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Message: [QUOTE="Hans Sprungfeld, post: 5011241, member: 181"] This video brings to mind my brief personal encounter with Bill Walton. In 2006, I was in San Diego for a conference and was out in an active neighborhood with fellow attendees on a Friday evening in August. At an intersection, a huge group of bicyclists pulled up to the intersection where we were going to cross the street. Unmistakably, in a tie-dyed Dead-themed t-shirt, Walton was near the head of the pack, but on a bicycle he did not so noticeably tower over his fellow riders. In this sense, he was as incognito as someone 6’11” could be in a crowded streetscape in a buzzing neighborhood. My eyes popped as he & cohorts stopped. He noticed my response, and in that moment while I put out the, "You're Bill Walton" look, his eyes met mine with a sly, self-assured smile that said, "Oh yeah, but be cool, nobody else has to know." In the aftermath, I recognized it as a Critical Mass ride, and he was just a fellow among fellows. I spent the next afternoon biking with some of my gathered group to Point Loma and the nearby Cabrillo National Monument. Long before I ever imagined I'd be someday rooting for UConn as a National Championship program, I found my favorite Top 25 teams and players elsewhere. I join with the others here who watched Bill Walton beat Memphis State w/Larry Finch and Larry Kenon, and then lose the following year in double OT to North Carolina State with Monty Towe, Tom Burleson, and David Thompson. Halfway through my 71st year, and with prostate cancer nearly 14 years behind me, I've given extra pause to my considering the death of Bill Walton. Yeah, a hero. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach