Bill Walton’s Adventures in Life & Basketball

Living in the core of San Diego is a man with the heart of a giant. Hometown hero and legendary basketball star, Bill Walton is the latest addition to the CALI Strong team. Bill Walton is a true California Patriot who embodies the soul and spirit of our Cali Strong mission.

Jim Stroesser, Bill Walton and Mike Brower

Bill Walton was born in 1952 in the beautiful city of La Mesa, California. His mother a librarian and his father a social worker, there was not a likely path to sports fame for Bill. Where life took him, however, is inspiring.

Bill Walton attended Helix High School in San Diego

During his youth, Bill had a terrible problem with stuttering. The way he tells it, he honestly did his best even to avoid speaking. It was embarrassing for him! Because of this, Bill set out to find new—and exciting—ways to express himself. (Believe me, his personality is electric—you can hardly imagine him not being able to speak!) This stutter-afflicted child would someday boast a broadcasting career spanning 21+ years, working for likes of CBS, Fox, ABC, ESPN, NBC, the NBA, Turner Sports, NESN, KCAL, and MSNBC and eventually win an Emmy Award as well many other accolades and become recognized as a leading media pundit.

Bill Walton Emmy Award Winner: Best Live Sports Television Broadcast

At the age 14 years, he also suffered a knee injury which would mark one of the many setbacks that never seemed to keep the big man down. At that same time, he also experienced his biggest growth spurt, seemingly overnight, raising him up to 6’7” tall and eventually settling in at 6’11”. Walton attended Helix High School in San Diego. During his time there, his team won the California Interscholastic Federation High School title two years in a row and won their final 49 consecutive games. Nearly 46 years after graduating in 1970, Walton still holds the national all-time high school record for Field Goal % of 79%, which means he hit 8 out of 10 shots. Walton was the first male basketball player from the state of California inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame.

Bill Walton's Love of Cycling

Many of these qualities and tools to overcome adversities were either planted or fostered by arguably the greatest coach of all-time, John Wooden, whom Bill considers to be his greatest role model outside his family. Impressed with the performance, drive, and spirit, he found within Bill; John Wooden recruited him for the 1970 UCLA basketball team. After an undefeated year playing on the freshman team, Bill played center for UCLA’s Varsity team for 1972, 1973 and 1974 seasons. He played on two undefeated NCAA championship winning teams compiling a NCAA record 88 consecutive game winning streak. Bill Walton was a three-time recipient of the NCAA Player of the Year Award, 1972, ’73 and ’74. Bill Walton is considered one of the greatest college players of all time. At UCLA, Walton was also a scholar-athlete who earned Academic All-America honors three years in a row, graduating with honors with a B.A. in history and then attended Stanford University Graduate School of Law in the early 1980’s.

Despite his frequent clashes with the greatest coach in history and his self-proclaimed “slowest learner” ever, Walton revered Wooden, even though at the time thought he was a crazy man; he credits him for learning to overcome the adversity and obstacles that Wooden knew from the beginning would always be in his way. Says Walton, “He taught us that confidence is an integral part of achieving peak performance, but that confidence must come from a lifetime of preparation that ensures deliverance to the championship level. Thus, establishing records for success that will never be touched. John Wooden left indelible imprints on our lives which helped shape our futures. He never talked about strategy, statistics or plays but rather about people and character. And, he never tired of telling us that once you become a good person, then you have a chance of becoming a good basketball player or whatever else you may want to do.”

Bill Walton UCLA

John Wooden was critical to the life and success of Bill Walton. Life values were a theme throughout his coaching career, and Bill credits him largely with his successes citing the lessons he was taught by Wooden that still resonate daily. Despite the branded tension and conflict which existed between them (and made Walton a better man), the two men spoke nearly every day for forty-three years until Wooden’s death at age ninety-nine.

Bill Walton with John Wooden

Following his collegiate days, Bill landed in the NBA as the #1 overall draft pick for the Portland Trailblazers in 1974. His time with the team peaked in the ’76-’77 seasons when he led them to the NBA World Championship as the MVP of the NBA finals. After spending much of his time on the injured list with the Trailblazers, Bill moved on to a short-lived career with the San Diego Clippers. Though this period was plagued by injury, spending more time on the sidelines than in the game, no one ever doubted the perseverance of Bill Walton. Most surprising is the fact that even after being plagued with numerous injuries and not being able to play consistently for ten years, he came back and played so great for the Boston Celtics that he won the NBA 6th-Man-Of-The-Year award and helped his team to another NBA championship. He is the single player to have achieved an NBA Finals MVP, Six-Man Award, and a regular season MVP over his career. In the entire history of basketball, Walton is one of only four players to have won multiple NCAA and multiple NBA Championships. In the records of NBA history, he is one of only five players to lead the league in both rebounding and blocked shots during the same season. In 1993, Walton was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1997, Walton was chosen as one of the NBA’s Fifty Greatest Players of all Time.

