When Bill Walton dominated at UCLA in the 1970s, no one ever measured his wingspan from fingertips to fingertips and arms outstretched. This does not change the fact that, shortly after he won MVP honors, Dream summarily digested him.). Its possible that version of Sabonis wouldnt be a generational sensation in the modern game. Career Stats Everything else is said for me or explained to me, right? Seems like our man Bill wouldve made for an interesting podcast guest! A wingspan always helps people, whether its blocking shots or deflections on defense.. During his prime as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers in the mid-1970s a prime that lasted a mere three years Walton drew comparisons to such players as Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell. What if he stayed healthy? Finally, there is Johnny Kerr, who was . At age 34, Walton retired after playing 10 games of the 1986-87 season. Something went wrong. But whats the legacy of the blockbuster album? Walton is in the Hall of Fame, but he never had his arms measured end to end. But several NBA players pop off the chart because of their long arms. Please enter a valid email and try again. He played more than 70 games only once in 14 seasonsin the 1985-86 season, when he made 80 appearances as a reserve for the Celtics, winning Sixth Man of the Year on one of the greatest teams of all time. Neither knew their wingspans then, and they still dont. Some of the best players Kerr faced had incredible reach. Its legit. 2x NCAA Champion. When he was healthy, Walton had few peers. We should have carried out a plan in the early 1980s to kidnap him and bring him back right then., Or, even better: popped him into a tricked-out DeLorean, sent him to 2020, and found out what it might look like if Kristaps Porzingis passed like White Chocolate, or if you pressed fast-forward on Nikola Jokic. It's no coincidence that Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who stands 7-1 and led the NBA in blocks last season, has the longest wingspan in the league at 7 feet, 9 inches. One of the benefits is his ability to corral and slam home lob passes that are high and might be off target. In his first and only All-Star Game appearance (he was selected in 1977 but could not play because of injury), Walton recorded 15 points and 10 rebounds in 31 minutes of play. He was disruptive as hell, registering a block on more than 5 percent of his opponents 2-point tries and logging a steal on more than 2 percent of their offensive possessions; only six other players who have played at least 5,000 career minutes have done both. Yeah, I found that out once I bought my first suit, the 6-foot-5 McMillan, a 12-year pro now coaching the Pacers, said with a chuckle, realizing his arms stretched more than 3 feet each. Bill Russell was a great shotblocker. Given his love for the spotlight, his polarizing on- and off-court presence, and his sensitivity to blowback, how would a figure as towering as Wilt Chamberlain play in the social media era? The average man has a wingspan about 2 inches more than his height. I see opportunities that should be rejected, but it scores. For one: Decades before Shut up and dribble became a sociopolitical flashpoint, Walton was telling The New York Times In this society, they dont expect an athlete to speak for himself or to be able to lead his own life. Weve seen him block guys at the rim and also get his hands on some basketballs off the dribble.. Though remembered by many for a career plagued by injuries and a personal life spiced by controversy, Bill Walton won high praise from players and coaches alike during his checkered career. They don't really bring it up to us about that in college or high school.". William Theodore Walton III Twitter : BillWalton (Big Red, Grateful Red, Red Baron, Redwood, Chief) Position: Center Shoots: Right 6-11 , 210lb (211cm, 95kg) More bio, uniform, draft, salary info Hall of Fame 2x All Star 1976-77 TRB Champ 1976-77 BLK Champ 2x NBA Champ 2x All-NBA 2x All-Defensive 1976-77 Finals MVP 1977-78 MVP He could pass and run the floor, dribble. 1 to play a stretch-5 against him to try to draw him out of the middle and keep him from walling off the paint, or run dozens of pick-and-rolls aimed at getting him switched onto guards and forcing him to defend in space. Barton joins the Raptors after he was waived by the Wizards on Feb. 21. Despite all the accolades, there are still a lot of what-ifs in Walton's career. Raised in France, Gobert kept growing from ages 15-19. Walton inducted himself About Us You make up a lot of ground. He spoke only to reporters he knew would present him favorably, while shunning the others, who were mostly Portland locals. Drop him into todays league, and the bet here is that he wouldnt miss a stepand, in fact, he might have even picked up his pace of production. I think its something that makes a big difference, especially defensively, he said. But when you have the great game of basketball with all the ultimate winners of the genetic lottery its not how high you jump, its where you are and when you jump.. J, who pumped in 40 points in Game 6. Durant, the reigning NBA Finals MVP , is quick to point out that his length allows him to make up for other areas, including being far leaner than most NBA players. Its no coincidence that Jazz center Rudy Gobert, who stands 7-1 and led the NBA in blocks last season, has the longest wingspan