Sports

Walton’s words will be missed

Bill Walton, who yes terday hit 57, packed it in this week as a TV basketball analyst for more of the same reason he retired as a basketball player, 23 years ago: a broken body — feet, to legs, to back, to neck. After working only part of last season, his back is now so bad he can’t sit long in one place.

But there were times — lots of them — when I wanted to take care of his neck, especially when he spent too much on-air time being zany, tie-dyed Bill Walton, Steve Jones’ object-de-Op Ed.

Walton had a rotten, modest habit of obscuring the important things he had to say with extreme declarations and put-ons, often heard and confused as his version of the truth. But for those who could distinguish the silly from the sage, Walton, every telecast, left important messages.

During the early- and mid-1990s, he recognized and lamented the diminished state of the game, that it was becoming one-dimensional, that coaches coached timeout-to-timeout and that the fast break — no center was more end-to-end complete than Walton — was being lost to walk-it-up, then throw it down low or throw up a 3-pointer tedium.

Walton also said important things about the state of basketball players. For those who dismissed him as a West Coast flower child lost somewhere on Ventura Highway between Hakeem Olajuwon and Harry Krishna, he said some very grounded — dare I? — conservative things.

He once delivered an unrehearsed lecture on NBA players who wear music-connected ear phones in public — through airports, into arenas — as emitting “Go Away/Stay Away” signals to fans and potential fans. Walton felt that such clear and present images fed a cumulative reality that ill-served the NBA.

That was another thing about Walton: For a guy who was tough to miss and/or go unrecognized — he isn’t only 6-foot-11; he’s “Hey, that’s Bill Walton!” — no one was more patient, friendly and nourishing to the public. If he wasn’t happy to meet ya, it likely was your fault.

That’s why it kills me that so many — too many — latter-day basketball fans recall Walton the TV analyst as a say-crazy-stuff act. He was a lot more than that, a lot better than that. All you had to do was read between his lines.

Walton never kidded himself about his TV persona; he knew that he could drive people crazy. In a swap of e-mails, this week, he acknowledged that he felt like St. Stephen in the song by that name performed by — who else? — The Grateful Dead.

“Wherever he goes, the people all complain,” was the line Walton applied to himself.

Not all the people. Feel better, Bill Walton. And then better and better.

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Sunday on Fox, Packer DE Johnny Jolly turned a first-quarter Vikes’ field-goal try into a TD because he concluded a trash-talk episode with a head-butt that cost 15 yards. That TD was followed by an NFL merchandise ad starring the frequently flagged and fined, unapologetic head-hunter Ray Lewis, and NFL fans of all ages in Lewis imitations as a self-smitten, on-the field muscle-flexor.

Doesn’t even matter to the NFL that Lewis copped an obstruction-of-justice plea in a double homicide. NFL Network has chosen Lewis as Marshall Faulk’s Sunday Q-&-A subject. Clearly, there’s no one better suited to represent the NFL.

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The Jets’ colors are green and white? Since when? …

On Sunday’s Fox pregame, Howie Long explained why he supported the Titans returning Vince Young to starting QB: “Maybe it’s the father in me.” Must’ve been the father in him who last year, on air, fondly called Terry Bradshaw a “sc–bag.” …

Florida coach Urban Meyer has suspended LB Brandon Spikes for trying to gouge the eye of a Georgia player. “I don’t condone that,” Meyer said. Apparently not. Spikes must sit out tomorrow’s home game vs. Vandy, 0-5 in the SEC.

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College football is ruining college football. If you recorded Saturday’s SNY/Big East Net telecast of Rutgers-UConn, a fabulous finish in regulation, into a 3½-hour window — up from three hours a few years ago — you still would have been 20 minutes short.

ESPN graphics must be flown in by Balloon Boy. Saturday, after Illinois went 99 yards for a TD, an ESPN2 graphic noted that the drive was Illinois’ “longest of the season.” Added reader Rick Friedland, “Or, you know, also the longest in football history.”

CBS’s Gus Johnson, calling last week’s Jags-Titans, said RB Chris Johnson has “gettin’ away from the cops speed.” CBS let him know his crack was inappropriate, that it feeds a stereotype of blacks as criminals. But one wonders what the fallout would have been had Gus, an African-American, been, say, Bob Griese.

Harry “The Hat” Wesley, reader from Monroeville, Pa., suggests that with the NFL eager to expand its global reach, the Lions could be relocated to the Philippines, where they can become The Manila Folders.

With the World Series ended, Dom LaVarco, Caldwell, N.J., has this concluding wish for everyone: “May we all work on three days rest.”

phil.mushnick@nypost.com