You don't have to imagine it. Right now, during the first quarter of the broadcast of the Lakers/Spurs game, Chick is broadcasting with laryngitis. For those of you not familiar with Chick (who's old enough to have called Dr. Naismith's first game at the YMCA), he doesn't exactly have a lovely singing voice on the best of days... Why they didn't just give him the day off and get Rambis to call it, I'll never know, but this is one of the saddest -- and strangely hilarious -- play-by-play calls I've ever heard. His voice is breaking at every word ... you can hear the phlegm ... yet I can't press "MUTE" ... it's like driving by a car accident ... ------------------
I think he's done it before (I used to listen to Chick all the time when I lived in L.A. & followed the '80s Lakers). And "give him the day off," you say? Do you realize that he hasn't missed a game in about 35 years?? I think the streak is at 3,200 games and counting. ------------------
I wasn't aware of the streak, but I've got to tell you he sounds awful right now. A Chick Hearn in the 80s with laryngitis probably sounds ten times better than a Chick Hearn in 2001 with laryngitis. Mind you, I'm not trying to diss him. I like Chick -- even when he calls Olajuwon "Kareem". ------------------
Don't worry, I totally understand -- I think he should have retired a few years ago, or after the Lakers won the title last year. Even if he still is better than most (maybe the vast majority of) announcers, I'd rather he didn't carry on until he keels over at the microphone. I'm just saying that from his perspective, you can see why he wouldn't take the day off, and why the team wouldn't dare ask him. It's just like with Cal Ripken. Depending on what happens with the trade deadline, maybe the next Lakers-Rockets game will have him describing "Kareem" Olajuwon passing the ball to Shareef "Abdul-Jabbar" (a slip of his I've heard). ------------------
He has called Shaq Jabbar several times this season ------------------ When we tire of well-worn ways, we seek for new. This restless craving in the souls of men spurs them to climb, and to seek the mountain view. -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The guy is senile! Like Finn said, he literally called Shaq "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar", not Kareem, not Jabbar, the full freaking name! And I saw a game, I'm pretty sure it was the Lakers/Warriors that went to overtime, and he LITERALLY froze out his partner purposely, for the last 2 minutes of the game, and the guy sounded ticked off when he finally got a chance to broadcast with Hearns. He even has to remind Hearns of what he is going to say. I don't care if the guy hasn't missed a game in 5 billion years, he needs to call it quits! ------------------ Dream a deadly Dream. . . [This message has been edited by RocksMillenium (edited February 22, 2001).]
Streak's alive, but he got out at halftime thankfully. HEARN IS SILENCED AT THE HALF BYLINE: TIM BROWN and LARRY STEWART Chick Hearn, having missed only his second half of basketball in more than 35 years, said Wednesday night he expected to broadcast Friday night's game in Los Angeles, his 3,273rd in a row. Referring to Joseph Sugarman, his Beverly Hills physician, Hearn said, "I think he'll have me ready. He's a magician." Hearn awoke Wednesday morning with laryngitis. A local doctor and nurse tended to Hearn for much of the day, beginning at 7:30 a.m., and Hearn was on the air when the Lakers tipped off against San Antonio. By halftime, his voice ragged and his throat painful, Hearn decided he could no longer call the game. Derek Fisher, the Laker guard who is on the injured list, finished the game with Stu Lantz, Hearn's color commentator for 14 seasons. Hearn last missed a play, he said, six years ago, during a playoff game, also against San Antonio, at the Forum. "There's a lot of miles on those vocal cords," assistant coach Bill Bertka said. Sitting behind Bertka on the team bus, Hearn grinned and said, "It's unbelievable that it could happen only twice since 1965. "This one was the worst, because I didn't have my own doctor." Said Shaquille O'Neal: "Chick is the original Superman. So, hopefully he's OK." Hearn's wife, Marge, who was watching the game at home in Encino, said, "I'm so glad Chick didn't try and do the second half. "When Chick has laryngitis it doesn't hurt and I don't think he knows how bad he sounds. He should have quit before he did." ------------------
