Traina Thoughts: National Treasure Bill Walton Put On a Spectacular Show in Maui This Week

ESPN's Bill Walton took his game to a new level at the Maui Invitational.

ESPN

1. The Maui Invitational comes to a close Wednesday, but Bill Walton has already claimed the MVP award. The legendary ESPN analyst was in his typical form the past few days calling the action. And by "calling the action," we mean saying bizarre, metaphysical, outrageous stuff on a regular basis. Let's recap.

• He's given an educational lecture on Hawaiian flowers.

Bill Walton casually rattling off obscure Hawaiian flower species off the dome > pic.twitter.com/ggxbR7rpHP

— Gordon Voit (@GordonVoit) November 20, 2018

• He's told us about his breeding habits.

In case you were watching basketball to learn about the breeding habits of both whales and @BillWalton 😂 pic.twitter.com/dnNljozQdE

— 𝕄𝕒𝕥𝕥 𝔻𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕤 (@KCRoyalFan) November 20, 2018

• He's been a ball buster to his play-by-play man Jason Benetti

• He's dropped deep philosophy on thinking.

It hasn't just been the noteworthy commentary, either. Walton has given us this:

And this:

When in Hawaii... 😎

(via @BillWalton) pic.twitter.com/g3XFC8feFY

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 19, 2018

On this Thanksgiving Eve, we should all be thankful we're treated to Bill Walton's antics throughout the college basketball season.

2. The newest SI Media Podcast features an interview with the The Athletic's Stewart Mandel, who is the site's Editor-in-Chief of college football coverage. Stew, who also writes for the site, talks about the business of sports media and what it's like to work for a pay-subsciption website. In addition to discussing the current state of sports media, we touched on the College Football Playoff and the dilemma for Central Florida. The end of the podcast closes with us reminiscing about Stew's days at SI.com and his "Mailbag Crush" feature, which led to him once exchanging MySpace messages with The Office's Jenna Fischer. You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes.

3. With the Patriots visiting the Jets on Sunday, the New York Daily News decided to troll Rob Gronkowski today with this backpage.

Here is our @NYDNsports Wednesday back page:
@MMehtaNYDN has bad news for #Patriots fans: Rob Gronkowski is done, and Brady and Belichick are just trying to prop him up: https://t.co/OjnBn5AzAt@patriots @BackPageGuyNYDN @espn @nflnetwork @EricBarrow pic.twitter.com/bMYvniqK2i

— NY Daily News Sports (@NYDNSports) November 21, 2018

4. Aaron Rodgers is donating $1 million to the California wildfire relief efforts. On top of that, $1 will be donated for every retweet with the hashtag #retweet4good.

Please take a minute to watch this and if you can, take a few seconds to retweet this using the #retweet4good
All the money goes to a great organization for the immediate needs and the recovery efforts for the #CampFireParadise
Thank you 🙏🏻 #ButteStrong #payitforward pic.twitter.com/iQjMbUIHcI

— Aaron Rodgers (@AaronRodgers12) November 21, 2018

5. The WWE just released this compilation of the most absurd moments in WCW history and it's something else. 

6. I'll take "Tweets you'd never see if the fake exhibition golf match was airing on ESPN instead of Turner Sports for $500, Alex."

I love golf more than most things in this world and I’m only mildly interested in this Tiger/Phil showdown @Espngreeny what about you ?

— Booger (@ESPNBooger) November 21, 2018

7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy Thankgiving.

Traina Thoughts is the best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina. Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Catch up on previous editions of Traina Thoughts right here. And make sure to listen to and subscribe to the SI Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina.

IN CLOSING: Make some money on Thanksgiving with the Redskins +7.5.