by Bill Walton
First published 2016
Bill Walton opens with his darkest moment in February 2008. A catastrophic spinal collapse leaves the former NBA champion unable to move. He spends three years eating meals on his floor and crawling to reach his bathroom. The excruciating pain tests every ounce of his determination. Walton traces how he reached this point, from his 1950s San Diego childhood through the political upheavals of the 1960s. He recounts his UCLA triumphs under coach John Wooden, whose rigid discipline clashed with Walton's counterculture leanings. Their daily phone calls lasted forty-three years until Wooden died at ninety-nine. Despite a lifelong stutter, Walton built a broadcasting career that earned him an Emmy Award. Through pioneering surgery and extraordinary patience, he slowly recovers from his spinal disaster. Walton shows how his love for the Grateful Dead and music sustained him through decades of injuries and setbacks. His story reveals the sacrifice behind athletic greatness and the resilience needed to rebuild a shattered body.
Genres: mental-health, medical, 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir, health, 21st-century, disability
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: overcoming-adversity, personal-journey, redemption
Setting: San Diego, UCLA
Period: 1950s, 1960s, 2008
336 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: medical-trauma, mental-illness