Neal Walk

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Neal Walk

| image = Neal Walk 1969.jpg

| Image_size =

| alt =

| caption = Walk with the Phoenix Suns in 1969

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 10

| weight_lb = 220

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1948|7|29|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|10|4|1948|7|29|mf=y}}

| death_place = Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.

| high_school = Miami Beach
(Miami Beach, Florida)

| college = Florida (1966–1969)

| draft_year = 1969

| draft_round = 1

| draft_pick = 2

| draft_team = Phoenix Suns

| career_start = 1969

| career_end = 1981

| career_number = 41

| career_position = Center

| years1 = {{nbay|1969|start}}–{{nbay|1973|end}}

| team1 = Phoenix Suns

| years2 = {{nbay|1974|full=y}}

| team2 = New Orleans Jazz

| years3 = {{nbay|1974|end}}–{{nbay|1976|start}}

| team3 = New York Knicks

| years4 = 1977–1978

| team4 = Reyer Venezia Mestre

| years5 = 1978–1981

| team5 = Hapoel Ramat Gan

| highlights =

Second-team All-American – AP (1968)
2× Third-team All-American – NABC, UPI (1969)
Third-team All-American – AP (1969)
NCAA rebounding leader (1968)
No. 41 retired by Florida Gators

| stats_league = NBA

| stat1label = Points

| stat1value = 7,157 (12.6 ppg)

| stat2label = Rebounds

| stat2value = 4,392 (7.7 rpg)

| stat3label = Assists

| stat3value = 1,214 (2.1 apg)

| medaltemplates =

{{MedalCountry | {{bk|USA}} }}

}}

Neal Eugene Walk (July 29, 1948 – October 4, 2015) was an American college and professional basketball player who was a center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eight seasons during the late 1960s and 1970s, playing overseas afterward. Walk played college basketball for the University of Florida, and remains the Florida Gators' all-time rebounds leader.{{citation |author=Bruce Weber |title=Neal Walk, Who Rebounded Coast to Coast, Dies at 67 | newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 5, 2015 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/sports/basketball/neal-walk-who-rebounded-coast-to-coast-dies-at-67.html}} The Phoenix Suns picked Walk second overall in the 1969 NBA draft, having lost the coin toss with the Milwaukee Bucks for Lew Alcindor. Walk played professionally for the Suns, the New Orleans Jazz and the New York Knicks of the NBA.

Early life

Walk was born in Cleveland, Ohio to a Jewish family, and moved to Miami Beach, Florida, with his parents Al and Sylvia at the age of 6.[https://books.google.com/books?id=QNaczbX4f78C&q=neal+walk+jewish&pg=PA85 The 100 Greatest Jews in Sports: Ranked According to Achievement – B. P. Robert Stephen Silverman][https://books.google.com/books?id=dDyEVDIA3aIC&q=neal+walk+jewish&pg=PA102 The Big Book of Jewish Sports Heroes: An Illustrated Compendium of Sports ... – Peter S. Horvitz][https://books.google.com/books?id=dAq4TGQsWwwC&q=neal+walk+jewish&pg=PA27 Day by Day in Jewish Sports History – Bob Wechsler][http://dailydsports.com/neal-walk/ Sports {{!}} Legends {{!}} Nostalgia {{!}} History][http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-florida/article38025903.html "Former Florida Gators and NBA standout Neal Walk dies at 67" {{!}} Miami Herald] He attended Miami Beach High School, and played high school basketball for the Miami Beach Hi-Tides, starting for the first time in his senior year. His high school team made the state semifinals and due to its makeup of mostly Jewish players, it sometimes was subjected to opposing fans yelling anti-Semitic comments at them.

College career

Walk accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Tommy Bartlett's Florida Gators men's basketball team for three seasons from 1966 to 1969. In his junior season, Walk led the NCAA with 19.8 rebounds a game and averaged 26.5 points per game. As a senior team captain, he led the Gators to the 1969 National Invitation Tournament—their first-ever post-season tournament. When Walk graduated from Florida, he was the Gators' all-time leading scorer, and still maintains the team records for career rebounds (1,181), average points per game (20.8), and rebounds in a single game (31), among others. His No. 41 jersey remains the only number to have been retired by the Florida basketball program.[http://www.gatorzone.com/story.php?id=6296 Norm Carlson Looks Back.. – Neal Walk – Florida Gators]

He won a silver medal at the 1969 Maccabiah Games in Israel for Team USA alongside Ronald Green, Steve Kaplan, and Jack Langer.{{Cite web|url=https://newspapers.library.in.gov/cgi-bin/indiana?a=d&d=JPOST19690425-01.1.14&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------|title=U.S. Cage Team For Maccabiah |date= April 25, 1969 |website=Jewish Post}}

Professional career

Walk was drafted in the first round (second pick overall) of the 1969 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns, after they lost a coin toss with the Milwaukee Bucks for the number one pick, which turned out to be Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).[http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/010105/athletes.shtml AJHS honors state's Jewish athletes] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609101703/http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/010105/athletes.shtml |date=June 9, 2011 }}, January 5, 2001 In an interview with author Charley Rosen near the end of his life, Walk commented on his perception as one of the league's great "booby prizes", saying "I never paid attention to that bullshit. How many guys would love to be the second overall pick?"{{Cite book|title=The Chosen Game: A Jewish Basketball History|last=Rosen|first=Charley|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2017|pages=141}}

Milwaukee Bucks forward Curtis Perry, a teammate of Abdul-Jabbar's, described Walk's career high 42 point game against the Bucks on January 11, 1972, as "Talent meeting the moment, a harmonic convergence."{{Cite web|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/2013/07/08/neal-walk|title = Neal Walk}}

