Bill Walton Fills in the Blanks

In a recent visit to Boston, a local reporter caught up to Mountain Man, Bill Walton, with just enough time for the red head to fill in the blanks.

The second-greatest rock band ever is . . . "The Jerry Garcia Band. One of the things we loved about Jerry is that, like Larry Bird, like Bob Dylan, he never got tired of playing. He would do 80 to 90 Grateful Dead shows (as the group leader) a year. He would do over 100 Jerry Garcia Band shows a year."

With you having a notable beard when you played, the best NBA beard now belongs to . . . "I had the second-worst beard in the history of Western Civilization, the first belonging to Bob Dylan. I think that Baron Davis has an awesome beard. He has that very dignified beard."

If I were NBA commissioner for a day . . . "I would widen the court by 4 feet. And, when players or coaches get ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct, that would the equivalent of a suspension without pay. If you get thrown out of a game, you don't get paid for that game."

My all-time favorite Nuggets player is . . . "David Thompson. He was a defining player of a generation, a historical-level player who was as unique of a player who has ever played basketball. A small, petite, fragile player in terms of his physical capabilities, but a supremely skilled player who was blessed with unparalleled athleticism."

My greatest basketball influences are . . . "John Wooden and Larry Bird and (legendary late Lakers announcer) Chick Hearn. Chick is the one who taught me how to think about basketball, how to play basketball and how to love basketball. At the end (of Walton's career), Larry Bird and the Celtics, they didn't give me my career back, they gave me my life back. I was talking (last week to Wooden, Walton's coach at UCLA), and he reminded me of the maxim that he handwrote for me the day I graduated from UCLA. He said, 'Walton, just remember it's the things you learn after you know it all that really count.' "