Bill Walton quotes:

I had the only beard in the Western Hemisphere that made Bob Dylan's look good.

The Grateful Dead, they're my best friends. Their message of hope, peace, love, teamwork, creativity, imagination, celebration, the dance, the vision, the purpose, the passion all of the things I believe in makes me the luckiest Deadhead in the world.

Doug Christie, what skill, what strenght, what power, what quickness. The visionof Magic Johnson, the athletisicm of Michael Jordan, the toughness of larry Bird. Dough Christie has it all

But you have to understand, my beard is so nasty. I mean, it's the only beard in the history of Western civilization that makes Bob Dylan's beard look good.

Life is easy when you're hot. But what happens when the ball bounces the other way? You just keep getting back up and climbing up.

Mick Jagger is in better shape than far too many NBA players. It's up in the air whether the same can be said of Keith Richards.

I lived to play basketball. Growing up as a kid, Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics were my favorite team. The way they played, the teamwork, the sacrifice, the commitment, the joy, the camaraderie, the relationship with the fans.

I grew up in an non-athletic family, where my parents were interested in music, in literature, in education and art.

Being a broadcaster encompasses the business of sport, which is my life today, and it encompasses the skills of being a history student, and the ability of being a performer.

You don't win championships by just being normal, by just being average.

I don't sleep much. I'm on the go. My mind is racing. My wife says my mind is like the rolling dials on a slot machine. So, yeah, I think about everything.

At 49, I can say something I never would have said when I was a player, that I'm a better person because of my failures and disgraces.

Tim Duncan's foot issue, I think, is a major factor in this year's playoffs. That's not the kind of injury that gets better over time playing NBA basketball.

Bill Russell was my favorite player of all-time.

There are no guarantees in life. The simple twists of fate and the breaks of the game are the two maxims that define so much of the success and failure in life.

A lot of people understand what not saying anything means, so, in effect, not saying anything is really saying a lot.

Kevin Garnett is the prototype for the NBA player of the future. He's already one of the greatest players to have played the game.

Chick Hearn was my favorite broadcaster ever - he's the one who taught me to think basketball, how to love basketball.

I've had 36 orthopedic operations, have two fused ankles, my knees, hands and wrists don't work, I now have a fused spine, other than that, everything is great.

If the UCLA teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s were subjected to the kind of scrutiny (other schools) have been, UCLA would probably have to forfeit about eight national championships and be on probation for the next 100 years.

There is absolutely no way the best team in the NCAA could even dream of beating the worst team in the NBA? You're talking about men vs. boys.

Love is the single most powerful and important word and notion in culture and language. Until the power of love supersedes the love of power we have no chance of ever being successful.

No one missed more basketball in the history of NBA than I did. I played 14 seasons, on the roster for 14 years, and I missed more than nine-and-a-half full seasons.

My bike is my gym, my wheelchair and my church all in one. I'd like to ride my bike all day long but I've got this thing called a job that keeps getting in the way.

Life is about growth. People are not perfect when they're 21 years old.

Music is critical in our lives and culture. It's the inspiration that drives us. It's also the window to our souls. It's a reflection as to who we are, what we stand for and where we're going.

I might be the most injured athlete in the history of sports. I've had 31 operations. An endless string of stress fractures.

I can think. I can sleep. I can move. I can ride my bike. I can dream.

That's what makes it so fun to be on a team. You're sitting at your house, thinking up this wild, crazy stuff as to how it's going to go, and the other guys are sitting at their houses doing the same thing.

Without question, no hesitation, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the best player I ever played against.

Basketball is one of those rare opportunities where you can make a difference, not only for yourself, but for other people as well.

Right now, you know, it's not about the refs or anything else, it's about hitting first, getting on the run and never looking back.

I mean, I'm 6-foot-11, I've got red hair, freckles, I'm a goofy, nerdy-looking guy, I've got a speech impediment-I stutter and stammer all the time-and I'm a Deadhead.

