Bill Walton Is Leading a Public Bike Ride Through the Streets of Portland This Weekend

You'll get a chance to pedal alongside the Blazers legend as part of the ramp-up to the team's 50th anniversary season.

IMAGE: Courtesy of Portland Bureau of Transportation.
By Matthew Singer

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow us to tell you about the greatest bike ride in the history of Western civilization.

Bill Walton is an NBA champion, one of the greatest college basketball players of all-time, a Trail Blazers legend and psychedelic sports broadcaster of perhaps even greater legend. He is also a longtime cycling advocate—back in the day, Walton was known for riding his bike to games, and fans would stand on their porches to cheer him on. (Cycling also factors heavily into the 1970s cult-classic Blazers doc Fast Break.)

And this Sunday, you'll get a chance to pedal alongside him as part of the ramp-up to the Blazers' 50th anniversary season, Walton is returning to Portland to lead a bike ride that retraces the route of the 1977 championship parade.

Related: The Blazers Unveiled a New Court Design for Their 50th Anniversary Season. Here's Our Review.

The ride starts at Veterans Memorial Coliseum and winds through part of the Sunday Parkways Green Loop before ending at Terry Schrunk Plaza, where there will be a concert from local Grateful Dead tribute act the Garcia Birthday Band ('natch) and a "special announcement" that hopefully involves Walton on a live microphone. Will he somehow manage to connect cycling to the American Revolution, Socrates and former teammate Dave Twardzik? Probably!

Participants will also have a chance to enter a raffle to win one of five special edition Blazers-themed bikes.

The ride is this Sunday, Aug. 25, beginning at 2 pm. Go here for more information.

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