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Blazers history: Irreconcilable differences between Bill Walton and Portland in 1978

By Matt George Moore

CHICAGO - 1973: Bill Walton #32 of the Portland Trail Blazers rebounds against the Chicago Bulls during a game played circa 1972 at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1973 NBAE (Photo by Neil Leifer/NBAE via Getty Images)
CHICAGO - 1973: Bill Walton #32 of the Portland Trail Blazers rebounds against the Chicago Bulls during a game played circa 1972 at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1973 NBAE (Photo by Neil Leifer/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton’s contentious relationship with the Portland Trail Blazers came to a head on this date in 1978.

Forty years ago Sunday, on Aug. 5, 1978, The Oregonian reported on a bombshell involving the Portland Trail Blazers and their oft-injured and increasingly aggrieved center, Bill Walton.

Walton wanted out of Portland. And the saga that followed continues to reverberate throughout Rip City to this day. (Those of us here at Rip City Project Headquarters would like to thank our friends @77Blazers for bringing this to our attention.)

More from Rip City Project

The Story

The first paragraph of The Oregonian’s 1978 story — headlined “Pact breach opened way for Walton deal, agent says” — lays it out with clarity:

"Bill Walton’s attorney/agent said Saturday that the Portland Trail Blazers are willing to accommodate the center’s trade demands because the club breached its contract with the league’s most valuable player."

Let’s unpack that lede.

First of all, the franchise — via founder and Blazers Executive Vice President Harry Glickman — actually refused to comment on the story. And the aforementioned “attorney/agent,” John Bassett, also declined to elaborate.

Second, Walton was the reigning MVP, and the team was little more than a year removed from their one-and-only NBA title.

How could the franchise and its biggest, most celebrated star — its former first-round draft pick — reach such a state of affairs?

The answer can be found in that same Oregonian story.

Walton, Blazers and Injury

The Oregonian reported that an unnamed source for the Los Angeles Times said Walton “learned that X-rays showed he had a broken foot when the Blazers injected him with a painkiller to enable him to participate” in the 1978 playoffs against the Seattle Supersonics.

It was this foot injury — and several more — that hindered Walton from achieving anywhere near the type of excellence he had sustained during his days as a star at UCLA.

In fact, foot injuries and ankle injuries would nearly derail Walton’s professional career before it really got started. Walton would average just under 47 games per season during his 10-year NBA career. And he would miss three full seasons due to injury.

And yet, despite these debilitating and recurring injuries, Walton’s list of accomplishments during the early seasons of his career are mind-boggling:

NBA Champion, Portland Trail Blazers (1977)

NBA Finals MVP (1977)

NBA rebounding leader (1977)

NBA blocks leader (1977)

NBA Most Valuable Player (1978)

NBA All-Star (1977, 1978)

All-NBA First Team (1978)

All-NBA Second Team (1977)

NBA All-Defensive First Team (1977, 1978)

Aftermath

On Aug. 21, 1978, Sports Illustrated ran a story on Walton and the Blazers. The image on the cover is one of those photos that proves the old adage: A picture is worth a thousand words.

The SI story by John Papanek was a deep dive into “the puzzle of what had happened to Walton, what had made him demand to be traded from the Trail Blazers.”

“The sudden move left some friendships strained,” Papanek wrote. “It also left the city’s basketball fans stunned.”

The story is worth reading in full; it offers a fascinating and still-contentious glimpse into Portland’s legendary championship squad of the late 1970s. A brief recap of the story: Walton says asking for a trade “was the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make regarding my basketball career.” Glickman says the Blazers were “absolutely shocked by Walton’s decision.”

Amends

Fast forward to 2009. In October of that year, The Oregonian reported that Walton “said it was time to apologize to Trail Blazers fans.”

As then-Oregonian journalist Jason Quick wrote, Walton was in town for a series of awards banquets and fundraisers. But Walton had a feeling that this trip would be more than business as usual as he flew into Rip City:

"(W)hen his plane descended through the Willamette Valley … Walton said he discovered tears streaming down his cheeks. … It was his time to heal old wounds. And a signal that his life was once again changing."

Walton would later hold a 40-minute press conference, confessing to “mistakes and errors of the past.”

“I regret that I wasn’t a better person” Walton said. “A better player. I regret that I got hurt. I regret the circumstances in which I left the Portland Trail Blazers family. I just wish I could do a lot of things over, but I can’t. So I’m here to apologize, to try and make amends, and to try and start over and make it better.”

Next. Walton, Drexler, Lillard: Blazers’ First Team All-NBA stars. dark

As we said at the top of this post, this is a story that continues to reverberate throughout Rip City. For example, some of the folks who play prominent roles in this story, including former team doc Robert Cook, took issue with Walton’s remembrance of events leading up to his departure from Portland. (Cook died in 2016 in a tragic accident.)

But those disagreements — and Walton’s story itself, of course — only serve to reinforce a Rip City truth: In many ways, a defining moment — perhaps the defining moment — arrived on this date 40 years ago in Blazers history: Aug. 5, 1978.