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. 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. 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.
He won a silver medal at the 1969 Maccabiah Games in Israel for Team USA alongside Ronald Green, Steve Kaplan, and Jack Langer.
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). 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?"
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."
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 is the only Suns player besides Charles Barkley to average 20 points and 12 rebounds in a season.
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;"|
| style="text-align:left;"| Phoenix
| 82 || || 24.8 || .451 || || .765 || 8.2 || 1.4 || – || – || 12.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 81 || || 26.4 || .479 || || .744 || 8.2 || 1.9 || – || – || 15.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 81 || || 38.4 || .466 || || .786 || 12.4 || 3.5 || – || – || 20.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"|Phoenix
| 82 || || 31.1 || .460 || || .791 || 10.2 || 4.0 || 0.9 || 0.7 || 16.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2"|
| style="text-align:left;"|New Orleans
| 37 || || 23.0 || .422 || || .800 || 7.1 || 2.7 || 0.8 || 0.5 || 9.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|New York
| 30 || || 9.1 || .409 || || .880 || 2.6 || 0.7 || 0.2 || 0.1 || 3.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"|New York
| 82 || || 16.3 || .432 || || .798 || 4.7 || 1.5 || 0.3 || 0.3 || 7.4
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|
| style="text-align:left;"|New York
| 11 || || 12.3 || .491 || || .857 || 2.5 || 0.5 || 0.4 || 0.3 || 5.6
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 568 || || 24.4 || .459 || || .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||||12.6||.395||||.750||7.0||0.4||– || –||8.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|1975
|style="text-align:left;"|New York
|3||||13.0||.500||||||1.7||0.7||0.3||0.7||3.3
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 8 || || 12.8 || .415 || || .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. 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. and was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
Filmograpy
Television
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="width:82%"
|-
! width=2%|Year !! style="width:30%;"|Title !! style="width:20%;"|Role !! style="width:30%;"|Notes
|-
|1972||The New Dick Van Dyke Show || Himself || episode "Chef Mike"
|}
See also
- Florida Gators
- List of Florida Gators in the NBA
- List of select Jewish basketball players
- List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season rebounding leaders
- List of University of Florida alumni
- List of University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame members
References
External links
- Article at jewishaz.com