Kareem Abdul-Jabbar responded to the passing of basketball icon Bill Walton.
Walton, who began playing at UCLA two years after Abdul-Jabbar, passed away Monday after a long battle with cancer. He was 71.
Abdul-Jabbar posted a tribute to the fellow multi-time NCAA champion on social media.
“My very close friend, fellow Bruin, and NBA rival Bill Walton died today,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “And the world feels so much heavier now.”
Although their paths didn’t align, Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) and Walton led five of the Bruins teams that won seven straight national titles from 1967 to 1973. They were the first UCLA basketball players to have their numbers retired.
“We are stunned and saddened about the news of Bill Walton’s passing,” Martin Jarmond, UCLA’s Alice and Nahum Lainer Family Director of Athletics, said in a school statement. “Bill represented so many of the ideals that our university holds dear and embodied multiple traits on Coach [John] Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. He loved being back on campus at UCLA, calling games in Pauley Pavilion, and being around our teams. We offer our deepest sympathy to his family, and we take solace in knowing that Bill made each day his masterpiece.”
Over a decade later, the future Hall of Fame big men found themselves on opposite ends of the NBA’s fiercest rivalry when Walton culminated his career with the Boston Celtics. He lost to Abdul-Jabbar’s Los Angeles Lakers in the 1987 NBA Finals.
After retiring due to chronic foot injuries, Walton later became a beloved basketball commentator and analyst for ESPN.
“On the court, Bill was a fierce player, but off the court he wasn’t happy unless he did everything he could to make everyone around him happy,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “He was the best of us.”