I ran across this video as part of a series of videos on the greatest peaks that basketball players have had. The videos are made by one of the contributors to Nylon Calculus and I've found them to be quite well done, so I thought I'd share it here.
I still remember that season. I would argue the 77-78 Blazers at the 55-10 mark was the greatest Blazer team of all time. Better than 77, 90-92 and 00. Absolutely dominant. It was Ramsay's system working better than even he imagined it.
Walton had several signature moves in rebounding, passing, defense, and shooting that I have never seen since, except by UCLA players, who lost the habits in the NBA. I've always been surprised that other NBA stars didn't try the moves. For example, the film says his outlet passes were usually to midcourt, not impressive pinpoint touchdowns all the way downcourt. It doesn't say that what made him the greatest outlet passer was that he rebounded and passed in one unified motion. He rebounded, rotated his head before fastening his claws on the ball, spotted his teammate speeding toward halfcourt, and passed it while still at the top of his rebounding leap. The reason he passed only to midcourt was that Wooden didn't want his players leaving the offense to get any farther. Walton taught the same system to Ramsay, who had never coached John Wooden's way before.
Yes, barely mentioned, but the narrator acts as if his outlet passer reputation is overstated, acts disappointed that he generally only passed to midcourt, and then shows one such pass getting intercepted. The film says he was a mediocre dribbler, which is true, but the reason is that Walton, following Wooden's dictates, never worked on dribbling, feeling that the center shouldn't do that. The film dismisses his signature free throw cross-elbow motion as odd. Again, that was Wooden; several of his college teammates did it. NBA writers were relieved that Walton was not an awful FT shooter like Chamberlain and Russell. The film says that Walton couldn't jump above the box on the backboard. He sure could in college, though operations later robbed him of that height. How does the narrator think that Walton pulled off the pass-at-the-top-of-a rebound trick, many times per game in the NBA? A picture that appeared in some articles back then showed him rebounding in college with his chin above the rim of the hoop. I could go on describing his signature moves, and I have in the past. I'm sad that I have to watch only him to see them. They didn't catch on, any more than Rick Barry's underhanded FTs. By the way, TV wasn't any blurrier then than now. Blame film preservation. We're all missing some great games.
Bob Cousy was in Portland in 78 doing a piece and I had the chance to talk with him some at the Virginia Cafe in Portland. He said he thought Walton hands down was the greatest outlet passer ever up to that point. He also said The Big Red Head could be one of the best all around centers. Bill Russell has 11 championships which I doubt will ever beat.