Chick Hearn

Those pesky losses to inferior teams like the Atlanta Hawks and the Chicago Bulls and the Portland Trailblazers, they get so easily forgotten. Shaquille O'Neal comes back, the Lakers win a dozen in a row, the playoffs arrive and no Laker fan is going to remember how upsetting it was to see the Hawks beat the world champions. But then you catch a snippet of a radio news update, just the very end, and hear the words "Lakers" and "may be out for the season." O'Neal's toe is worse, that must be it. Not good news and maybe that three-peat won't be happening, maybe another world championship will have to wait until next year.

SAN DIEGO - Every so often I get an email suggesting Vin Scully has lost it, and I smile. I wish I had just what he's lost. There is no accounting for some people in this world. The same miserable cusses who might respond " Sam Gilbert " when John Wooden's 99-year span of life is mentioned probably would have been the first to say that Chick Hearn was too old to close the refrigerator door anymore. I've never been able to get enough of these old men, their talent and wisdom allowing them to survive for so long while so many others did not. I used to sit with Hearn before Lakers games with the hope of learning his secret, knowing full well as I was walking up the stairs he was telling his usher pal, "Oh no, here he comes.

What a comeback! The Lakers? Yes, them too. But I'm referring to Chick Hearn, who was plunged into such a deep, smoldering funk by the Lakers' play Sunday against Seattle that it sounded like it might take the veteran play-by-play man a week to elevate his mood back up to merely despondent. When the SuperSonics take a 9-0 lead, Hearn thinks he spots a trend. "If you want to go out and water mother's new flowers, this is a good time," Chick counsels crisply. Sure enough, the Lakers keep fading and fading.

We forget how special a Lakers game is, the best absurdist theater since Beckett. Cruise here. Kardashian over there. Jack ruling over this Cuckoo's Nest as if he's playing ball again with the Chief. "Hit me, Chief, I got the moves!" But there, just behind the opponents' bench, a stone's throw from some weirdo in a cowboy suit, sits the regal Marge Hearn, widow of the late, great Chick. She's almost 94 now, and as far as anyone can tell, just entering her prime. That's right, amid this zaniness, we still have Marge, who kept her husband grounded during his record stint as the best announcer in basketball history, who got him to the airport, packed his bags and smiled gamely as he needled her on the air. Lakers not worried about playoff matchups "Marge could've made that shot" or "Marge couldn't go to her left either.

The rain ended just in time, perhaps knowing it could never stop Chick Hearn in his days as a Lakers broadcaster, so why cause an issue at the unveiling of his bronze statue Tuesday outside Staples Center. The man who once called 3,338 consecutive Lakers games — getting there every time despite rain, snow or otherwise — is shown sitting at a table while wearing a headset, looking like he's midsentence while calling a game. A chair next to him remains open, allowing fans to take photographs in it. Hearn's widow, Marge, was the first to sit in the chair after the 45-minute ceremony in front of a crowd of about 500. She kissed her right hand and then placed it gently on the cheek of her husband's statue.

The familiar, excited tones of Francis Dayle Hearn, known as Chick, fill the air. With two seconds to go, "The Weave" is facing the hoop. "He looks at the basket. He trembles. He shakes. He quivers. He fires," the sportscaster yells. "It hits the rim, bounces high, bounces again on the rim. And now falls in the basket. The Los Angeles Lakers win the World Championship!" Never mind the Weave; check Chick.

Eight seconds remain on the 24-second clock as the ball goes in to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who fakes right, then swings left and is fouled as he puts up a sky hook. "Good if it gohhhhhhhhs! " roars Chick Hearn. ChickSpeak. For years and years and years, Los Angeles Lakers announcer Chick Hearn has made bad basketball good, good basketball great and great basketball better. He's state-of-the-art and state-of-the-union, the supreme broadcathlete with matchless eye-to-tongue coordination.

They said no one could replace Wilt. Wrong! We have the most prolific scorer in basketball history. They said no one could replace Jerry West. Wrong! We go the Magic man. They said no one could replace Elgin Baylor. Wrong! We got James Worthy and his tomahawk dunk. They say no one can replace Chick. Right! We L.A. fans are spoiled by Chick Hearn and Vin Scully. For all the fans that have been put in the popcorn machine, or had the mustard come off their hot dog, thank you, Chick, and congratulations on 2,000 games.

Times sportswriter Randy Harvey and Laker broadcaster Chick Hearn were named California award winners by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Assn. for 1987. Harvey, who joined The Times in 1981, primarily covers Olympic-related stories. Hearn has been the voice of the Lakers since 1961. Bob Costas of NBC and Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford were named the national award winners. Both are repeat winners. Costas has won twice before and Deford is a five-time winner.

