On this day in Boston Celtics history, champion center and one of the NBA’s 75 greatest players to play the game William Theodore Walton III (better known as Bill) was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.
An NCAA champion under iconic head coach John Wooden at UCLA, the California native was selected with the first overall pick of the 1974 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers, for whom he played for four seasons, winning an NBA title there in 1977. He also played for the Clippers in both their San Diego and Los Angeles incarnations before being dealt to the Celtics in 1985.
The La Mesa native would win a second title with Boston in 1986 before constant pain from injuries forced his retirement in 1987.