Bill Walton's inspirational biography recalls his catastrophic injuries and miraculous recoveries, set against the backdrop of his UCLA victories under John Wooden, his renowned NBA career, and his love of music and the Grateful Dead.
Bill Walton experienced a devastating spinal collapse in February 2008, rendering him unable to move. This was the culmination of a lifetime of injuries. He spent three years eating his meals on the floor of his residence and crawling to the bathroom, where he could barely get up onto the toilet. Walton was put to the test by the intense agony and lengthy recuperation. He healed, thanks to tremendous patience, courage, drive, and sacrifice—as well as groundbreaking surgery—and now recounts his life experience in this astonishing and one-of-a-kind biography.
Walton was strongly inspired by the political and cultural revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s as he grew up in San Diego. Outside of his family, his greatest role model outside of music and politics was super-straight UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, a serious, disciplined mentor who seemed impervious to the tumult of the times. Despite their constant tension and strife, the two men spoke almost every day for forty-three years, until Wooden's death at the age of ninety-nine.
Walton selected a career in broadcasting when his playing days ended, despite a lifelong stuttering problem. He went on to win an Emmy Award and other awards for broadcasting, and he became a well-known media commentator.
No brilliance, according to John Wooden, has ever come without a cost. The true tale of Walton's life exemplifies this adage perfectly. Back from the Dead tells his remarkable narrative in his own words, including his basketball and broadcasting careers, as well as his numerous losses and comebacks, and his ultimate triumph as the hardest of champions.
He told us that he had made a mistake by leaving the word love out of the Pyramid of Success. And that love is the single most powerful and important word in our language and culture. And until we allow the power of love to supersede the love of power, none of us has any chance of success at all.
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