Bill Walton has made no secret of his love for his alma mater of UCLA and the days when he was coached by legend John Wooden. If you watch any of the Pac-12 games he’s called on ESPN or the Pac-12 Network, he’s made at least two or three mentions of his UCLA days as he waxes poetic about the Bruins dynasty.
So you would think he would take every opportunity to give pregame talks to his beloved Bruins, but that apparently isn’t the case. Before Thursday’s UCLA-Cal game, the former center gave Cal forward Jaylen Brown some advice for the game. Actually, advice isn’t the right word, pep talk is more like it. And it worked as Brown scored 16 points in helping guide the Bears to a 75-63 victory over UCLA.
In ESPN.com’s recap of the game, Brown said outright that Walton’s words put him in the right mindset to play on Thursday:
California raced out to a 13-1 start behind a pair of 3-pointers from Brown following a pregame pep talk from ESPN analyst Bill Walton and strong defense that forced UCLA to miss its first five shots and commit three turnovers before Hamilton made a floater to end the drought.
“He gives the best motivational speeches I’ve ever heard,” Brown said. “He just got me so pumped up for the game I think I came out and scored eight in a row. It was all Bill Walton right there.”
Those are pretty strong words from Brown giving credit to Walton.
Big Red won two NCAA Championships and was a three-time College Player of the Year during his UCLA career. But while Walton has continued to express love for his school, he’s been critical of former Bruins coach Ben Howland and perhaps he’s giving a message to current coach Steve Alford who has already made an enemy of another UCLA legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
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