Thursday night’s men’s college basketball game between Oregon and USC wasn’t particularly suspenseful, as the Ducks cruised to a 78-69 victory. But while there wasn’t much drama to the game, it was certainly memorable for anyone who watched it on ESPN.
And for that, we can thank ESPN’s announce team, Dave Pasch and of course, Bill Walton.
The game was at USC, home of the George Lucas International Building. That prompted Pasch to ask Walton about something he’d heard in the past. Was Walton in consideration to be in Star Wars, playing the role of Chewbacca?
Bill Walton won't give Dave Pasch an answer on if he was in the mix to play Chewbacca in Star Wars.
Bill finally says that he "auditioned" to play Chewbacca, but they modeled the character after him.
This is an amazing interaction.🏀🎬🤣 pic.twitter.com/uk4rORSf1D
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 2, 2024
“Is it true that you were in the mix to play Chewbacca? I heard that,” Pasch asked.
“No. Chewbacca is modeled after me,” Walton responded.
“I’m being serious,” a pressing Pasch said. “I heard that you were in the running for that, that you were being considered to play that role. I’m being dead serious.”
“You’re always serious,” Walton said. “That’s one of your problems. That you don’t have fun with your life.”
Pasch, though was not going to stop with his inquiry.
“But you’re not answering the question,” he said.
“No. George Lucas is as cool as they get. And I remember the night that George and Kareem and Bill Russell and me, we were all up at San Francisco, at a big fundraiser for Martin Luther King’s memorial — beautiful play by Kijani Wright.”
Wright’s shot, which trimmed the USC deficit to 74-60, gave Pasch a chance
Walton was then brought back to the game when USC’s Kijani Wright made a shot to cut the Trojan deficit to 74-60. The shot also gave Pasch the chance to bring the question back to Walton and Chewbacca.
“So since you’re not answering the question, I’m just gonna assume it’s true,” Pasch said.
“What was the question? I auditioned for Chewbacca. And they said ‘No, but we’re gonna model the character after you.'”
“You were in Ghostbusters and people didn’t know that. So again, I think there’s a great chance that this is a true story.”
After all these years, layers continue to be added to the man, the myth, the legend that is Bill Walton.
[Photo Credit: ESPN]
