Walton, now healthy, returning to airwaves

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2008 | by Michael Hiestand

Bill Walton, whose injuries caused him to miss about nine years worth of games during his 14-year NBA career, has returned from his first missed assignment in 18 years of broadcasting. But he's really got a note from his doctor: After getting off a plane Feb. 25, he felt "unrelenting nerve pain radiating through (his) body" that left him living full-time on the floor (really) for six weeks. Since then, he's worked at rehabilitation -- through acupuncture, yoga, massage -- for long hours daily.

But then, Walton long has shown he can persevere. At 24, he'd been on the cover of Sports Illustrated 14 times, but by age 28 his extreme stuttering left him willing to talk by phone to a handful of people -- his parents, his UCLA coach John Wooden and the Grateful Dead's Jerry...