Watching Bill Walton analyze a college basketball game on ESPN reminds me of the Forest Gump quote: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” With Walton, you get a mix of basketball knowledge, entertainment, and everything in between.
Recently, Walton did an interview with Christopher Kamrani of The Athletic (subscription required). Walton revealed that after games in which he feels he did not have a good broadcast, he has a tough time sleeping.
“If I can only figure out what I’m doing as a ‘professional,’ I would feel a lot better about myself…This business is very much like being a player, but it’s very much like being a college student in that you study all the time and you have oral examinations on a very regular basis that you have to score near-perfect on if you want to keep going. But like when you’re a player, you make mistakes, which I did a lot tonight, and I won’t sleep tonight. “
Later in the article, Kamrani told Walton how people tend to view a game (usually the Pac-12) that he calls with Dave Pasch on Twitter. He guessed that “40 percent love him, 40 percent despise him, and 20 percent have no idea what the hell he’s talking about.”
“I try to do my best,” Walton responds. “I work very hard and try to make it an interesting, fun, entertaining show. When I fail, I try to make necessary and proper adjustments. I am who I am.”
One thing is for certain, listeners of a Walton broadcast get the real him for every game and that’s all a person should ask for. You may never know what he is going to say, but the unpredictability just might be the best part.