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When you consider NBA legend Bill Walton first fell in love with the Grateful Dead when went to a concert at a 15-year-old it shouldn’t exactly be a surprise that he evolved into one of the weirdest and most interesting dudes in basketball (if not in the entire world). The walking embodiment of one of Ken Kesey’s acid tests has been entertaining fans for years thanks to his rambling esoteric takes on everything from the potential perils of biking across California to Apple’s forays into the world of entertainment.
Bill Walton is the cool dad everyone wishes they had and Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton is lucky enough to be his son. I’m sure having to deal with his dad’s antics all the time means he doesn’t find them as entertaining as the rest of us but I highly doubt there was ever a dull moment in the Walton household when he was growing up.
While talking with ESPN about the madness that ensued after LeBron James announced he was joining the Lakers to close out his career the younger Walton revealed that his dad called him up to congratulate him from the most appropriate location possible: a Dead & Company show:
“Yeah, and he had [drummer] Mickey Hart in the background yelling at me that, ‘The rhythm is the answer to everything in life,'” Luke Walton said with a laugh. “So once I figure out what that means, we’ll be good.”
I can’t even imagine what it’s like to have Bill Walton and the drummer from the Grateful Dead as your spiritual advisers but it seems pretty damn sweet.