Back from the Dead

January 25, 2016
“My history tells me, that there’s a crash coming soon,” basketball legend Walton writes in his optimistic, bouncy autobiography. “But I know this time will be different.” It’s a constant that runs throughout Walton’s life. Basketball is another—the pick-up games at San Diego’s Municipal Gym were a revelation for the boy. So is music: Walton is a devout Deadhead who has actually played with the group. Pain, unfortunately, is also nearly constant. Thanks to congenitally bad feet, Walton sat out three years in mid-career—he had time to attend law school—and only returned after a risky, new operation (slowly) put a spring in his step. Unfortunately, the injuries didn’t end once Walton retired. In 2008, his spine collapsed, putting him at his lowest point figuratively and literally—the athlete ate his meals on the ground. Walton adroitly weaves his personal and professional lives in this frequently stirring memoir. He doesn’t follow through on some fascinating anecdotes, such as the time as a highly paid pro he tried working as a lumberjack. But Walton’s love for life and the people and things in it—including his college coach, John Wooden—is infectious. You can’t stop reading, or rooting for the man.

January 1, 2016
A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the "nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt." Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor--literally: "I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move." In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. "My spine will no longer hold me," he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is "the most injured athlete in the history of sports." Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities "down to dust." Walton's memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he's now pain-free. And then there's the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead's; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won't be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton's acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton's fervent, witty style. One of the NBA's 50 greatest players scores another basket--a deeply personal one.

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March 1, 2016

Hall of Famer Walton chronicles his professional basketball career and a life plagued by chronic pain and surgeries. Having won two NCAA championships with UCLA, the author also provides insight into how legendary coach John Wooden led young athletes to dominate college basketball in the 1960s and 1970s, including an 88-game winning streak. He then reviews his achievements with multiple NBA franchises, with triumphs for the Portland Trailblazers and Boston Celtics. Born with defects in his feet, Walton suffered injuries to his legs and spine, resulting in 37 orthopedic procedures. In 2008, a spinal collapse left him barely able to move for two years and contemplating suicide. He describes the painful journey of a difficult surgery and the long recovery process. Postretirement, Walton became a broadcaster after overcoming a lifetime stuttering problem. Walton excels in writing about his basketball experience but drifts toward sentimentality when discussing his childhood, the Grateful Dead, and the 1960s. VERDICT This memoir is defined by trials as much as successes and will appeal to readers who appreciated Walton as player and commentator.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2016
Reading this unsurprisingly engaging autobiography by the former NBA color commentator, who was selected by an NBA committee in 1996 as one of the 50 best pro players ever, one word comes to mind: LARGEfrom a charmed San Diego childhood that overflowed with books, sports, and the open exchange of ideas; to a storied if injury-plagued career as the 6-foot 11-inch center for NCAA and NBA championship teams; to a high-profile broadcasting job that found him logging some 600,000 air miles a year; to friendships with the likes of the Grateful Dead; to, finally, a body so wracked with pain from a collapsed spine that he was reduced to taking his meals lying on the floor, face down. With successful spinal surgery, Walton has returned to his old self; that might not thrill those detractors who chafe at his outspokenness, but it will certainly entertain, even inspire, his many more fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)