Well, we've made some changes on this tour. We're no longer sleeping in the parking lots and swimming in the fountains. We've been staying in hotels most of the way, though I will say some hotels have declined to take us because we're just having too much fun.

Growing up, my parents were very, very strict. And then I went to UCLA with John Wooden, who was just off the charts.

My life changed irrevocably four-and-a-half years ago when my spine failed and collapsed. I spent two years on the floor, in excruciating, debilitating and unrelenting pain. I can only describe the pain as being submerged into a vat of scalding acid that has an electric current running through it. And you can never get out, ever.

John Stockton is one of the true marvels, not just of basketball, or in America, but in the history of Western Civilization!

The great thing about being a broadcaster is you have this incredible responsibility to the people that make it all happen, the people that turn on the television set.

I have nothing but respect for the Lakers. So many of their legends shaped who I am as a person and player.

When you are in unrelenting, excruciating and debilitating pain that never goes away for years on end, your life is over.

Winning is about having the whole team on the same page.

I love live music. I love going to the event. And to know them as people and to have seen the Grateful Dead grow up and become who they are is so incredibly special.

That's what I tried to share in this book, Back From The Dead, the ability to learn, to dream, to hope. In a world that is far too often selling fear and death, I'm selling hope and life and success and that's why I chose to be part of the Grateful Dead.

I grew up in a classical music household. My dad is a phenomenal musician who can play any and all instruments, can sight read, can play by ear.

There are four pillars to happiness, which is the ultimate goal in life-to be happy. Health is first, family is second, home is third. That safe place where you can go to and regroup, be in a safe place by yourself start over. Those three things lead to the fourth pillar which is the hope and dream that tomorrow is going to be better. Without that you have not much at all.

The passions I have in my life are my family, music, books, I'm an avid plant collector, and I love to ride my bike.

I'm a fan and a friend, I met them in 1974 when I first joined the NBA and my life has never been he same since. I became the basketball player I was because of the Grateful Dead.

I could smell colors, I could feel sounds.

I love to play music. I'm terrible at it, but I love learning about it .

Music is my life. It's inseparable from anything else that I do.

When I think of Boris Diaw, I think of Beethoven in the age of the romantics

Never forget - happiness ends when selfishness begins.

When I'm at a show, I'm yelling and cheering. I'm with those guys [the Grateful Dead].

No matter how good you get, there's always something further out there.

My bike is my gym, my wheelchair, and my church all in one.

I learned early on the value and the power of music to inspire and to drive me.

I believe in science and evolution. I've been to the Grand Canyon.

I hate to say anything that may hurt UCLA, but I can't be quiet when I see what the NCAA is doing to Jerry Tarkanian only because he has a reputation for giving a second chance to many black athletes other coaches have branded as troublemakers. The NCAA is working night and day trying to get Jerry, but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA!

We can never thank David Stern enough. His vision to use basketball to improve the quality of our lives to make this world a better and saner place, that guy, is the most important man in the history of basketball.

The medical device tags that are being used [in the USA] are a terrible mistake. Why are we taxing people for trying to save lives and trying to make lives better, make peoples lives healthier? Those taxes should be placed on alcohol, tobacco, junk food, guns. Those are all the things that destroy health.

[Peter] Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" was my first go-to song in terms of getting into the zone and getting ready and then I quickly gravitated to rock and roll music in the mid-'60s with the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Beatles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Rolling Stones, Carlos Santana. So many of them are still around and still going strong. I go out to see them all the time.

Why is Scottie Pippen taking a charge? Taking a charge is for people with no game!

My relationship, my friendships with Grateful Dead, has shaped me. Our house is a shrine to all our musical heroes.

The offensive presence of Greg Ostertag is quite overwhelming sometimes!

I have always wanted to be part of something special, and when I got to Boston.. actually, when I bought, begged and pleaded my way onto the Celtics.. it was already a championship team. I was just glad to be able to sit there and cheer and to be Larry Bird's valet, to be sure that his shoes were fine and his uniform was folded neatly.

