Grateful for them

On Bill Walton, Rafael Nadal, and the passage of time

Waiting for Bill Walton’s Christmas card to land in our mailbox was a joyful rite each holiday season.

His card, which always featured his kids and wife and pets and updates on everyone’s busy doings, never arrived before Dec. 25. Sometimes it came a week late. Or two. I can recall years when the card appeared in mid-January or early February as a new year’s greeting. The calendar was a mere suggestion to him, not binding law.

I always thought of his timing not as eccentric but as Walton’s unconventional way of extending Christmas and bringing smiles to the dreary post-holiday weeks. Watching his sons grow from year to year and in time be joined in photos by a spouse and kids provided a fascinating peek into a life vigorously and zestfully lived. He loved his family, the Grateful Dead, and basketball, maybe not necessarily in that order, and he always brought a genuine passion for where he was and what he was doing at any given moment. He was kind. Generous. Curious about the people and world around him.

Hearing the news of his death from cancer on Monday inspired me to dig into the pile of holiday cards stacked in a cabinet in our living room. My husbum, Dennis D’Agostino —who had gotten on Walton’s Christmas card list by working with him as a statistician on basketball broadcasts —kept dozens of cards sent to us by family and friends over the years. Many of Walton’s cards made the cut. The one pictured below hit hard for several reasons.

No one triumphs over the real Father Time, as nobly or enthusiastically as they try, in life or on the field of play. Walton gave it a great and spirited run. “And the world feels so much heavier now,” his fellow UCLA alum and NBA rival Kareem-Abdul Jabbar said, summing it up perfectly in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “On the court, Bill was a fierce player. But off the court, he wasn’t happy unless he did everything he could to make everyone around him happy.

“He was the best of us.”

The relentlessness of Father Time was evident in another sense and place Monday. On a tennis court in Paris, at the French Open, Rafael Nadal bowed to the ravages of age and the power of a younger, stronger opponent in Alexander Zverev, losing his first-round match in straight sets in the tournament he had owned by mastering the clay of Roland Garros an incredible 14 times.

Nadal, who will be 38 next week and has been slowed by hip and abdominal issues for more than a year, is guaranteed tennis immortality though his 22 Grand Slam singles titles. His trademark grit created a wonderful counterbalance to Roger Federer’s balletic elegance during their long and marvelous rivalry. You could admire Federer from a distance but you’d want to embrace Nadal, clay and sweat and all.

On Monday, with Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek taking time from their own tournament routines to witness the moment in person, Nadal provided occasional glimpses of his classic shotmaking and his devastating forehand, a stroke widely considered the best ever. His grit was there. His heart was there.

But Zverev, ranked fourth in the world at age 27, was quicker and served better and had answers to everything Nadal tried. It was an unfortunate first-round matchup for Nadal and only his fourth loss in 19 years at the famed event, which is staggering.

Nadal left the familiar Philippe-Chatrier court to a rousing ovation that was tinged with more than a little nostalgia. He said afterward he hoped to return there to play in the upcoming Summer Olympics, but his exit felt like the the end of an era.

“I don’t know if it’s the last time that I’m going to be here, in front of all of you, honestly. I am not 100 percent sure,” he said during an on-court interview afterward. “But if it is last time, I enjoy it now….

“The feelings that I have today are difficult to describe in words but for me it’s so special to feel the love of the people the way that I felt in the place that I love the most.”

Nadal said his body felt good, which was encouraging, but can he keep up with the younger and more powerful hitters on the men’s tour? Would he want to continue if he could no longer be his old, dominant self? Three-time major winner Andy Murray, also recovering from injuries at 37, also exited the French Open in the first round this week. He said earlier this year he probably had only a few months left in his distinguished career, but he hasn’t confirmed that he will retire. Kudos to him for coming back after a hip replacement and for playing for the love of the sport when titles are pretty much beyond his reach.

It’s natural to be sad about the imminent end of Nadal’s career, but try instead to be grateful for the years he played and all that he accomplished. The same for Walton. I can picture him wearing a tie-dye shirt, humming a Grateful Dead tune, telling a sensational story and smiling at a world that has lost a bit of its luster.