Bill Walton Jokes About ESPN Suspending Bill Simmons, Ray Lewis Murder Case (Video)

by Doug Kyed on Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 9:35AM

Bill Walton made jokes about two ESPN personalities in one broadcast? That should go over well.

Bill Simmons was suspended by ESPN from tweeting this week after criticizing their show, First Take, last week. If Walton doesn’t watch his mouth, he may get a similar suspension from broadcasting.

Walton was in rare form on Thursday while doing color commentary in the Pac-12 conference tournament game between Washington and Oregon. Walton was praising Southwest Airlines when play-by-play man Dave Pasch said the former NBA star may get in trouble if he didn’t mention some of the other airlines ESPN advertises. Walton cracked back, “If they’re gonna suspend Bill Simmons, anything is possible.” Pasch decided to “just dismiss that” comment.

Earlier in the broadcast, when ESPN was showing cheerleaders and mascots piling out of a limousine, Pasch joked that Walton was somewhere in the middle of the action. Walton said “I was way in the back along with Ray Lewis and it was unbelievable how much fun, oh my gosh, how many people were in there.”

Walton was referring to the famous limousine that was part of the Lewis murder trial back in 2000. All Pasch could say was “I think we’ll just dismiss the Ray Lewis comment.” Lewis was recently hired by ESPN as a football analyst.

It was nice to see an unfiltered Walton during the broadcast, but ESPN likely won’t be happy with two comments directed at ESPN employees. Awful announcing collected some other Walton gems during the broadcast, including ”Your wife’s been calling me,” directed at Pasch and ”So many things here have defied rational thought.” Actually, that one may have been been on point.

Check out Walton’s blunders in the videos below.

Thumbnail photo via Facebook/The Bill Walton Trip

Photo of the Day

Rick Pitino is literally trying to capture his final Big East tournament moments.

Tweet of the Day

There were some frustrating “reports” coming out of Foxboro on Friday.

I was embarrassed when I got a school's mascot wrong today. Meanwhile, people are dancing while throwing contracts against the wall.
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Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) March 15, 2013