Samantha Hearn, 41-year-old daughter of Lakers announcer Chick Hearn, died Thursday night at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. She died at 10:55 p.m. after a monthlong battle against viral pneumonia. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Holy Cross Cemetery, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., Culver City. A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Paul's the Apostle Church, 10750 Ohio Ave., Westwood.

At last, some of the players at Staples Center are on a winning streak. We're not talking about members of the Lakers, Clippers, Sparks and Kings ? the downtown arena's four professional sports teams. We're talking about Omri Amrany and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany and Gary Tillery of Highwood, Ill., and Erik Blome of Martinez, Calif. ? the artists who are responsible for the five statues of L.A. sports greats that stand outside Staples Center. Blome's Wayne Gretzky, captured standing on the hockey ice and waving to his fans at the moment he bid farewell to the sport he had dominated like no other, was the first to go up, arriving in October 2002.

On a sunny fall Thursday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, Magic was magic. Juan Carlos Anzelmette, a tourist from Mexico City, leaned on the giant bronze Magic Johnson's left knee and smiled. "When I think about this city, this is what I think about," he said. A few minutes later, surrounded by two young children wearing Kobe Bryant jerseys, Magic was Christmas. Mayuko Owens positioned her kids in front of Johnson's giant embrace and began snapping photos. "It's for our Christmas cards," she said.

Though injury (and age?) may limit him this spring, Kobe Bryant is still capable of elevating his game — and the Lakers. . . . Bryant's play Tuesday night brought to mind the Elvis Costello lyric, "Don't bury me 'cause I'm not dead yet.". . . A memorial outside Staples Center is a fitting tribute, but shouldn't a statue of Chick Hearn be perched "high above the western sideline" at the Forum?. . . The only thing wrong with a Hearn statue: It's silent.

The rain ended just in time, perhaps knowing it could never stop Chick Hearn in his days as a Lakers broadcaster, so why cause an issue at the unveiling of his bronze statue Tuesday outside Staples Center. The man who once called 3,338 consecutive Lakers games — getting there every time despite rain, snow or otherwise — is shown sitting at a table while wearing a headset, looking like he's midsentence while calling a game. A chair next to him remains open, allowing fans to take photographs in it. Hearn's widow, Marge, was the first to sit in the chair after the 45-minute ceremony in front of a crowd of about 500. She kissed her right hand and then placed it gently on the cheek of her husband's statue.

It might sound silly but Lynn Shackelford says it's true: Playing basketball for John Wooden may have been the ideal training ground for working with Chick Hearn. "You realized," says the former UCLA forward and ex-Lakers commentator, "that you were only part of the machine." Maybe that's why Shackelford and Keith Erickson, who between them helped UCLA win five NCAA championships, were such ideal broadcasting foils for the late, great Lakers announcer. They accepted their roles.

I have nothing against new Dodgers road TV announcer Eric Collins. He's pleasant-enough sounding, just like Matt Vasgersian, Josh Lewin or a hundred other announcers. But for someone who grew up on a diet of Vin Scully, Dick Enberg, Chick Hearn, Bob Miller and Tom Kelly, I have to ask: Why all the blandness all of a sudden? Collins' style and tone is interchangeable with two-thirds of the announcers on the MLB package. Was there a conspiracy among the broadcasting schools to recruit only bland-sounding students?

There is a lot more to Chick Hearn than refrigerators, popcorn machines, dribble-drives, yo-yoing and his streak of consecutive games. The man behind the voice that has been bringing the Lakers to us for the last 38 years is a study in loyalty, a man devoted to his craft, his employer, his friends, and, more than anything else, his wife Marge. Consecutive game No.

Batman had Robin, Sherlock Holmes had Watson, Captain Kangaroo had Mr. Greenjeans, and Chick Hearn has Keith Erickson. It has never been easy to play second banana to a charismatic star. It usually entails just hanging around, keeping your mouth closed and marveling at the super-human talents of your celebrated partner.

BOSTON -- The other day Kobe Bryant was saying he just "missed some bunnies" in the first game of the NBA Finals, or as Chick Hearn would've been telling us, "Marge could have made those shots." It doesn't seem so long ago, but it will be six years this week, Chick doing his final Lakers broadcast after 42 years behind the microphone, a championship-clinching victory over the New Jersey Nets. Two months later a fall in his backyard led to his death.

Chick Hearn has been gone since Aug. 5, 2002, but he certainly isn't forgotten. He was honored by the Lakers on Wednesday night right before Kobe Bryant got his MVP trophy. And Marge Hearn, a spry 90, was there to present the game ball to the referees. "I didn't just hand it to them, I threw it to them," she said proudly the next day from her home in Fullerton.