The Game Bill Walton Played for the Yugoslavian National Team

After Bill Walton played his last game for Helix High School in San Diego, the coach for the AAU Armed Forces team asked Walton if he wanted to play in the 1970 World Championship Games held in Yugoslavia. Walton agreed.

The tryout took place in a military installation at Fort Hamilton, New York. Walton was the only invitee who wasn't in the Army. The coach, whom Walton refused to name, threw more F-bombs per sentence than Walton had ever heard. During a three minute span, Walton counted 102 F-Bombs, or slightly more than one every two seconds. He was using them as nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, and prepositions.

At 6'10" and 190 pounds, Walton still had a ways to go before growing into the taller, heavier build the nation became familiar with during his sophomore year at UCLA. Nonetheless, Walton was the best player on the practice floor, and made the team easily. He dominated every practice he participated in.

But once the games started, the coach never played him, and never told him why (Walton wondered whether it was because he lacked a military pedigree).

Once the team arrived in Europe and it became clear that Walton wasn't playing, the coach began receiving calls from the various colleges who were recruiting Walton. They all wanted to see how Big Red would do against some international competition. But the AAU coach refused.

The pressure to play Walton continued, until finally the AAU coach had an idea. He called Walton to a meeting and told him that the Yugoslavian national team was short on players, and had asked the Americans to help fill out their roster.

Would Walton suit up for them?

"Without a doubt," Walton told his coach. "I didn't come to Yugoslavia to be a tourist or a spectator."

The AAU coach gave him a ragged, moth-eaten uniform that was too small for the red head. Walton didn't care. Nor did it matter to Walton that he didn't speak a word of Yugoslavian or his new teammates a word of English.

The Walton-lead Yugoslavia national team went out and established a huge lead over the American team, with Mountain Man scoring just about every point and grabbing just about every rebound. Soon, however, the Americans mounted a comeback. But as the game drew even, the local referees started making every call in favor of the Yugoslavian team.

Once Walton realized the refs were on his side, he began employing every dirty trick he knew. As the lead went back and forth, the stadium started chanting his name: "Wal-ton. Wal-ton." The Americans eventually won by three, but Yugoslavian fans stormed the court, and carried off their new hero on their shoulders, continuing to chant his name for the next 20 minutes.

When the celebration ended, Walton returned to the Americans locker room, and the coach never spoke to him again and never played him again.

The experience was so bad for the future Celtic that it tainted his view of international competition when the 1972 Olympic Committee came knocking at his door.