in the league at 7 feet, 9 inches. Bill Waltons Hall of Fame career took him from Portland to Boston, and he won at every stop. Walton was even more spectacular in 1977-78 that is, as long as he was healthy. Im not as fast laterally, Im not as athletic, Im not as quick as guys up and down but I think I make up for it with my length, said Durant, a defensive player of the year candidate. Praise came quickly. Most of us have the same wingspan as our height. Im a big believer in that., More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball, This March 25, 2018, photo shows Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert in action during an NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, Calif. From executives and scouts to coaches and analytics types, teams are paying closer attention to wingspan when considering players _ especially with what long arms can mean making a defensive impact. In the book Basketball: A Love Story, Olajuwon describes the first time he saw an NBA game. In the midst of those broadcasting days, Walton was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993. Newell told The Atlantic that the one knock on Sabonis was that, because the opposition Sabonis meets inside Russia is not challenging to him, he sometimes gets lazy. Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is nicknamed the Greek Freak in part because he stands 6-11 with a 7-3 wingspan and giant hands. Once limited to descriptions of birds, wingspan has become one of the most important measurements for basketball prospects over the past decade. Portland won 11 more games in 1974-75 than in the previous year but failed to live up to its potential, largely because of Waltons health troubles. The average man has a wingspan about 2 inches more than his height. Raised in France, Gobert kept growing from ages 15-19. Walton inducted himself. In recent seasons, Warriors high-scoring All-Star Kevin Durant has become more determined to use his 7-5 wingspan to make more of an impact on defense. It destroys the team, the Clippers Lloyd B. Celtics faithful would have plenty more to cheer about during what would become a dream season for the Celtics and the aging Walton. Olajuwon had an excellent midrange game, with incredible touch on those turnarounds and fadeaways out of the block, and shot a crisp 50 percent between 16 feet and the arc during the 1998-99 season, his final healthy run before the wheels started to come off. He acquired Walton by sending popular forward Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers along with a first-round draft pick. After Game 2, X-rays showed that the navicular bone below Waltons left ankle was broken. That might seem like a bit of an exaggeration: After all, Sabonis still starred in the States, averaging a double-double in Year 3, posting a player efficiency rating over 20 in six of his seven NBA seasons, and playing an integral role on Trail Blazers teams that went to consecutive Western Conference finals, including one that came within a hellacious fourth-quarter comeback of beating Shaq, Kobe, and the Lakers in 2000. I would actually love to play in this NBA, he told Jackie MacMullan and Kirk Goldsberry. Then came the injuries. Center Bill Walton played 10 seasons for 3 teams. The average man has a wingspan about 2 inches more than his height. Warriors 7-foot center JaVale McGee went through only a handful of pre-draft workouts for NBA teams, hardly a prized prospect after a career at Nevada. That is not the case for young players. He didn't often hear the term wingspan, finally understanding how special his measurement is when he got to the NBA. He has been going with a center by committee based on matchups. It feels kind of hard to divorce Walton from the era in which he playedfollowing the Grateful Dead to protesting the Vietnam War to rolling with radical activists associated with the Symbionese Liberation Army. He also set a career high with a .562 field-goal percentage. The only thing Im supposed to know is how to put the ball through the hoop. I think its something that makes a big difference, especially defensively, he said. Wingspan is one detail Warriors coach Steve Kerr takes seriously and might consider when deciding on lineups and rotations for the defending champions. I was born tall, he said. Every asset that a player has might make up for something else. When Bill Walton dominated at UCLA in the 1970s, no one ever measured his wingspan from fingertips to fingertips and arms outstretched. Im not as fast laterally, Im not as athletic, Im not as quick as guys up and down but I think I make up for it with my length, said Durant, a defensive player of the year candidate. The average man has a wingspan about 2 inches more than his height. Im not as fast laterally, Im not as athletic, Im not as quick as guys up and down but I think I make up for it with my length, said Durant, a defensive player of the year candidate. But when you have the great game of basketball with all the ultimate winners of the genetic lottery its not how high you jump, its where you are and when you jump.. In an ESPN feature published earlier this year about the evolution of NBA big men, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said that if his notorious envelope-pushing team had ONeal on the roster, I would give him the ball 1,000 times, is my guess. Once he got it, keeping him from getting to the rimand from putting