Basketball legend Bill Walton’s death on Monday sparked instant tributes for the gregarious live he led on the court and at the mic.
Outside of basketball, Walton was a major Deadhead. He was probably the most notable Grateful Dead superfan, attending hundreds of the band’s concerts and making their music a big part of his persona.
“The Grateful Dead have made me the person that I am, and the basketball player that I was,” Walton told ESPN about the band in 2015. “Their comprehension of space, timing, rhythm and the beat are incomparable.
Walton also described the Grateful Dead’s music to ESPN as being “all one song – with many different verses; and it’s all one show – with varying amounts of time between the stanzas.”
Walton talking about taking his Boston Celtics teammates to a Grateful Dead show just shows how much he absolutely adored the group. It’s a story the band even shared on their social media.
Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart detailed Walton’s fandom in an old news package as he gradually became their most famous fan in the crowd at their shows.
In honor of Walton’s life, we’ve crafted a playlist of 10 Grateful Dead classics that you can play as you commemorate the memory of this beloved basketball icon.
