ESPN basketball analyst and lifelong Pac-12 maven Bill Walton reacted in disgust when asked by Dave Pasch to respond to the news that Arizona coach Sean Miller was caught on an FBI wiretap arranging a $100,000 payment for recruiting purposes, calling the scandal an incident on par with the Malice at the Palace, a “complete failure of the human spirit and soul,” and that he wished he were out riding his bike up a mountain rather than be calling a basketball game involving the Wildcats.


Walton’s rants are the stuff of legend, though he’s become a bit too self-aware lately and seems to do things simply for the sake of maintaining his reputation as one of sports media’s most gloriously weird figures. But his tone of voice here really presents earnestness; it’s not hard to see Walton is truly disgusted by the depths of the FBI’s investigation into the recruiting scandals, at least as much as we know about them now. But should he really be?

[ESPN]