Helix High School remembers 1970 graduate Bill Walton [Video]

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – All of San Diego is still grieving the loss of basketball Hall of Famer Bill Walton, who died Monday at age 71 after a battle with cancer.

Before Walton embarked on what turned into a 50-year career in the NBA as a player and broadcaster, he played basketball for the Helix Charter High School Highlanders in La Mesa.

Helix High School Athletic Director Damon Chase said Walton played four years of varsity basketball and graduated in 1970. Outside of the school’s gym is a trophy case filled with the legacy Walton left behind.

“He loved Helix,” Chase said. “In the early 2000s, we were redoing some of the gym. We had old wooden backboards, and he paid for us to have glass backboards on the sides of our courts, which was a big deal at the time. When you talk about Helix athletics, people go to …