The Bill Walton Who Now Plays for Boston Is a Changed Person

BOSTON —  Bill Walton wasn’t supposed to be doing any of this.

Doctors told him he’d never play basketball again. He was unhappy that an exceptionally successful career had been torn apart by physical and emotional pain.

“I love winning,” Walton said. “I play to win.”

It had been eight years since he had done that with regularity, enough years of frustration and failure to stir him to action.

Last June, he initiated talks that brought him from the Clippers to the Boston Celtics in a trade for Cedric Maxwell. This June, he may help bring the Celtics their 16th NBA championship.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here,” said Walton, a decidedly different Walton from the one who made his last playoff appearance in 1978 with Portland.

“I’m changing all the time,” said the former pony-tailed hippie, now a short-haired family man of 33. “I’m a different person than I was last week and I’m a different person than I was 10 years ago.”

The California native, for example, has adjusted to East Coast life--”I do a lot of the same things, I just don’t do them outdoors”--and the one-time vegetarian now plugs a steak house on television commericals.

“I keep trying to improve myself,” he said.

There is no question that he has improved the Celtics, whose 67-15 record was the league’s best this season, the second best in franchise history and the fourth best in NBA history. But he rejects credit, saying the Celtics were “great before I even got here.”

They’re favored to beat Chicago in the best-of-five, opening-round playoff series that resumes Sunday with Game 2 at Boston Garden.

Walton averaged a career low 7.6 points per game this season, but the Celtics didn’t get him for his scoring. His passing, shot blocking and defensive rebounding have been outstanding. He has also willingly accepted the backup center’s role without complaint.

Walton had missed three full NBA seasons with injuries, but played a career-high 80 games for Boston and averaged a career-low 19.3 minutes.

Starting center Robert Parish can feel Walton’s contribution in his stronger legs and less painful body as he faces as many as 26 playoff games.

“Having Bill around has cut down on my minutes,” Parish said. “I’m fresher than I’ve been in the past.

“What rubs off is Bill’s enthusiasm for the game. He lives and breathes basketball.”

“Walton? He’s earned the respect of his teammates,” said Celtics’ Coach K.C. Jones. “He’s brought enthusiasm, intensity and a library of knowledge about the game of basketball with him.”

Walton paid a heavy price for some of that knowledge.

For years, he had known little but success.

He won 49 consecutive games in high school. His UCLA team won two straight NCAA titles. He was a first-team All-American three years in a row. He was the first player chosen in the 1974 draft. In 1977, he led Portland to its only NBA championship. In 1978, he was the league’s most valuable player.

Suddenly, his basketball world came crashing down.

He missed the next season with a foot injury, then signed with the San Diego Clippers as a free agent. He played only 14 games in 1979-80, when they were 35-47. Injuries kept him sidelined for the next two seasons.

“In 1981, the doctors told me I’d never be able to play even recreational basketball again,” he said.

He returned in 1982 and played 33, 55 and 67 games during the next three seasons, but the Clippers best record in that stretch was 31-51.

“It was just very depressing,” Walton said. “You work at achieving your goals of winning and the results are rarely good.”

He despaired of reaching the playoffs again.

“I could have hoped for that,” he said, “but I had nothing realistic to base those hopes on.”

He discusses those years with reluctance and prodding. He willingly talks about basketball and his current situation. It takes some time to turn the conversation to himself.

With 10 reporters around him as he sits in front of his locker after a nearly two-hour practice, Walton is approached by Nathan, one of his four sons.

“Are we almost done?” Nathan asks.

“I sure hope so,” says his smiling father.

But he goes on another 10 minutes, answering questions about the Celtics’ exceptional frontcourt, basketball in general, and his passion for Grateful Dead music.

“My enthusiasm has always been good,” Walton said. “It’s certainly been more rewarding this year.

“Because of my role on the team and the amount of minutes, I’ve probably had less pain than any year I can remember,” he added.

The thrill is greater because he played so long without it.

“I like to think back and learn from the past,” he said, “but I’m not really the type of person who sits around and bemoans the past and says, ‘Why me?’ or ‘What if?’ I just try to make the best of what I’ve got.”

He’s got it pretty good now that his basketball life has come full circle.

“I’ve certainly seen both ends, that’s for sure,” Walton said. “I like this end a lot better.”