He played for the Suns from 1969 to 1974, averaging a career best 20.2 points per game and 12.4 rebounds per game in the 1972–73 season. Walk was traded to the then New Orleans Jazz, and subsequently traded to the New York Knicks, where he played for two seasons. Afterward, he went to play in Venice, Italy, then in Israel with Hapoel Ramat Gan, playing for the team for three seasons.[http://basket.co.il/StatsPage_PlayersPoints.asp?PlayerId=10404 All time scorers - Neal Walk] {{in lang|he}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.si.com/vault/2015/07/09/106342562/neal-walk|title=Neal Walk}}

Walk is the only Suns player besides Charles Barkley to average 20 points and 12 rebounds in a season.{{Cite web|url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2015/10/05/former-phoenix-suns-center-neal-walk-dies-67/73361840/|title = Former Phoenix Suns center Neal Walk dies at 67}}

NBA career statistics

= Regular season =

|style="text-align:left;"|1969–70

|style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix

| 82 || – || 17.0 || .470 || – || .640 || 5.5 || 1.0 || – || – || 8.2

| style="text-align:left;"|{{nbay|1970}}

| style="text-align:left;"| Phoenix

| 82 || {{sort|-|—}} || 24.8 || .451 || {{sort|-|—}} || .765 || 8.2 || 1.4 || – || – || 12.9

| style="text-align:left;"|{{nbay|1971}}

| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix

| 81 || {{sort|-|—}} || 26.4 || .479 || {{sort|-|—}} || .744 || 8.2 || 1.9 || – || – || 15.7

| style="text-align:left;"|{{nbay|1972}}

| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix

| 81 || {{sort|-|—}} || 38.4 || .466 || {{sort|-|—}} || .786 || 12.4 || 3.5 || – || – || 20.2

| style="text-align:left;"|{{nbay|1973}}

| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix

| 82 || {{sort|-|—}} || 31.1 || .460 || {{sort|-|—}} || .791 || 10.2 || 4.0 || 0.9 || 0.7 || 16.8

| style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"| {{nbay|1974}}

| style="text-align:left;"|New Orleans

| 37 || {{sort|-|—}} || 23.0 || .422 || {{sort|-|—}} || .800 || 7.1 || 2.7 || 0.8 || 0.5 || 9.9

| style="text-align:left;"|New York

| 30 || {{sort|-|—}} || 9.1 || .409 || {{sort|-|—}} || .880 || 2.6 || 0.7 || 0.2 || 0.1 || 3.9

| style="text-align:left;"|{{nbay|1975}}

| style="text-align:left;"|New York

| 82 || {{sort|-|—}} || 16.3 || .432 || {{sort|-|—}} || .798 || 4.7 || 1.5 || 0.3 || 0.3 || 7.4

| style="text-align:left;"|{{nbay|1976}}

| style="text-align:left;"|New York

| 11 || {{sort|-|—}} || 12.3 || .491 || {{sort|-|—}} || .857 || 2.5 || 0.5 || 0.4 || 0.3 || 5.6

|- class="sortbottom"

| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career {{Cite web|url=https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/walkne01.html|title=Neal Walk|work=Basketball-Reference.com|publisher=Sports Reference LLC|access-date=April 26, 2019}}

| 568 || {{sort|-|—}} || 24.4 || .459 || {{sort|-|—}} || .758 || 7.7 || 2.1 || 0.6 || 0.4 || 12.9

|- class="sortbottom"

= Playoffs =

| style="text-align:left;"|1970

|style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix

|5||{{sort|-|—}}||12.6||.395||{{sort|-|—}}||.750||7.0||0.4||– || –||8.0

| style="text-align:left;"|1975

|style="text-align:left;"|New York

|3||{{sort|-|—}}||13.0||.500||{{sort|-|—}}||{{sort|-|—}}||1.7||0.7||0.3||0.7||3.3

| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career

| 8 || {{sort|-|—}} || 12.8 || .415 || {{sort|-|—}} || .750 || 5.0 || 0.5 || 0.3 || 0.7 || 6.3

Life after the NBA

After Walk retired, he legally changed his first name to Joshua.

In 1988, while Walk was living in Phoenix, it was discovered that Walk had a benign tumor enveloping his spine.[https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2015/10/05/former-phoenix-suns-center-neal-walk-dies-67/73361840/ Former Phoenix Suns center Neal Walk dies at 67] Following surgery Walk was left in a wheelchair, from which he played wheelchair basketball for the L.A.-Phoenix Samaritans in the Southern California league of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. In 1990 Walk was honored at the White House by U.S. President George H. W. Bush, as the "Wheelchair Athlete of The Year".

He later worked for the Phoenix Suns in the Community Affairs department.

Walk is featured in the Miami Beach Senior High School Hall of Fame, a "Gator Great" in the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame,F Club, Hall of Fame, [http://www.gatorfclub.org/hall-of-fame/greats "Gator Greats"]. Retrieved December 13, 2014. and was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

On October 4, 2015, Walk died of an unspecified blood disease.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tampabay.com/sports/former-gators-star-neal-walk-dies/2248505/|title = Former Gators star Neal Walk dies}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20051215063809/http://jewishaz.com/jewishnews/990319/neal.shtml Article at jewishaz.com]
{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060313190545/http://www.databasebasketball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=WALKNE01 NBA Stats at databasebasketball.com]}}

Category:1948 births

Category:2015 deaths

Category:20th-century American sportsmen

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:All-American college men's basketball players

Category:American expatriate basketball people in Israel

Category:American expatriate basketball people in Italy

Category:American men's basketball players

Category:American men's wheelchair basketball players

Category:Basketball players from Cleveland

Category:Basketball players from Miami-Dade County, Florida

Category:Centers (basketball)