NBA great Bill Walton‘s infectious personality made him a locker-room favorite during his playing days. But he also had a fiery passion for the game, which he showcased during his color commentary career. Legendary sportscaster Bob Costas recently shared an anecdote where he witnessed Walton break out of his gleeful persona and deliver a blazing rant on Shaquille O’Neal.
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Before Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers, Costas, Walton, and Steve Jones, who were on commentary duty, were tasked with filming a short pregame intro. On The Press Box podcast, Costas recently revealed that he had told his co-commentators to keep their pregame analysis short and reserve the meaty stuff for the game.
Per the veteran sportscaster, Jones was seemingly on board with the plan, but Walton looked nervous. When the pregame intro got underway, the former did exactly as they discussed. But Walton went on a lengthy rant about Shaq’s performance that surprised everyone.
Walton put the Diesel on notice, saying,
“This is about Shaq and Shaq alone. It’s not about strategies, it’s not about plays. This is about being the MVP. How does the MVP allow himself to be denied by an aging, injury-hobbled [Arvydas] Sabonis? Where’s the youthful athleticism for Shaq!”
here’s the walton pep talk aimed at shaq in which bill boldly stated that shaq’s MVP would be null and void if he didn’t deliver on that night https://t.co/FLl4LaBQJ5 pic.twitter.com/ZxJ22JrSw2
— J. Kyle Mann (@jkylemann) June 6, 2024
Walton finished his fiery rant with a warning to Shaq that his MVP award would be meaningless if he failed to dominate the Conference Finals. In that game, the Lakers superstar had three horrendous quarters, scoring only 10 points as his team trailed by 15 points and was staring at an exit from the playoffs.
But the MVP turned it up in the fourth quarter and played his heart out on both ends of the floor in the final 12 minutes, to help the Lakers punch their ticket to the NBA Finals. After that, O’Neal did not look back. He dominated the Indiana Pacers to help LA win the first of their three straight titles, also securing the first of his three straight Finals MVP honors.
Walton’s rant about O’Neal was spot on and the Lakers center managed to save his legacy with his fourth-quarter performance. Despite the Celtics great critiquing his performance, the Lakers superstar took it as a personal slight. But following Walton’s death in May, O’Neal paid a beautiful homage to the great center.
Shaquille O’Neal opens up about tough relationship with Bill Walton
After Walton’s passing following a long battle with cancer, O’Neal spoke about his relationship with the two-time champion before Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves. He said,
“We lost one of the four fathers of the Big Man Alliance… Bill and I had an up-and-down relationship… It was up and down because I was sensitive… The thing I’m doing [to] all the big men, Bill, Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], all those guys, they were doing it to me. It’s called the Big Man Rites of Passage.”
O’Neal revealed that Walton’s criticism made him want to put his hands on the him, but his mother, Lucille O’Neal, told him to introspect and figure out whether Walton’s analysis had any truth to it.
O’Neal added that Walton’s criticism helped him improve and build a legacy comparable to the two-time champion. He revealed that the late, great center last met him during the 2023 NCAA Tournament and told him that he only criticized him to push him to be a better player.