I like a lot of other music and listen to a lot of other music, but one of the greatest things about the Grateful Dead is they played all the time.

Never rank, rate, or compare coaches, children, concerts, or championships or congratulations. Just enjoy them all.

I'm a different person today than I was yesterday. I live for the moment and everything that happens in my life changes me.

I'm mainstream. Always have been.

During the course of my life, Grateful Dead played all the time. There were constantly concerts you could go to.

In basketball, you can be the greatest individual player in the world and still lose every game, because a team will always beat an individual.

I was a skinny, scrawny guy. I stuttered horrendously, couldn't speak at all. I was a very shy, reserved player and a very shy, reserved person. I found a safe place in life in basketball.

Anytime you bring Michael Olowokandi on to your team, disaster is soon to follow.

It changes over the course of life, depending on how you're feeling. There's this incredible catalog of different songs, so it depends on what you're hoping for, what your dream is and that song will come on.

I've got my iPod and I've got it on shuffle. If I'm not ready for one, I'll click to the next one. My wife, Lori, and our children, Adam, Nate, Chris, and Luke, will all tell you that when I find one I like it can stay on repeat for weeks on end.

If you're living for today, if you're only dreaming about yesterday, it doesn't work. You got to know that tomorrow is going to be better. Then you're on your way.

When you find yourself talking about less and less and forgetting the love that you bring, never forget there are things you can replace but others you can not.

If Anthony Johnson ever gets a jumper, who's going to stop him?

We grew up without a television, so we constantly had music playing in our house.

I'm a lifelong stutterer.

I went to my first show [of the Grateful Dead], got right up front and never left. The incredible excitement, the family, the spirit, the hope, the happiness, all the different things I love and live for in life are there. The joy, the optimism, the teamwork, the experimentation, the exploration, the curiosity. No band has inspired more artwork, no band has inspired more books. No band has ever inspired a more loyal following and I'm involved in all of that stuff.

Kenyon Martin is the 2nd best player in the Eastern Conference.

I live by the motto of "chase your dream, make your dream your job, make your job your life."

At 49, I can say something I never would have said when I was a player. I am a better person because of my failures and disgraces.

Success at the highest level comes down to one question: Can you decide that your happiness can come from someone else's success?

Kazemi has to understand that nobody is going to tell him he has to go back to Iran if he misses a shot.

You look at Vladimir Radmanovic, this guy is cut from stone. As if Michelangelo was reading and a lightening bolt flashed before him.

Greg Ostertag is one of the top centers on this planet!

Steve Nash is the most unathletic player in the league.

When you intercept the ball with your stomach, that is great defense

A huge Chinese population here in... Houston.

I had this fantastic collection of Grateful Dead T-shirts and live concert music the band had give me over all these years, decades of material, and when our boys became teenagers they started going through everything and wearing the shirts and listening to the music and that's what the Grateful Dead is all about.

[Music is] so inspirational in terms of making me want to become better.

I started going [Grateful Dead] when I was in high school. I was 15. It was the Summer Of Love.

I learned a long time ago that minor surgery is when they do operation on someone else, not you.

Patrick Ewing used to be much better in every aspect of the game.

Where else but the NBA could people like Bill Russell, Spencer Haywood, Ricky Barry, Dennis Rodman, and Allen Iverson come in and be allowed to be who they are?

When everybody thinks alike, nobody thinks.

It's the most pleasurable experience in the world! When you're on a great team and you get hot, your teammates milk you dry - they wear you out and there's nothing like being on a great team.

I couldn't imagine not playing basketball. To me, basketball is what life is all about.

The only man who can stop Cliff Robinson is Cliff Robinson. The man is unstoppable even at 38.

What a pathetic play from a pathetic human being.

Health is a function of three things. 1. Luck 2. Genetics and 3. Choices in your lifestyle.

Tracy McGrady is doing things we've never seen from anybody - from any planet!

Health is the most critical thing in our life. With your health anything is possible, without it you can't do anything.