CNN —Bill Walton, the basketball Hall of Fame center who won two national titles at UCLA, two NBA championships in Portland and Boston and later put the “color” in color commentator, died Monday following a prolonged battle with cancer, the National Basketball Association announced. “Bill Walton was truly one of a kind,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. He was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player in that playoffs, and the next season he was named the NBA’s regular season MVP. Boston Celtics Bill Walton battles Los Angeles Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the 1985 NBA Finals. I am the luckiest guy on earth.”NBC basketball announcers Bill Walton and Marv Albert pose before the start of Game 4 of the NBA Finals in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on June 12, 2002.

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