Bill Walton career in basketball

After the Game

In 2008, Bill suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse due to the culmination of a lifetime of injuries that left him unable to move. He spent three years lying flat on the floor of his home, eating meals there and crawling to the bathroom. With the now Walton-esque style of extraordinary patience, fortitude, determination, along with medical advances in surgery, he recovered and is probably as active if not more so in not only his broadcasting career but also his philanthropic endeavors to make his home city of San Diego and state of California a better place.

Bill Walton in broadcasting and sportscasting

Bill now speaks all over the country to teams and other groups about the lessons he has learned in life. Though his pro career was dark and characterized by pain and time on the injured list, his character and ability to push through has made him the inspiring man that he is.

"I am the human being that I am today because of the Grateful Dead" - Bill Walton

Bill is quite known for “social domination.” He is all about developing groups of people who share common goals and values. He is the “life of the party” who is an incredible motivator and influencer. He also hosts a radio show titled, “One More Saturday Night,” which is aptly named after a song by the Grateful Dead.  Bill is a huge Dead fan and has attended 850 shows to date. According to statistics, Bill Walton played 13,250 minutes in the NBA, averaging about 28 minutes per game which is approximately 221 hours. Assuming the average length of a Grateful Dead concert is 2 hours, 850 equals 1,700 hours which means Bill Walton spent more time watching the Grateful Dead than he did playing in the NBA!

Bill Walton's Best-Selling Book

His latest book, Back from the Dead: Searching for the Sound, Shining the Light and Throwing It Down, was released in March 2016. John Wooden once said, “No greatness ever came without sacrifice” and nothing better illustrates this saying than the real-life story of Bill Walton.

Notably, and thankfully for all of us in California, Bill’s son Luke has followed in his footsteps. Luke spent time playing pro ball for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers and is now the Head Coach for the Lakers. Luke and his father are the only father/son duo to win multiple NBA championships.

Luke Walton

Walton is currently the Executive Chairman of the San Diego Sports Innovators (SDSI), a non-profit trade organization that connects business owners with mentors, helping to scale businesses through the Springboard Program and provides networking opportunities to raise the necessary capital.  SDSI has a strong board of experienced, successful business professionals that supply their expertise to many brands and companies throughout California.

Bill Walton is currently the Executive Chairman of the San Diego Sports Innovators (SDSI)

At CALI Strong, we value the California lifestyle and its “anything’s possible” ideology. The products we offer and the brand we have built is representative of our state and Californian’s way of life. We at Cali Strong believe that everybody should have a voice, and most importantly, the “go-for-it” philosophy of living life to the fullest and to enjoy every facet of the California Dream.

Bill’s life story is one filled with immeasurable pain and adversity throughout his life which he inevitably turned into amazing successes and recoveries based on his incredible fortitude, willpower, and optimism. His personality is as striking and complex as the ink stains on his tie-dyed shirts and his spirit and vibrancy dwarf his 6’11’ frame. We’re so thrilled to have a man like Bill Walton, a true California Patriot, on our team. Those herculean footprints will be a permanent imprint on our hearts and the terrain of California. Bill Walton is Cali Strong!

Welcome, Bill!

Jim Stroesser, Bill Walton and Mike Brower

About the Author: Jim Stroesser

Jim Stroesser has amassed 38 years of experience in global consumer branding across the sports, fashion, and entertainment industries. Starting his career as a tech rep, he ascended to CEO roles with some of the world's leading brands. As the Co-Founder and CEO of CALI Strong Inc., a direct-to-consumer sports brand based in San Diego, CA, Jim has led the company in producing premium apparel, footwear, equipment, and accessories.

His tenure as Owner/Partner at Converse is particularly noteworthy. Jim was pivotal in reviving the brand from bankruptcy in 2001, elevating its value from $120 million to $285 million, and playing a crucial role in its $305 million sale to Nike in 2003, marking one of the century's significant mergers and acquisitions.

Beyond Converse, Jim has held senior management positions at renowned companies such as Nike, Quiksilver, Oakley, LA Gear, Pony, and Adio. He is also actively involved in several boards of directors positions, including SDSI, led by Chairman Bill Walton, which focuses on mentoring companies and assisting in capital raising efforts.