NBA NOTEBOOK : 13 Years Later, Walton Joins Portland in Finals

Bill Walton needed crutches to make the long walk through a tunnel and onto the court at the Palace of Auburn Hills Wednesday. Once there, he carefully lowered his body to a seat so as not to harm his surgically repaired right ankle.

Thirteen years removed from the high point of his NBA career, when he led the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA championship, Walton simply hopes his latest surgery to fuse bones in his ankle will enable him to walk with some semblance of normality the rest of his life.

“I’ve had too many operations,” said Walton, not too eager to discuss his condition. “I can’t remember which one this is. I think I hit double figures a decade ago. No, two decades ago. I’m just getting out of bed. This is one of my first outings after the surgery.”

Walton is up and about as a guest commentator for CBS’ coverage of the NBA finals. It is only natural, since Walton was the leader of the 1976-77 Trail Blazers, who upset the Philadelphia 76ers for the title.

Dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt that clashed with his flaming red hair, Walton talked Wednesday about the close ties he still feels with Portland, even though their stormy relationship ended in 1980. He gave solicited opinions on what the Trail Blazers need to do to win Game 2 tonight. And, he fondly recalled the glory days of the “Walton Gang.”

--Walton on Detroit’s victory in Game 1:

“If Portland had kept playing good, strong basketball, they would’ve won. They just stopped playing. I think (Portland center Kevin) Duckworth is going to be a big factor. A good low-post offense can beat the Pistons, and he’s their low-post guy. I think they have to look to him more.”

--On his relationship with the Trail Blazers, whom he sued in the late 1970s, claiming the team’s physician mishandled his foot injury:

“I do feel an attachment with the Trail Blazers and the whole state of Oregon. Not every relationship in life is perfect. Just because it isn’t perfect, that doesn’t mean you throw it away. I had a great time in Portland. I wish I had played more for Portland. But then, if I had, maybe I wouldn’t have played with Boston (in 1985-86) and won a championship there. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that, either.”

--On his memories of the 1976-77 championship series:

“I’ve got a lot of vivid memories. I can remember the fight between (Portland’s Maurice) Lucas and (the 76ers’ Darryl) Dawkins. I remember that great quote from Dr. J (Julius Erving), when he said he knew all of our sets and plays and could beat us. Hell, we didn’t even know our plays. That’s when I knew we’d beat them.”

The Trail Blazers could have used Walton’s rebounding acumen in Game 1. Although Portland was the league’s top rebounding team in the regular season, the Pistons had a 54-46 advantage. The Pistons were particularly dominant on the offensive boards, with 19 rebounds to Portland’s eight.

Rick Adelman, Portland’s coach, called it uncharacteristic.

“We did everything we had to do to win that game except rebound on our offensive end, and I don’t know why,” Adelman said. “Some of it may have been our shot selection. But our mind set was not really to go to the boards like it usually is. Maybe it’s because our shots were falling early and we got lulled into not concentrating on that.”

Some Pistons, however, said the Trail Blazers might be overrated as a rebounding force because they play in the Western Conference, where play is perceived to be less physical.

“The West has more freedom, more running up and down, and they don’t have that tough play like the East,” Piston forward Dennis Rodman said. “I think it’d be easy for any of us to average 16 or 17 rebounds a game in the West. They are physical, but they don’t keep banging and banging like Philadelphia or even Atlanta. It’s not the same.”

Duckworth, the Trail Blazers’ wide-body center, was the brunt of fat jokes Wednesday from combative Piston center Bill Laimbeer.

Laimbeer said he allowed Duckworth to score 17 points in Game 1 because the Trail Blazer center was so big Laimbeer had to “take the polar route to get around him in the low post.”

Said Duckworth, who is 7 feet and listed at 270 pounds: “(Laimbeer) is just not a quick enough guy himself. So, it’ll take him an extra-long time. If he stopped holding me so much, he’d be all right.”

Piston guard Isiah Thomas, who had 16 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1, said he hopes he does not have to repeat his performance tonight.

“It’s much better for us when we all play together and all get about 16 or 17 points,” Thomas said. “It’s not good when one guy does it. We need five or six guys to take shots.”