Why was Rep. Joe Kennedy III hanging out with Bill Walton last week?
It turns out the two go way back to Walton's Celtics days.
Rep. Joe Kennedy III was out on the West Coast last week and just happened to run into an old family friend.
Of course, when you’re part of a family such as the Kennedys, your old family friends happen to include basketball legend Bill Walton.
“As long as I can remember, my dad and Bill have been friends,” Kennedy said in an interview Tuesday. “He’s a great guy, a dear family friend.”
The 36-year-old congressman says he doesn’t exactly know how Walton and his father, former Rep. Joe Kennedy II, first met. But he does remember hanging out with the basketball Hall of Famer during Walton’s two years with the Celtics from 1985 to 1987.
Kennedy’s most vivid memories include shooting hoops in Cambridge with Walton and his kids, including his second-youngest son, Luke.
“I remember them being giants,” he said.
Despite being separated by just six months, Kennedy says Luke — who went on to play 11 seasons in the NBA and is now the 37-year-old coach of the Los Angeles Lakers — was a level above him on the court.
“I was young enough where hitting the backboard was still a bit of a feat,” he said. “Luke was a much better basketball player than I was.”
Even after Walton retired from the NBA and moved to San Diego, Kennedy says they kept in touch.
While roommates with future NBA player Jason Collins at Stanford University, Kennedy said he saw Walton from time to time as the retired basketball player pursued his now-heralded broadcasting career. Coincidentally, Kennedy’s wife, Lauren, went to undergrad at UCLA, where Walton once dominated the college basketball landscape with coach John Wooden.
When they first met, Kennedy says Walton delighted in exclaiming to Lauren how, in fact, he too went to UCLA.
“I was like ‘Yeah’,” Kennedy laughed, “I think most people knew that.”
So it was a fun reunion of sorts when the jovial 64-year-old swung by a fundraiser for the two-term congressman — whose profile has recently risen nationally — last Wednesday in La Jolla, California. According to Kennedy, Walton and his wife stuck around for a small dinner after the initial fundraiser meet-and-greet, where the 6-foot-11 NBA great’s personality and size was still a presence.
“We had to have a chair that was a little bit bigger, a bit taller, and a bit farther back from the table,” he said, adding that though they didn’t get to talk a ton, Walton sense of humor was still on display.
“I got a big hug at the end and thanked him for the support,” Kennedy said.
After the event, Walton tweeted a photo of Kennedy, which included a patriotic cake bearing the Bay Stater’s face and complimentary caption.
https://twitter.com/BillWalton/status/854925101661274112
“I am with Joe Kennedy forever,” wrote Walton, who has never refrained from expressing his political views — from the Vietnam War to the environment.
As for that cake, Kennedy says it was baked not by Walton. but by the host of the fundraiser.
“It was very generous of them to do so,” he said, laughing. “Though I’m not sure they got the hair exactly right.”
