Stories about how the late Bill Walton impacted those around him have circled in the hours since the Hall of Famer’s death was made public on Monday. Few of Walton’s relationships were as literally in-your-face as the one with Dave Pasch, who paired with the late Hall of Famer on Pac-12 games.
“As I look back, going to Syracuse (for school) … you’re taught a very professional manner of how to broadcast a game,” Pasch said when he joined Bickley & Marotta on Tuesday. “It’s traditional. We all kind sound a lot alike if you listen to a lot of the Syracuse guys in terms of their cadence and how they call the game. But I think I didn’t really let my personality out. First of all, I didn’t have a choice with Bill.
“It was good. He made me a better broadcaster because I had to think on my feet. I had to react. I had to determine when to stop him, when to play along, when to nudge him, when to go back at him. And he would egg me on. He would take his headset off during the break and be like, ‘Keep coming at me. Don’t stop. There’s nothing you can say that will offend me!’ Then he would say, ‘No matter what I say or what I do, know that I love you. But don’t tell anyone.’ So he brought the best out of me. He wanted me to be authentic on the air, because he was authentic on the air.”
Dave Pasch’s best Bill Walton’s stories
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Pasch last worked with Walton during an Oregon-USC game in early February before Walton’s battle with cancer pulled him off the air.
The two of them grabbed dinner alone after that game — Walton would usually invite his wife, Lori, and other friends. They laughed about what had happened during the game.
Walton claimed he auditioned for the role of Chewbacca in Star Wars.
It was an off-the-cuff joke. But Pasch played it seriously. And news aggregators took the story is true.
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
“… We’re at USC so George Lucas comes up and I jokingly ask Bill how the audition for Chewbacca went,” Pasch said. “Not only does he go there but he claims that he didn’t get the role but George Lucas was kind enough to shape and fashion Chewbacca in his image and create the character after Bill.
“Now, we totally made it up. We’re just dying laughing about it and People Magazine and all these Hollywood reporters start calling and writing stories and finding old George Lucas quotes from the ’70s to refute our commentary and claim that, ‘No, George Lucas named Chewbacca after his dog’ … Bill and I are just dying laughing. ‘Do people really think we were serious?'”
But they had long formed a relationship where playing off one another on unserious matters became so natural.
Pasch remembers their first Pac-12 Tournament together was followed immediately by an NBA assignment involving the Golden State Warriors.
“I’m doing a sitdown with Steph Curry and we’re kind of getting ready and Steph looks at me, he goes, ‘Why didn’t you answer Bill’s question?'” Pasch said. “And I looked at Steph and I’m like, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘You didn’t answer Bill’s question.’ I’m like, ‘Steph, what are you talking about?’ He goes, ‘Bill asked if you’ve ever been inside a volcano while it’s erupting’ and you wouldn’t answer it.’
“I just thought it was so funny. … Like, Bill could disarm the greatest players in the world.”
Behind the scenes
Pasch on Tuesday morning via social media shared numerous text conversations that he had with Walton over the past several years.
“I was hesitant at first to share some of that because obviously, those were private texts,” Pasch said. “It was good for me, healthy for me. But also I think to let people see the guy you saw on TV, this is who Bill is.”
There will never be another Bill. Love you & miss you my friend. pic.twitter.com/JiVJyQHIO4
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 27, 2024
Bill Walton’s nickname for me was “Coal”, and he would call himself “Solar”. He would playfully say I was living in the past, while he was the future. As I was going through many old texts from him, laughing my butt off, this one got me. Bill was an all time ball buster! pic.twitter.com/EejlTMzBKX
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 28, 2024
Bill would text me during games I was broadcasting, and pretend he didn’t know I was doing it, but ask if I was watching 🤣 pic.twitter.com/p9DuiufCFA
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 28, 2024
Bill would create & print tee-shirts and placards every year we did the Pac 12 tournament, and hand them out to the crew lol. pic.twitter.com/a4dgqgb3DC
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 28, 2024
And the random, out of nowhere texts…man, this is cathartic. Miss and love this guy. pic.twitter.com/IhTT3HuzDy
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 28, 2024
Last one. Made this shirt to wear on our final broadcast, which sadly never happened. pic.twitter.com/nQAWZsmUSN
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 28, 2024
I lied. One more tweet. Because it’s so darn funny 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/FpG9vgtsxm
— Dave Pasch (@DavePasch) May 28, 2024
The best Pasch-Walton moments on-air
Walton’s many memories from his recent Pac-12 broadcasting work were often made here in Arizona.
Since his passing, Arizona State senior associate AD of media relations Doug Tammaro and Arizona sports information director Matt Ensor expressed what their relationships built with Walton meant to them. That was behind the scenes.
In front of the camera, it often led to highlight-reel comedy with Pasch.
Here is but a sampling of the many Pasch-Walton interactions captured in the past several years.
.@BillWalton ate the cupcake — CANDLE AND ALL 😳 pic.twitter.com/pz512G6DbF
— ESPN (@espn) February 10, 2019
"Devan Cambridge, the younger of the two. You say he's only a month younger? Are they like twins or something?"- Bill Walton
"No, if they were twins they'd be born on the same day."- Dave Pasch
"Well maybe it just took a little longer than you would think."- Bill Walton pic.twitter.com/eGrJOpg0aN
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 10, 2023
Bill Walton asks Dave Pasch "Have you ever been stoned?" and "Where are your stones?" amongst other things pic.twitter.com/Q85ZBneqC7
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 23, 2020
Walton: "If you did that in the TSA line, you're going to jail"
Pasch: *chuckles politely* "Well this is a basketball court, it's not even a flagrant foul" pic.twitter.com/H1rYe2l0lH— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 10, 2019
Meanwhile, Bill Walton is attempting to remove Dave Pasch's head pic.twitter.com/WnCntyxedg
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 24, 2019
"Personal foul called there on Bradley." – Dave Pasch
"Against humanity? Or was it a foul against the other team?" – Bill Walton
"The other team was involved. That's why it was a foul." – Pasch pic.twitter.com/Irf1R5PSir
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 5, 2024
Sad to hear about the passing of Bill Walton. I never met him in person but had the chance to talk with him via Zoom just before he recorded a #PaschPod with @DavePasch. Bill was very cordial. Pasch and Walton were great together as this clip illustrates. pic.twitter.com/CPlgNjMGpO
— Jim Omohundro (@jimohms) May 28, 2024
Frank Caliendo doing Bill Walton with Bill Walton was great. pic.twitter.com/9V2KL2rIqE
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) May 28, 2024
Walton: "How did this guy become Danny Ainge's nephew?"
Pasch: "I think he's born into it, that's usually how it works"
😂 pic.twitter.com/39CCZFgr6G— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) November 26, 2019
Dave Pasch asks Bill Walton if he sleeps with his teeth in at night and I'm dead pic.twitter.com/IiUzUv2Zhz
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 11, 2018
Just so you know, Bill Walton hates second string guards:
— Honest☘️Larry (@HonestLarry1) May 27, 2024
"I don't know what you consumed at halftime."- Dave Pasch to Bill Walton 🏀🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/MsuxaVnLnR
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 10, 2023
"Jimmy Buffet next door… son of a son of a sailor… we're on our way to Margaritaville."- Bill Walton
"After three games in three nights with you? Perhaps."- Dave Pasch pic.twitter.com/W3R3Hno53W
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2023
