Bill Walton's announcing style is wonderful and unique, characterized by obscure references and wild tangents on whatever it is he is thinking about. Wednesday night was perhaps his masterpiece, as the child of the 60's and 70's spent over three minutes during a reasonably close UCLA-USC affair to discuss Bob Dylan's life and career.
It wasn't like Walton did this off the cuff. The ESPN crew had prepared graphics:
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Play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch, who often jokes about being forced to work alongside such a renegade partner, took several shots at Walton during the speech.
Pasch: This is how bad it's gotten. We're building full-page graphics on musicians."Walton: "You've got the equation wrong, that's how good it's gotten.
At one point, Pasch tried to describe the game before being shouted down with a THIS ISN'T RADIO from Walton.
Earlier in the game, Walton had insisted on calling Oregon's Dwayne Robinson "Snoop Dogg," which led to this DIRECT QUOTE:
This is about Nelson Mandela, Bob Dylan, Bill Russell, Thomas Edison, the light is on. Throw it down, Snoop Dogg!
Last week, Walton went on a long tangent about America's drug policies, but it wasn't of the same length or pure Waltonness of this one.