End of discussion.
Medical staff convinced Walton to take painkillers to come back prematurely from a foot injury, and ended up breaking said foot because he couldn't feel the pain. The end of the 77-78 season was an epic injury shitpile that saw players like Willie Norwood, Dale Schlueter, and Jackie Dorsey see meaningful minutes because Lucas, Gross, Neal, and Steele all went down with injuries. But Walton's issues with his feet were well known and instead of giving him the time to recover, as they did when he got injured midway through the 76-77 season, they rushed him back on the court taking drugs he wasn't comfortable with and it ended up costing him a good portion of his career.