Cal Basketball Video: Pac-12 Legend Bill Walton On How Bears Can Rebuild

Former national player of the year from UCLA says Berkeley has so much to offer to young people looking for a college

Bill Walton is one of the great college basketball's all-time greatest centers. A three-time national player of the year at UCLA, he would have become an NBA immortal had his body not betrayed him.

But Walton has morphed into one of the sport's most enthusiastic TV personalities. He drives some viewers nuts with his tangential discussions that often have nothing to do with the game he's working.

Even so, Walton is a hoot. Always has something to say and his passion -- while certainly over the top -- is unceasing and genuine. I have run into few people who enjoy life the way Bill Walton always does.

We ran into Bill at Pac-12 basketball media day in San Francisco and took a few minutes to discuss the state of Cal basketball.

Even Cal fans are just getting to know new coach Mark Fox and his staff and six new recruits. Walton acknowledged he doesn't have a complete book yet on the Bears, but he knows Berkeley.

In an interview I did with him two decades ago he told me that had Cal hired John Wooden away from UCLA when Pete Newell retired, he likely would have wound up in Berkeley, rather than Westwood.

It was part of a "What if?" series of stories we did at the old Oakland Tribune, and the possibilities were wild. Walton at Cal? If you remember how great a player he was, you'd be more than intrigued.

Cal was picked last in the Pac-12 media poll, but Walton says there are still ways the the program, university and community can attract talent to Haas Pavilion.