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YouTube Gold: Bill Walton On His Greatest NBA Opponent

Who else but Kareem?

Milwaukee Bucks vs Portland Trail Blazers
 PORTLAND, OR - 1979: Bill Walton #32 of the Portland Trail Blazers boxes out against Kareem Abdul Jabbar #33 of the Milwaukee Bucks during a game played circa 1979 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.
Photo by NBA Photos/NBAE via Getty Images

If Bill Walton had been as good at basketball as he is at talking...well, actually he was probably better.

As a young player, Bill Walton was as good as any big man and possibly the most fundamentally sound big man of all time. He could do just about anything on the basketball court except stay healthy. His feet basically crumbled and later in life, his spine did too.

But he was there at the very top of the game for a little while and even at the end, after all the injuries, when he had a couple of seasons with the Boston Celtics, the man could still play at a high level.

In this clip, as usual, Walton starts off talking about John Wooden, then segues into Dylan’s tour schedule, Houston traffic and playing beach volleyball with Wilt Chamberlain until, finally, he discusses the best NBA player he ever faced.

Not surprisingly, he said Lakers great and fellow former UCLA Bruin Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

And after that, he finally took a breath.