Several times, I was in the same sports arena as Hall of Famer Bill Walton, who passed away in May 2024, to attend a basketball game. We once chatted on a day when there wasn’t a game, and here’s my brief recollection of that day.

I met basketball great Bill Walton once, at the Pac-10 Conference’s 1996-97 men’s basketball media day, held before the season tipped off, in Los Angeles.

I said a quick hello, told him that I covered basketball for Arizona State University’s State Press and that I admired his insights and enthusiasm for the game as a broadcaster.

Within a minute or two (or was it three?) during our brief conversation, his home phone number was jotted down in my reporter’s notebook. Bill was accessible to everybody.

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