Portal:Oregon/Selected biography/7
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Bill Walton, (born November 5, 1952), is a former American basketball player and current television sportscaster. Walton was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on May 10, 1993. He was born in La Mesa, California and played college basketball for John Wooden at the UCLA from 1971 to 1974, where the team won the national title twice, including a perfect 30-0 record during the 1971-1972 season and a 88 game winning streak. In 1973 he won the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States, while also winning both the USBWA College Player of the Year and Naismith College Player of the Year three consecutive years. The Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA drafted Walton as the number one overall player in 1974. In 1977, the team won the NBA title with Walton as the Finals MVP. The next year Bill Wlaton was selected as the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, though limited to 50 games due to injury. During the 1978 to 1979 season he sat out in protest after earlier demanding to be traded after allegations the team was unethical and incompetent in treating player injuries. In 1979 as a free agent he signed with the San Diego Clippers and then in 1985 was traded to the Boston Celtics where he won the NBA Sixth Man Award in 1986. In 1990 Bill Walton retired from the NBA as a player. After retirement, Walton began a career as a broadcaster. He has worked as a color commentator for the Clippers, NBC, and since 2002 with ABC/ESPN. In 1996, he was named as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players of all time. Previously he was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, and his number 32 was retired by the Blazers.
