Overheard@E3: The wisdom of Bill Walton

At their conference yesterday, EA invited NBA hall-of-famer Bill Walton onstage to help them show off NBA Live '09 and its Dynamic Player DNA, and ended up stealing the show. Peter Moore, who also hammed it up with Natalie Gulbis, kept saying that Walton had gone off script, and that must be true -- anyone who wrote a script like this would never want for a job in Hollywood.

(Walton gets frustrated when the game devs explain the game rather than actually play it)
"Throw him the ball, Paul!"

(The AI defense nabs the ball)
"That's the best defense the Lakers played this entire season."

(A famous Laker puts the ball in play after a score)
"First time Kobe Bryant has ever taken the ball out of bounds."

Moore: "And here's the game's "Hot Zone" feature. Did you ever have a hot zone when you played, Bill?"
Walton: "Yeah, on the bench."

"But the best part is when it pays off, and you win. Our coach would light up that cigar -- and I'm opposed to smoking. Of all kinds. Believe me."

(Interrupting Moore to talk about the feeling of winning)
"When that ball is in your hand, and you're letting it go, oh goodness gracious!"

Oh goodness gracious! Walton should probably be at pretty much all the game demos from now on. We're not sure how much EA shelled out to have the UCLA All-Star on stage, but it was money well spent.