Opinion: Before NBA Stardom, Bill Walton Raised Hell as a Radical Campus Activist

During the 1977 NBA Finals, Bill Walton averaged over 18 points, five assists, three blocks, and an inconceivable 19 rebounds per game. His sublime performance—which led the Portland Trail Blazers to a 4-2 series defeat against Julius Erving’s Philadelphia 76ers—is widely considered a capstone on perhaps the most dominant individual peak in the history of post-merger NBA basketball.

It was the pinnacle of a two-year run, impressive enough to overshadow the relative absence of accolades for a player of his stature caused by chronic injuries, and it helped him clinch an easy ticket to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Yet, Walton’s Finals MVP was merely the second-most awe-inspiring use of his body. As an undergraduate at UCLA In 1972, Walton stood with his fellow Bruins against the Vietnam War, at a time when such dissent was shocking and dangerous (and well before history would prove his actions correct).

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