Though they were never teammates, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton shared a lifelong bond.
As centers, the two became national stars at UCLA and helped power the Bruins' basketball dynasty of the 1960s and '70s, before being drafted first overall in the NBA Draft and winning multiple titles at the professional level and being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Walton died Monday at age 71 after a long battle with cancer. Hours after the NBA announced Walton's passing on behalf of his family, Abdul-Jabbar paid tribute to his friend and basketball legend.
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“My good friend, fellow Bruins and NBA rival Bill Walton passed away today. The world feels heavy right now,” Abdul-Jabbar said in a statement posted Monday to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “On the court Bill was an intense player, but off the court he wasn't happy unless he did everything he could to make everyone around him happy. He was the best of us all.”
The post included a photo of the pair standing side by side with their arms linked.
Abdul-Jabbar was among many people, including Julius Erving, who remembered Walton on Monday as a kind, gregarious person who was approachable off the court as well as for his accomplishments on it.
But Abdul-Jabbar and Walton shared a bond deeper and more intimate than most. The two combined to win five NCAA championships at UCLA, Abdul-Jabbar winning three of them. Though they both played for coach John Wooden, they never played together for the Bruins, as Abdul-Jabbar graduated in 1969, about a year before Walton arrived at the school's Westwood campus.
They are widely regarded as two of the greatest college basketball players of all time.
Must read:Social media reacted to the news of Bill Walton's passing with one comment: “One of a kind. Rest in peace.”
As Walton's NBA career began in 1974 and he established himself as one of the league's best big men, along with Abdul-Jabbar, the two began playing against each other regularly.
In the 1977 Western Conference Finals, Walton's Portland Trail Blazers defeated Abdul-Jabbar's Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA title. They met again in the playoffs, this time in the 1987 NBA Finals, when Walton was playing for the Boston Celtics. Walton and the Celtics beat the Houston Rockets in the 1986 NBA Finals, but lost to Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers the following year.
Outside of basketball, Walton was mentioned in the 1980 film “Airplane,” when Abdul-Jabbar, playing himself, tells a young heckling fan to “tell your dad to drag Walton and (Bob) Lanier out on the court for 48 minutes.”