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NBA Injuries: 20 Stars Who Deserve A Career Do-Over

By Gerald Bourguet

AUBURN HILLS, UNITED STATES: Detroit Pistons player Grant Hill (L) drives around Indiana Pacers player Chris Mullin during the first half of their game 07 February at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Pistons beat the Pacers 107-98. AFP PHOTO/JEFF KOWALSKY (Photo credit should read JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images)
AUBURN HILLS, UNITED STATES: Detroit Pistons player Grant Hill (L) drives around Indiana Pacers player Chris Mullin during the first half of their game 07 February at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Pistons beat the Pacers 107-98. AFP PHOTO/JEFF KOWALSKY (Photo credit should read JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images) /
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NBA Injuries
Portland Trail Blazers’ Bill Walton, who received many accolades for his performance on the court, is depicted here. Walton would later go on to pursue a career off the court as a sports broadcaster and an actor in feature films. /

2. Bill Walton

Bill Walton is one of exactly two players on the list to win an MVP Award, but he’s the only one to win both an MVP Award and an NBA championship. Bearing that in mind, it’s hard to feel too sorry for a guy enshrined in the Hall of Fame with two NCAA championships and two NBA titles to his name.

But there’s also no denying that the Portland Trail Blazers were well on their way to becoming an NBA dynasty until the first of an ongoing series of foot injuries ruined everything.

In his first two seasons, Walton was limited to just 86 games because of injuries ranging from his nose to his foot to his wrist to his leg. But by his third season, Walton was healthy enough to play in 65 games, earned All-NBA and All-Star honors and averaged 18.6 points, a league-leading 14.4 rebounds and a league-leading 3.2 blocks per game.

During that magical 1976-77 season, Rip City ripped off a Cinderella run that culminated in a comeback from a 2-0 deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Finals. Walton earned Finals MVP honors, winning the Blazers the franchise’s first and only title in just his third season.

The Blazers carried that momentum forward into the following season, winning 50 of their first 60 games as a team that played basketball the right way. Walton was the catalyst as the team’s defensive anchor, monster on the glass and superb passer that kept the ball moving and helped get everyone involved (5.0 APG).

But that’s precisely when the foot problems surfaced, and even though Walton won the MVP Award that season, he was limited to 58 games. The injury resurfaced in Portland’s second round series against Seattle, forcing him to miss the series from the second game onward. Portland lost the series and unbeknownst to everyone, Walton had played his final game for the Blazers.

He sat out the 1978-79 season in protest of the way Portland’s front office handled his and other players’ injuries, eventually signing with the San Diego Clippers in free agency after it was over. But he rarely played there, logging a grand total of 14 games from 1979-82 (missing two entire seasons), then 33 games, 55 games and 67 games over the next three seasons.

Walton reinvented himself as a sixth man for the 1986 championship Celtics team, but by then he was a shell of his former self. Bill Walton had all the tools to be one of the greatest big men in NBA history, but his feet just didn’t have it in them.

Next: No. 1