Sitting This One Out : If Series Is Walton’s Last Hurrah, There Isn’t Much to Celebrate

It’s a big season for farewell tours. Julius Erving had his. Bill Walton could conceivably be on the last stop of his.

Of course, the big redhead’s is a little different. It’s the difference between the Easter Parade and the Hundred Years War.

Let us count the ways:

1--Erving went out, if not at the top of his game, within hailing distance.

Walton has a bad ankle and makes rare, hobbling appearances.

2--Erving’s teammates cried along with him.

Walton’s teammates kid him publicly. Wednesday, Larry Bird said he was acting like “an ass.”

3--Erving accepted the thanks of a grateful nation.

Before Tuesday’s Game 1, a Boston TV interviewer asked Walton about not being able to play hurt. Walton later cursed at the man and, said the man, threatened to “jump all over his (bleep).”

This would be an unbecoming end to what should have been one of the game’s great careers. But then, why would you expect the end to be much different from the beginning or the middle?

Is it the end? Speculation notwithstanding, Walton appears dedicated to returning. He has a guaranteed year left at $450,000, and the Celtics aren’t the Dodgers. They’re not known for paying people fortunes and sending them home.

But what if his ankle doesn’t heal? He’s been trying to get it well since last October. It isn’t well. If this is, indeed, the last crossing of his star-crossed career, tonight could be his last in Los Angeles in a basketball uniform.

Especially here, where he grew into greatness, he ought to be remembered for more than limping and having teammates rolling their eyes at him. But he’s going to have to get clear of some recent history, first.

You don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

A year ago, Walton was voted the league’s top sixth man. Bird visited him out here during the summer and went back to Boston raving about how fit Bill was.

Just before camp started, Walton broke the little finger on his right hand in a pickup game with Robert Parish.

Then, while riding an exercise bicycle, he suffered a hairline fracture of a bone in his right ankle.

He missed most of the season, although he has suited up through the playoffs.

When he rose from the bench in the dark days of Game 7 of the Milwaukee Bucks series, the Boston Garden crowd gave him an ovation you could hear in La Mesa.

Said Bird afterward, laughing: “Bill even got off his seat today. I thought he was froze to it.”

Walton missed six of the seven games against the Detroit Pistons and was ineffective in his one appearance. He suggested to reporters that he wouldn’t play in Game 1 of this series. But Tuesday afternoon, he was interviewed by John Dennis of Boston’s WNEV-TV.

Said Dennis: “I asked, ‘How do you respond to people who say, “Kevin McHale is out there with a stress fracture, Robert Parish is out there with bad feet; if Bill Walton really wanted to be there, he could. The games aren’t going to get any bigger than this.”?’

“Bill said, ‘I have nothing to say to that.’ Then he paused and said, ‘I have nothing to say to that.’

“Later, I was talking to Dr. Silva (Thomas Silva, the Celtic physician). Bill walked over and said, ‘I want to change my answer to that last question of yours.’

“I said, ‘What?’

“He said, ‘(Bleep) you. (Bleep) you. And if you ever ask me a question like that again, I’ll jump all over your (bleep). In fact, you’re lucky I don’t jump over it now.’ ”

Suffice to say, these are not the best days of Walton’s career.

“He used to be the rah-rah guy on this team,” Bird said Wednesday. “Now he sits back and watches. He used to be a part of the team--so joyful, so pleasant to be around. (Deadpan grin) Now he’s sort of an ass.

“I understand. He just wants to play and he can’t.”

Walton was sitting in a chair alongside the Forum court before the Celtic practice. A half-dozen reporters approached him. Walton looked around and gave the familiar embarrassed grimace.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” he said. “This is not what I had in mind today.”

The questions came slowly. Did he plan to return next season?

“I hope so. I’m worried about right now.”

How had he felt in Tuesday’s game?

“I wish we had won.”

What does he think of Gary Hart now?

Laughing, he said: “I know I’d better not comment on that one.”

Had he ever thought this might be his last trip here as a player?

“I don’t think along those lines.”

Had he advised Kevin McHale about the danger of continuing to play with a stress fracture in his ankle?

Walton started to nod, then stopped.

“Why don’t you talk to Kevin?” he said.

McHale was asked about it later. “It’s fun, talking about feet with Bill,” he said, grinning.

A guy with a boom microphone approached Walton. “Could I ask you a little bit about your involvement . . . “

“I was never involved with the SLA and Patty Hearst,” Walton said, grinning.

There you have it. A two-minute retrospective of all the interviews he’s given through his career. Thanks for the memories.

“I don’t think Bill intends to stop playing basketball,” said his friend and adviser, Ernie Vandeweghe. “Whether it’s physically possible, he’s not in charge of that one.

“But he hasn’t played most of the year. What is he, 34? He’s running out of years in which to recuperate.

“Mr. Volk and Mr. Auerbach (Jan and Red, Celtic general manager and president, respectively) are good friends of mine. They’ve been more friends and fathers to Bill. Naturally, they want him to play, but they’ve put no pressure on him. They’ve been very, very nice and supportive. I think they’d like for him to come back.

“Do I feel badly for him? Yes and no. . . . Sure he’s had horrible times. Maybe his case is a little more spectacular. He hurt himself both times after winning championships. But he’s had a great career. I don’t think he sits around and feels sorry for himself, so I’m not going to feel sorry for him.

“What if he had played more? He would have made a lot more money and gotten a lot more acclaim, but it really doesn’t change your life.”

Maybe it’s just time for him to get on with his life?

“Not really. I think he’s done that. He’s got a beautiful home, a nice family. He’s doing very well financially. He lacks less than a year to get his law degree, if he decides to pursue it. Considering what many NBA guys quit with, he’s way ahead.”

Was it surprising to see Walton play Tuesday, after having suggested he wouldn’t?

“I think if you asked him if he played last night, he’d say no,” Vandeweghe said. “He can go out on the court. He can’t play.”

Tonight could be another painful night, but next year is still possible, too. In Walton’s career as in other things, it ain’t over till it’s over.