At Whatever Age, He Remains as Spry as a Young Chick

One basketball legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is retiring at 42 but another, Chick Hearn, is still going strong at seventysomething.

Ironman Chick, who has been with the Lakers since they came to Los Angeles in 1960, worked consecutive game No. 2,231 Thursday night as the National Basketball Assn. playoffs began.

So, you wonder, how much longer can he go?

“Three, four, maybe five more years,” he said.

If Abdul-Jabbar deserved a farewell tour, so does Hearn when he retires--if he ever does.

What keeps him going? Credit the Lakers, Magic Johnson in particular.

“Magic, like a can opener, opened the can and originated showtime and, working so well with Kareem, turned the Lakers into winners,” he said. “The winning has extended my enthusiasm. If the Lakers were inept year after year, I might have decided to try a challenge in another field.

“I once passed up a chance about 12 years ago to become a news anchor. My love is sports, and I thrive on play by play.

“I have one of the best sports jobs in the nation, surely the best job in basketball announcing.”

The glory Hearn has enjoyed, particularly during this decade, somewhat makes up for his being snubbed by the networks.

Dick Enberg went to NBC. Vin Scully went to CBS, then NBC.

But Hearn, possibly the quickest, cleverest, most nearly incredible basketball announcer to ever call a dribble drive, never got the big network job.

Tom Heinsohn can get a network job, but Chick Hearn can’t.

“I felt slighted in the past,” Hearn said. “But at this point of my career, I no longer care.

“I felt I could have done a good job on collegiate or pro basketball. But I have nothing to complain about. I’ve been very, very fortunate and have had many successes.”

Last Sunday was a tough day for Hearn, one of the toughest he can remember. He had to be at the Forum early in the morning to rehearse for the Farewell-to-Kareem ceremony, followed by the actual ceremony and the game against Seattle.

Before signing off the radio, he apologized to his listeners for a bad broadcast, something he, or probably any other announcer, has never done.

“I never got my timing down, and I felt I owed the listeners an apology,” he said. “Maybe they didn’t notice, but I did.”

No apology was necessary, Chick. Even on an off day, you’re still the best.

Second season: The NBA season that really counts is in full swing. There will be six televised playoff games over the next three days.

Tonight, TBS offers a doubleheader, Game 1 of the Boston-Detroit series at 5:05 followed at 7:30 by Game 1 of the Denver-Phoenix series.

CBS offers a national telecast Saturday at 12:30 p.m., Philadelphia vs. New York, with Verne Lundquist and Heinsohn reporting. And TBS has Milwaukee vs. Atlanta at 5:05 p.m.

CBS has a doubleheader Sunday, beginning at 10 a.m. with Chicago vs. Cleveland. Dick Stockton and Hubie Brown report.

Then at 12:30 p.m. is Portland and the Lakers, with Greg Gumbel and Quinn Buckner doing their first NBA playoff game. But remember, Chick and Stu Lantz are on radio.

So where is Brent Musburger this weekend? He and Bill Raftery are working a Boston-Detroit game Sunday that won’t be seen on the West Coast.

Bump and run: The two-week-old Long Beach Grand Prix will finally be shown on Channel 7 Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

It’s interesting to hear how differently commentators Sam Posey and Bobby Unser perceive the accident involving winner Al Unser Jr. and Mario Andretti, in which Andretti was knocked out of the 95-lap race on the 84th lap.

Posey picks up right away that Little Al made a mistake and that he will have mixed emotions about his victory.

Bobby Unser, meanwhile, pretty much glosses over the incident and at one point says Little Al’s brakes might have failed. The skid marks tell viewers there was no brake failure.

Andretti’s anger is apparent in a postrace interview.

Oops Dept.: KABC radio sportscaster Eric Tracy, who has been on a hot streak with some of his interviews this baseball season, erred badly while filling in on the “Ken and Bob Co.” show the other morning.

Talking about Angel rookie Jim Abbott’s first major league victory, Tracy said, “Let’s give him a hand.”

He later apologized.

“I never call him a one-handed pitcher, I simply think of him as a major league pitcher,” Tracy said. “I thought my engineer, Waco Pat, wanted to go to a sound-effect tape of crowd noise. It was very unfortunate. I wasn’t in any way intending to be insensitive.”

TV-Radio Notes

Highlights of the Long Beach Grand Prix Toyota Celebrity Race will be on ESPN Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Also, a Spanish-language version of the big race will be on Channel 34 Saturday at 1:30. . . . ESPN will show Robbie Knievel’s jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas at 6 p.m. Monday, May 15. . . . A women’s world: Saturday at 11:30 a.m., CBS will televise the national collegiate gymnastics championships, taped two weeks ago in Nebraska. The producer of the coverage is Stephanie Swofford, the director Cathy Barreto. Barreto is also the director of some of the NBA “At the Half” programs.

The 12th Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf better-ball team tournament at Austin, Tex., will be televised by NBC Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. both days. Charlie Jones and Lee Trevino report. The event is actually two tournaments, one with players 50 and over, the other with players 60 and over, including Sam Snead, who turned 77 on Thursday.

NBC, attracted by the additions of “rookies” Trevino and Jack Nicklaus, has announced a multiyear agreement to televise the PGA Seniors Championship, beginning next year. Trevino turns 50 Dec. 1, and Nicklaus follows Jan. 21, 1990, making both eligible for senior competition. The PGA Seniors Championship, founded in 1937 at Augusta National Golf Club with the support of Bobby Jones, is the oldest tournament in senior golf by more than 40 years. The date of the 1990 PGA Seniors Championship has not been determined, although it is expected to be played in April.

Channel 9’s Scott St. James had a nice tribute to the Kings, set to an original song he got from Pirate Radio, KQLZ. Channel 9 producers Scott Johnston and Pat Edmundson put pictures with the music. . . . Recommended viewing: The Western States 100, a 100-mile foot race from Auburn, Calif., to Lake Tahoe that used to be televised by ABC, will be on Channel 2 Saturday at 3 p.m. GPP of San Francisco produced the taped coverage.

During the NBA playoffs on both TBS and CBS there will be periodic public-service announcements entitled, “Don’t Just Hear . . . Listen,” in which Arsenio Hall interviews young people who describe their drug and alcohol addictions. They are powerful spots that carry an important message.