Bill Walton may not be the ESPN’s best in-game college basketball analyst, but he definitely is the most unique. And that doesn’t apply to just ESPN and college basketball.
Walton may be the most unique analyst for any sport anywhere. It’s safe to say he puts the “color” in “color analyst.” Everyone else describes the game. Walton takes a brush and makes an abstract painting. He is unquestionably an acquired taste.
Walton is almost always paired with play-by-play man Dave Pasch, who generally will jokingly complain, on the air, about Walton’s commentary. Keeping Walton within certain broadcast lines is no easy task.
Anyway, Pasch received a contract extension Tuesday, ESPN announced. And Walton congratulated him in a way that only Walton could — strangely, and with a hint of something that Pasch may find slightly annoying. But in a good way.
ESPN reaches a multi-year extension with veteran play-by-play voice @DavePasch
And a certain longtime colleague seems excited about the news…
More via @TheBigLead: https://t.co/u7jqKXsQvx | @BillWalton pic.twitter.com/Gt7i1b7KxY
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) May 3, 2022
“I heard the news, the deal went down!” Walton said to Pasch in a video from ESPN PR, as he was clearly reading something that was written for him. “For what? I can’t figure it out.”
If you can see the video, you can see it was full of a whole lot of bad acting from the big man, who won a title with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977, then the Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics nine years later.
Watching Walton today, it’s sometimes hard to believe that — on the rare occasion he was totally healthy — he was one of the most complete centers in NBA history.
“Yeah, I’m super happy and overwhelmingly proud,” Walton said. “Here we go. It’s time.”
Yes, yes it is. It’s time for something, something only Walton and Pasch have been able to deliver. Just don’t ask us what it is.