When Buckner Plays Show and Tell, He Doesn’t Have to Yell

Quinn Buckner is becoming the quintessential basketball commentator. He simply does the job the way it should be done.

In direct contrast to Dick Vitale, Buckner doesn’t dominate a telecast. He doesn’t rant and rave and attempt to draw attention to himself. All he does is make good observations without intruding.

That’s really all any sports commentator needs to do.

Buckner will work Saturday’s Loyola Marymount-Louisiana State game for CBS with play-by-play partner James Brown. The game, the second of a CBS doubleheader, begins at 11 a.m., after the Georgetown-St. John’s game.

Buckner, who is not employed full time by CBS, also works for ESPN and Prime Ticket, doing mainly Big West Conference telecasts. He became affiliated with West Coast basketball after moving from the Milwaukee area to Yorba Linda last summer.

Buckner, a business major at Indiana, is one of six partners in a Covina-based firm, Data Line, which does data processing for banks and savings and loans. The group bought the company in December 1988, and when Buckner grew tired of commuting, he moved to Southern California.

Buckner is half of the answer to this trivia question: What two basketball players were on a state high school championship team, an NCAA champion, an Olympic gold medal-winning team and an NBA champion.

Jerry Lucas is the other half.

Buckner’s Thornridge High School team won the Illinois state title; his 1976 Indiana team won the NCAA championship; he played on the Olympic team later that year, and he was with the Boston Celtics when they won it all in 1984.

Buckner played most of his pro career with Milwaukee and finished with the Indiana Pacers.

His college coach, Bob Knight, is the person who got Buckner into broadcasting after he retired from the NBA in 1986. Knight got him together with former ABC Sports executive Chuck Howard, who hired Buckner to work on his Big Ten basketball package.

“When I was in college, Coach (Buckner calls Knight simply ‘Coach’) told me I should get into broadcasting,” Buckner said Thursday prior to leaving for Baton Rogue, La. “I never took him seriously.

“Then he recommended me to Chuck Howard, a friend of his, after I retired.”

Turns out that maybe Knight, of all people, has a knack for spotting broadcasting talents.

Anyway, during Buckner’s first season on the Big Ten package, ESPN took note and hired Buckner as a free-lancer the next season.

Then CBS got on the Buckner bandwagon, using him last season. His first CBS assignment, coincidentally, was a Loyola Marymount game.

Prime Ticket hired Buckner this season after he moved to the Southland.

NBC announced Thursday that it has hired Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert as its main tennis commentators.

That means that Connors will not play at Wimbledon or in the French Open.

It also means viewers will see less of Bud Collins, who is being retained by NBC but only as an interviewer/reporter and backup play-by-play announcer. Collins was given a new long-term contract.

Evert will make her NBC debut at the Family Circle Cup in April, and Connors will make his debut at the French Open in June.

Frank Chirkinian, who has been producing golf for CBS since 1958, like so many others, watched the new NBC golf team of Bryant Gumbel and Johnny Miller with interest on telecasts of the Bob Hope Classic two weeks ago.

So, what did he think?

Chirkinian, in Pebble Beach for this week’s National Pro-Am, said he didn’t care to comment, but did anyway.

“I guess Gumbel doesn’t know what fringe is,” Chirkinian said. “He called it fuzz. Did you hear that?

“When Peter Jacobsen’s ball on (No.) 18 ended up on the fringe, Gumbel said, ‘I’m not sure what they call that, but it looks like fuzz.’ ”

Chirkinian said of Dick Ebersol, NBC Sports president: “He must not consider golf a sport.”

Why is that?

“He assigned Gumbel to it.”

Of Miller, Chirkinian said: “He may develop but he was pretty stiff.”

Of course, Chirkinian is partial to his announcers, Pat Summerall and Ken Venturi, who work the 18th tower, and Jim Nantz, Gary McCord, Ben Wright and Steve Melnyk.

After the Pebble Beach tournament, this crew will next work the L.A. Open Feb. 22-25.

The latest thing for your VCR is something called a video magazine.

Jack Nicklaus Productions, in a joint venture with ABC Sports, has created the first of a planned six bi-monthly editions entitled “Wide World of Golf.”

The video magazine is being sold only through mail-order subscriptions, obtained through advertisements and direct-mail solicitation, and at golf pro shops.

A one-year subscription costs $99.95, while individual tapes go for $29.95.

“The idea is to give golfers not only an instructional tape, but one that is also informational and entertaining,” said Terry Jastrow, ABC golf producer who is also Nicklaus’ partner in the Santa Monica-based production company.

Jastrow said that if the project is well received, they will produce video magazines dealing with other sports as well as non-sports topics.

TV-Radio Notes

Candidates for commentators’ jobs on NBC’s NBA coverage next season include Chuck Daly, Julius Erving and Laker Coach Pat Riley. CBS was interested in Riley before this season, but couldn’t to wrest him away from the Lakers. NBC probably won’t be able to either. Daly, a former cable commentator in Philadelphia, is a more viable candidate. . . . Coverage of today’s round of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am will be carried by the USA network, delayed, at 4 p.m. and repeated at 9 p.m. Weekend coverage on CBS begins at 1 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday. . . . A reminder: Bill Shoemaker’s last ride will be televised Saturday on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” Incredibly, it’s being delayed on the West Coast. Although ABC is not saying when Shoe’s race will be shown, it will probably be at the end of the show. . . Also on “Wide World” Saturday will be delayed coverage of a fight between Mike McCallum and Steve Collins and taped coverage of the George Foreman-Gerry Cooney fiasco.

Saturday’s Hector Camacho-Vinny Pazienza fight will be on pay-per-view cable television and also shown at a number of bar-restaurants in Southern California. They include: Cheers in Simi Valley, Don Enrique’s in Santa Monica, Dream at 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., the National Orange Show in San Bernardino, the Tree House in Diamond Bar, the Sports Deli in Century City, Zubies in Costa Mesa, and the Red Onions in Marina del Rey, Lakewood and on Wilshire Boulevard.

Former Ram general manager Don Klosterman, now the chairman of NTN, a Carlsbad communications company, said the video game QB1, created by his company seven years ago, is starting to take off. The computer game is played along a football telecast, and more people played during last Sunday’s Super Bowl than ever before. There have been more than one million players, according to Klosterman, who said he is close to landing a major sponsor.

NBC has colorful Jorge Paez fighting on its “SportsWorld” Sunday at 10 a.m. On the same show will be coverage of the Pizza Hut All-Star softball game, featuring major league stars. Bob Costas and Tony Kubek are the announcers. It will be NBC’s final baseball venture, at least for four years, since CBS takes over.

The Clippers have switched radio stations, going from KRTH to KRLA. The switch came about because KRTH, after being sold, changed formats. . . . Magic Johnson was the easy winner of Channel 2’s “L.A. Athlete of the Decade” call-in poll. Johnson got 50% of the votes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 27%, Marcus Allen and Wayne Gretzky each 8% and Orel Hershiser 7%. Proceeds from the calls, about $4,000, will be donated to the Bay Area Earthquake Relief Fund.

Mizlou’s Sports News Network (SNN), a new 24-hour sports network, made its debut Thursday night. But only one Southern California cable company, Calavision of Calabasas, is carrying it for now. . . . Personnel moves: Randy Kerndoon, formerly of KWNK, has been hired by KFWB as a morning sports anchor. He begins his new job Monday. . . . ESPN has hired another woman sports anchor, Anne Montgomery, 34, who has been working in Phoenix. She has also been an official in several sports. Carolyn Burns, who has been doing some anchor work on the late-night edition of “SportsCenter,” has been re-assigned to reporting.