Basketball's finest voice

Most sports fans have a favorite announcer, a play-by-play man or woman who appeals for whatever reason. There are lots more fans than there are announcers, obviously, but it seems that every fan has a different reason for preferring a specific announcer.

          You go back a few years and you remember Lindsey Nelson and Ray Scott calling football games. Curt Gowdy must have called every sport there was, as did the great Keith Jackson.

I recall listening to Dick Enberg call LA Rams football and UCLA basketball games on the radio. One night Enberg promised to sing to the crowd if UCLA clinched the Pacific Eight conference basketball championship and I was in Pauley Pavilion the night he went down on the floor and sang a rendition of Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head.

Barney Hall and Ken Squire have been amazing at calling auto races, though they have very different approaches. Nice guys, too.

          I once saw a 30-minute interview show with LA Kings announcer Bob Miller, Dodgers play-by-play man Vin Scully and Lakers announcer Chick Hearn and I didn’t want the interview to end.

          If I had to pick a favorite, I’d hem and haw around for a while, but I’d end up choosing Hearn. My goodness, how that man could call a basketball game. We lost Chick a few years back, but it is hard now for me to watch a Lakers game and not hear, in my mind’s ear, Chick calling the action.

          I miss him.

          Hearn and Johnny Most, the Boston Celtics play-by-play legend, called an all-star game on radio one year. Each man took a half. I was a sportswriter back then and I wrote a column declaring Hearn the best. The Lakers ended up getting hold of that column and I got a signed photograph of Hearn, declaring me a super journalist. I still have it.

          There is a rhythm to calling basketball. I’ve called high school, junior college and college games and that rhythm has to be there or the audience won’t know what you’re talking about. Chick Hearn brought that rhythm into every home and automobile his voice could reach and he made the listener feel the flow of the game, the pace of the action. His brilliant, staccato delivery was the best basketball has ever had.

          Hearn wanted the Lakers to win, sure. But he was a great reporter and he’d tell you when the officials were right to call a foul on the Lakers.

          How many times did we hear him say, “What are these idiots booing about? You could’ve called that one in Braille.”

          Hearn called other sports, too. I heard him announce USC football games on television, and he was tremendous. I read somewhere, and I hope it was accurate, that he also called auto racing at a track in the Midwest very early in his career. Wish I could hear a recording of Chick Hearn announcing an auto race! If any announcer was suited for the frenetic pace and unpredictability of an automobile race, it would be Chick Hearn.

          I close with this, using the pentameter from Casey At The Bat:

 

In all parts of this land of sports the fans will have their way,

They’ll press the buttons on remotes and hear some play-by-play.

With cable and the internet, sports fans can make a choice,

 But in the sport of basketball, Chick’s was the brightest voice.

 

          Thanks for reading.