Trail Blazers Announce Bill Walton Celebration Date for 2024-25 Season

The former 1978 league MVP passed away at the age of 71 earlier this year.

Feb 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Bill Walton is honored during halftime during the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

The Portland Trail Blazers are set to celebrate the life of the best player from the lone championship team in their history, late great former MVP center Bill Walton, next season.

Per Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report, Portland has announced that the team's March 9 meeting against the new-look Detroit Pistons will be the night the Blazers celebrate the 6-foot-11 big man, who passed away at the far-too-young age of 71 this past spring, following a battle with cancer.

Trail Blazers News: Former Portland Finals MVP Bill Walton Passes Away Aged 71

Luke Walton, Bill Walton's only son to make the NBA as a player, is currently an assistant coach under newly-hired PIstons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.

After winning a pair of championships and three National College Player of the Year and consensus All-American accolades under legendary head coach John Wooden at UCLA, the San Diego native was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974. He soon became one of the best passing big men in the history of the NBA, quickly evolving into a two-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA Teamer, and two-time All-Defensive First Teamer within his first four seasons in Portland.

He guided the Trail Blazers to their lone championship in 1977, while netting Finals MVP honors in the process. During that year's playoffs, he averaged 18.2 points on 50.7 percent shooting from the floor and 68.4 percent shooting from the charity stripe, 15.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 3.4 blocks, and 1.1 steals a night in 19 bouts. During the Finals, the Blazers vanquished Julius Irving's Philadelphia 76ers in a six-game series.

Walton looked even better in 1977-78. He helped Portland win 50 of its first 60 contests, and though he incurred a season-ending foot injury after having played just 58 games, he still earned league MVP honors. Walton tried to return to the team (which finished the year on a lackluster 8-14 run), but reinjured the same foot just two games into Portland's second round series with the Seattle SuperSonics. An X-ray showed that Walton had broken the navicular bone beneath his left ankle. He demanded a trade that summer, frustrated that the team had — in his mind — mishandled his injuries. Portland obliged, flipping him to his native then-San Diego Clippers.

Walton missed the entire 1978-79, 1980-81, and 1981-82 seasons with the club due to various destabilizing ailments. Following the 1984-85 season, he reached out to the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, looking to join a winner. Walton fully reinvented himself as a critical two-way sixth man (and the Sixth Man of the Year) for the title-winning 1985-86 Boston Celtics.

More Trail Blazers: Former Portland All-Star Describes Craziest Postseason Atmosphere He Played In