All Worked Up Over Waltongate? Deal With It

When I met Bill Walton in his hotel room, I was shocked to find he wasn't throwing darts at a picture of Seattle SuperSonic Coach George Karl. And he wasn't sticking pins in his Bob Whitsitt doll.

In fact, he wasn't bothered yesterday over the maelstrom of anger swirling around him.

So he has some opinions about Seattle's Sonics? So what? It wasn't as if he had spoken out against lattes, or ripped into rain.

Hours later, with the Sonics well on the way to a 150-101 win over Los Angeles' catatonic Clippers, a chant briefly began to groan from the Coliseum crowd: "Walton sucks."

Get a life.

Walton became the scourge of the city this week, after his informed, reflective remarks on NBC's "NBA Insiders."

Headlines screamed of the Sonics' anger. The blathering blowhards on the local sports-talk radio station filled the air with misrepresentations of Walton.

He found all of this mildly amusing and very surprising.

"I am not the Seattle SuperSonics' public-relations department." said Walton, the Clippers' television analyst. "I do my job as an analyst.

"You have to ask yourself, `Are you out there to make friends, or are you out there to do your job?' I mean, is what I said really a story?"

What did Walton say to stoke Sonic emotions?

"I said, No. 1, I'm not sold on the Sonics yet," said Walton. "And, No. 2, they haven't shown that they can win big road games. And No. 3, they're a team that is vulnerable to teams with big centers."

Such sacrilege! Such blasphemy! Such, such . . . honesty?

Walton's comments aren't, as Sonic President Whitsitt suggested, grandstand plays to attract attention and boost ratings. With two NCAA championships and two NBA titles, Walton's place in the game's history is secure.

"I think it (the controversy) is a bit reflective of the paranoid mentality that exists in some areas of the country," Walton said. "Hey, the world championship of basketball is up for grabs.

"We're in the post-Michael Jordan era. Whoever comes out on top this year is the team that people will talk about for a long time. And Seattle is just one of the teams that can win."

Walton is the first to admit he isn't always right. He predicted last June, the Sonics would win in Phoenix in Game 7 of the Western Conference final. The Suns won.

"The Sonics came out in the biggest road game they've had together and they didn't get it done," Walton said. "And it wasn't like they played great and were beaten by a team that was playing just a little bit better.

"I like the Sonics. I like their intensity. I like their ferociousness on the court. Seattle's strength is its guards and I love the Sonics' guards."

Walton's comments about the Sonics on NBC were from the heart. Whitsitt's reaction was from the spleen. A remark like Whitsitt's - "He's lucky enough to be on TV" - is petty and mean-intentioned. The president of an NBA team should be above such juvenile name-calling.

"One of the hardest things to do is to look at the big picture when you're a fan of the local team . . . " Walton said. "I look at things a little deeper than that.

"You have winners and you have losers, and I'm the first guy who's willing to have his mind changed. But the history of the NBA is that teams win with players who dominate the fourth quarter. Will Shawn Kemp or Gary Payton step into that position? We'll see."

The Sonics, who have the league's best record, shouldn't care what Walton thinks. Even Karl admitted after last night's game, "If we have to use Bill Walton to motivate us, we're not going to win."

Walton laughed at the thought.

"What happens in the games will be the determining factor," he said. "Not this hype. Not the media buildup. Respect is something that is earned."

Respect is earned and history is made in the playoffs.

"The regular season is important, because it establishes you for the playoffs," Walton said. "It sets the tone for what's going to happen. But the results of the playoffs are what the history of basketball is all about. The playoffs are everything."

Waltongate is a silly little brouhaha that is being used to enliven the final ponderous days of the regular season.

Bill Walton isn't hooked on the Sonics. He has a few questions, a few lingering doubts.

Deal with it.