his man inside itwould be an awfully tall order, and would likely result in even more trips to the line for someone who averaged nearly 10 attempts per 36 minutes for his career. There will be some statistical cherry-picking, because cherries are delicious, and there will be some decisions made purely on aesthetics, because we hold it as true that things that look dope should be prioritized. But the Celtics Brogdon is mounting a well-rounded campaign that hearkens back to some of the earliest Sixth Men. Wingspan is one detail Warriors coach Steve Kerr takes seriously and might consider when deciding on lineups and rotations for the defending champions. In terms of his style of play, he was a rich man's Marc Gasol. One of the benefits is his ability to corral and slam home lob passes that are high and might be off target. That is not the case for young players. Thats kind of a rule of thumb. You look at size of hands, wingspans. As Lakers teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Jerry West put it in his autobiography, West by West: Wilt was very self-conscious about his size and strength and he was reluctant to be viewed as a villain. While at Helix High School in La Mesa, Calif., Walton broke an ankle, a leg, and several bones in his feet and underwent knee surgery. In his prime, Hakeem seemed capable of covering half the court by himself, assessing threats and snuffing them out with unnerving efficiency. After achieving superstardom playing for John Woodens powerhouse UCLA Bruins in the early 70s and winning three straight College Player of the Year Awards, Walton was destined to become an NBA legend. The wingspan sure helps a lot of people, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said . Weve seen him block guys at the rim and also get his hands on some basketballs off the dribble.. Coaches marvel at players with long arms, figuring they will more easily grab rebounds, block shots, steal passes and shoot over defenders. The NBA playoffs begin Saturday, and an extra inch of reach can lead to a blocked shot or steal that might alter a series or a season. 1 overall pick in the 1974 NBA Draft. Combine that with what would assuredly be a significantly curtailed workload in the age of load managementWilt averaged an absurd 45.8 minutes per game for his careerand youll get fewer mythological stat lines. When Bill Walton dominated at UCLA in the 1970s, no one ever measured his wingspan from fingertips to fingertips and arms outstretched. OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Not until Nate McMillan began being fitted for custom-made suits a few years into his NBA career three decades ago did he understand just how far his arms reached. I worried when he was thrown in jail with the group that took over the administration building, I worried when he stopped traffic on Wilshire Boulevard, and when he interrupted classes giving his views on the Vietnam War.. (The arrangement was not unprecedented; Elgin Baylor squeezed in a game a week for the Lakers in 1962 while serving in the Army Reserve.) At one time, they were long enough, and I can still put my own shoes and socks on, he quipped. Its nothing that I heard about until I got to the league, or right before I got into the league, theyre like, Wed like to measure your wingspan. They dont really bring it up to us about that in college or high school.. Height 6'11" (210cm) Wingspan 7'3" (220cm) Weight 210 lbs (95 kg) Team Portland Trail Blazers. Wellat the risk of disrespecting a stand-up dude for the second time in the space of one columnlets ask David Robinson, against whom Sabonis held his own when the Soviet Union nearly knocked off Team USA in the gold-medal game of the 1986 FIBA World Championship, and when the USSR did defeat the Americans in the semifinals of the 1988 Summer Olympics (despite Sabonis playing shortly after recovering from his first Achilles rupture): Legendary big-man coach and talent evaluator Pete Newell told Sam Toperoff of The Atlantic Monthly in 1986 that he thought Sabonis could conceivably become the greatest player in the game and he would have taken the Lithuanian over Patrick Ewing in the 1985 draft if he had played for an American team. The Celtics' legendary playmaker is the only person in NBA history to win MVP, Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year in a career. That is not the case for young players. While at UCLA in the early 70s, he was arrested during an anti-Vietnam War rally, publicly criticized Richard Nixon and the FBI, and reportedly flirted with leaving basketball to pursue spiritual enlightenment. Oakland, Calif. Not until Nate McMillan began being fitted for custom-made suits a few years into his NBA career three decades ago did he understand just how far his arms reached. Any time you think youre too small to make a difference in the world youve never spent the night alone in bed with a mosquito. Hakeem likely couldve become a passable 3-point shooter with enough commitment. Its nothing that I heard about until I got to the league, or right before I got into the league, theyre like, Wed like to measure your wingspan. They dont really bring it up to us about that in college or high school.. Wingspan about 2 inches more than his height set a career high with first-round. Our height draft pick 1986-87 season Walton was even more spectacular in 1977-78 that is, long... 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