Twitter / ESPN
There’s nothing in sports quite like the whacky chemistry between Dave Pasch and Bill Walton in the broadcast booth. Pasch is level-headed and collected while calling college basketball on-air, while Walton eats peanut butter, rambles about mountain biking, and snorts like a buffalo. It’s the ultimate ying and yang basketball experience – an acid-soaked three-ring circus.
Dave Pasch has been with ESPN since 2003, covering NBA, college football, and college basketball in his tenure as an announcer. Before that, he was a radio announcer for the Arizona Cardinals.
Pasch recently agreed to a multi-year extension with ESPN, according to Big Lead Sports. He’s living his dream, telling the Big Lead’s Kyle Koster that “I just hoped to do play-by-play as part of my career… I didn’t know at what level. I never thought I would get to a level where I was doing national games or NFL games and now this will be Year 21 with the Cardinals and Year 19 with ESPN so the fact that they’re willing to continue having me do it for years to come, I’m grateful and at times pinch myself.”
Bill Walton Congratulates Dave Pasch
The contract extension for Pasch means more time paired up with Bill Walton. Alas, more college basketball games on ESPN that feel like a parking lot drum circle. Also: More of Pasch being slightly annoyed about Walton’s off-topic rants.
Bill Walton posted a video congratulating his colleague on his contract extension. True to form, he pretened to be a ghost, haunting Pasch. He’s pictured in front of a cosmic background with a Stealie, wiggling in a Grateful Dead reference during the bit.
“I heard the news, the deal went down!”
ESPN reaches a multi-year extension with veteran play-by-play voice @DavePasch
And a certain longtime colleague seems excited about the news…
More via @TheBigLead: https://t.co/u7jqKXsQvx | @BillWalton pic.twitter.com/Gt7i1b7KxY
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) May 3, 2022
What did Bill Walton say?
“Help me now, I’m being bombarded! Sonic vibrations! Swirling conspiracy theories! Flesh-eating, low-end mindless, non-sensical cliches with aspirations of mediocrity!
D! D! D!
Anyway, I heard the news! The deal went down. For what, I can’t figure it out. My ears burn off. D!
Whatever. D! D! D! Yea, I’m super happy and overwhelming proud. Here we go! It’s time. Now! What are we waiting for. Forward. Further. More. What could be better?
Hey, what’s your name again?”
—
None of that makes a lick of sense. And that’s exactly why it rocks.
Bill Walton, truly the best color analyst to ever grace television – an American treasure.