Bill Walton Feeling at Home With the Celtics

In his first weeks with the Boston Celtics, Bill Walton had but one answer for what his role would be.

“To help to win a championship,” he said.

How many minutes would he like to play?

“However many that takes,” he responded.

Walton’s efforts are geared solely toward winning, and the Clippers weren’t doing much of it last year. During the summer he contacted the Celtics to see if they were interested in gambling on a backup center whose credentials were as long as his medical records. They were.

The former NCAA Player of the Year and former MVP of the NBA can play only on a limited basis because of foot problems. But his impact on the outcome of this NBA season may be enormous.

Celtic starting center Robert Parish is a five-time All-Star, but the 82-game regular season always wore down his 7-foot, 230-pound body. With Walton as a backup center or occasional power forward, Boston has the size and depth on the forward line to continue its dominance of the Eastern Conference and possibly stop Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers.

“Robert Parish is a great basketball player,” Walton says. “He knows how to get the job done. He’s one of the most effective and consistent players in the NBA. It’s a good deal for me and a good deal for him too to have me on the team.”

Walton, an 11-year veteran, is averaging nearly 8 points and 6 rebounds while playing under 19 minutes a game.

“We can work together so that we can more effectively utilize the 48 minutes in the center position,” he says.

For Walton, one of the pleasures of being a Celtic is having Larry Bird as a teammate.

“He has a great sense of the game and it’s fun to play like that, to play with quickness and ball movement,” Walton says. “Basketball is a game of deception--of fakes and things like that, and Bird is a master of it.”

The compliments are returned by Bird.

“If you move and cut, Bill’s gonna get you the ball. He’s the best passer I’ve ever seen in my life,” the Celtic forward says.

But there is always the concern with Walton’s health.

Over a four-year period, from 1978 to 1982, he played in just 14 games. The worst time was 1981 when he had a foot surgically reconstructed.

“I’ve been feeling better and better physically since I hit bottom in 1981 and had to have the foot reconstruction,” he says. “It’s been getting steadily better and I’m still working on it.”

When Bird heard during the summer that Red Auerbach was considering acquiring Walton, Bird told the Celtics team president, “‘Get Bill Walton. If he comes in here and we can keep him healthy, we can win a championship a lot easier than we could without him.”’

So far this year, Walton hasn’t missed a game, and he is happy to be in a city where his sport is important.

“I want to be in a position where basketball means as much to everyone else as it does to me,” he explains. “It is a very pleasurable thing from an athlete’s point of view to experience the following the Celtics have. Everywhere you go people are talking about the Celtics, and I love it.”