in 1990, Walton started to work as a sportscaster, most notably known for ESPN.

Online Presence

Bill Walton had a notable online presence over the years, as the sportscaster's quotes and images have often been featured in memes on social media. For example, on February 26th, 2021, YouTuber^[6] @MboneHD uploaded a compilation video titled "The Best of Bill Walton," which garnered over 198,000 views and 1,900 likes in three years.

On February 9th, 2024, YouTube^[7] user @adharris97 posted a video titled "Bill Walton Says Things," showing random quotes from the sportscaster (seen below, right). The video received more than 115,000 views and 1,300 likes in six years.

On June 6th, 2023, @espn's official X^[8] account posted a video of Bill Walton reading "mean" tweets (shown below), which garnered over 445,000 views and 520 likes in a year.

Bill Walton's Death

On May 27th, 2024, the NBA^[2] released a statement announcing that Bill Walton died at the age of 71 after a prolonged battle with cancer. The sports organization also posted an "In Memoriam" video on its official YouTube^[3] channel about Walton's achievements as a professional basketball player and sportscaster. The video (seen below) amassed over 10,000 views and 860 likes in four hours.

Online Reactions

The sportscaster's death became a trending topic on social media in late May 2024 as fans expressed their sadness and shared messages about Bill Walton's career. For example, on May 28th, 2024, X^[4] user @petemrogers posted Boston Celtics jersey over a picture of Walton (seen below, left) captioning "rip Bill Walton." The post amassed more than 3,800 likes and 276 reposts in a few hours.

On May 27th, X^[5] user @diawlectical posted a picture of Walton "protesting Vietnam while a student at UCLA, right before he was arrested," which amassed over 15,000 likes and 1,700 reposts in a day.

Search Interest

External References