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Bill Walton deliciously trolls pro-creation broadcaster with Darwin book (Video)

By Phil Watson

Jan 14, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; ESPN broadcasters Bill Walton (left) and Dave Pasch during the NCAA basketball game between the UCLA Bruins and the Southern California Trojans at Galen Center. UCLA defeated USC 83-66. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 14, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; ESPN broadcasters Bill Walton (left) and Dave Pasch during the NCAA basketball game between the UCLA Bruins and the Southern California Trojans at Galen Center. UCLA defeated USC 83-66. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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One of the tenets of the late John Wooden’s success triangle is preparation. Former UCLA star Bill Walton took that to heart with his latest stunt.

Dave Pasch, who calls many events on ESPN, was recently honored as the Arizona Sportscaster of the Year and his partner on Thursday night’s broadcast of the Colorado–Arizona game on ESPN wanted to honor him for that accomplishment.

Or perhaps “honor” isn’t quite what Bill Walton had in mind.

Walton presented Pasch with a cake. Nice.

Then Walton presented Pasch with a copy of Charles Darwin’s landmark 19th century work, “The Origin of Species,” along with the comment, “We want to make sure that you believe in evolution.”

Pasch, for the record, does not.

Here’s the exchange:

Awk. Ward.

As someone who finds it hard to dispute the scientific evidence that the world is, in fact, more than 6,000 years old, it’s entirely possible Walton went just a bit over the top in his trollery.

Pasch’s face was not the face of someone who was even remotely amused about being smacked around on national television regarding his personal beliefs.

Pasch doesn’t hide his beliefs, telling the Jesus N Sports blog in 2012 that he would engage any colleague who asked about his beliefs by explaining how he came up with the conclusion.

He did have a shot for Walton before a commercial break, saying the two could discuss irreducible complexity theory, a theory that argues that biological systems are both complex and dependent upon multiple complex parts in such a way that evolution by chance—or natural selection—is not feasible.

For the record, I agreed with part of Jay Bilas’ commentary from the middle of the two sides of the debate.

Cake is great.

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