There's no other place to begin but here, high above the western sideline, with the man who has called every Laker game at the Forum and gave it the nickname that defined it for more than two decades.
It is from here that Chick Hearn has given his "word's-eye view" for the last 32 seasons. He sat in his booth for the first game the Lakers played there in 1967, and he'll be there tonight as Lakers' regular-season games at the Forum come to a close when they play the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Kings checked out with a loss to the St. Louis Blues on April 18, although they will play one more exhibition there next fall before opening the Staples Center downtown.
After tonight, the Lakers have to keep winning to stay on the Forum court, and even a run to the NBA championship would only postpone their final appearance there until June--unless as expected they too schedule an exhibition next fall.
"When you're around it as much as I have been through the years, the building, she's part of your family--like a ship, I guess, to a sailor," Hearn said. "I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss it terribly."
The Forum hasn't been merely a building. It has been the stage for Showtime, an extension of Hollywood and the home of some of the city's most memorable sports moments. There were championships won here and records broken. But many arenas can match that.
How many other places could prompt a visiting coach to complain of the "Chanel No. 5 smell," as then-Golden State Warrior coach George Karl did in the 1980s?
What arena besides the Forum would have a retired cheerleader's uniform, an old outfit of Laker Girl-turned-pop singer Paula Abdul, in a display case in the Forum Club?
Where else could an opposing coach find his leg grabbed by one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the midst of an argument with an official?
Star power and star players. In 1988-89, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd. in Inglewood could claim to be the center of the sports world. Magic Johnson was the NBA's most valuable player that season, and Wayne Gretzky won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, the only time the two best players in those sports played their home games in the same building.
It cost Jack Kent Cooke $12.5 million to build the Forum, and it cost Hearn one suit, the payoff for a bet he made with Cooke that he wouldn't leave the Sports Arena for a new arena.
