A Bad Ride for Albert, Fratello

It has been a tough season for NBA announcers. There was Chick Hearn’s heart surgery, followed by his broken hip.

And now comes the news that Marv Albert and Mike Fratello were injured when the limousine they were riding in struck a stalled delivery truck on an interstate near Trenton, N.J., early Thursday morning.

Both were cut on the face, and Albert, 60, suffered a concussion and a sprained ankle. He was held 24 hours for observation at a Trenton hospital. Fratello, 55, was treated and released.

The limo driver suffered a broken hip and head injuries. Two men in the delivery truck were not injured.

NBC gave Albert and Fratello the weekend off, although their status with their other employer, Turner Sports, was undetermined. Fratello will decide today if he will work Sunday’s TNT playoff game between Toronto and Detroit.

NBC replaced Albert with Tom Hammond, who will call Utah at Sacramento on Saturday, then the Lakers and Portland at Staples Center on Sunday.

Bob Costas will take over Hammond’s East Coast assignments--Indiana at New Jersey on Saturday and Philadelphia at Boston on Sunday. Costas was given those games because he was already in New York to tape his HBO show, “On the Record.”

Albert and Fratello had worked a Philadelphia-Indiana game at Indianapolis Wednesday night, then flown on the 76ers’ charter to Philadelphia. The limo was to have taken them to New York.

Back in Groove

Hearn returned to work April 9, and there has been an extra dose of enthusiasm in his voice.

“I appreciate everything so much more now,” he said. “Before, I was on automatic pilot. It was like getting up and shaving. You take things for granted and forget what a gift it is to do what you do.”

Those around him have noticed the difference.

“I’ve never seen him so happy,” Magic Johnson said at Wednesday night’s regular-season finale against Sacramento before leaving for Atlanta, where he’ll work as a TNT studio analyst through Thursday.

At Laker games, Marge Hearn sits a few rows below her husband’s press-row seat with a radio in her lap and an earpiece in her ear. She listens to the KLAC (570) broadcast so that she’ll be prepared to give Chick a critique on their way home.

“It took him a few games, but I think he’s all the way back,” she said.

No Announcement

Hearn is leaning toward retiring after one more season. But he said there will be no official announcement.

“I’ll always want to leave the door open,” he said.

New Era Awaits

When Hearn finally does retire, it will take two announcers to replace him--one on television and one on radio. Laker officials say simulcasts will become a thing of the past.

They began in the mid-’60s, when Jack Kent Cooke owned the Lakers, because sponsors wanted Hearn on radio and television.

One of Hearn’s replacements is obvious. Moving into Hearn’s seat should now be an easy transition for Paul Sunderland, who filled in so ably.

“Somebody asked me the other day how it feels to be back to normal,” Sunderland said. “I told them, ‘What felt normal was calling games.’”

Shaq Speaks Out

Shaquille O’Neal taped an interview with Jim Huber that will be part of TNT’s “NBA Playoff Preview Show” tonight at 10.

Asked whether the zone defense has affected him, O’Neal said, “It hasn’t affected me at all. I’m like the Tiger Woods of the NBA. You can do whatever you want. Stretch the field, change the rules, but I’m so mentally strong that it’s not going to stop me.”

Charles in Charge

Charles Barkley is responding to criticism he took from Jim Brown in Sports Illustrated. Brown said Barkley was out of touch with the black community.

Barkley, a guest on Dan Patrick’s ESPN Radio show Wednesday, said, “I’m out of touch because I don’t hang out with gangbangers?

“Jim wants to portray himself as some kind of martyr. He has a history of violence against women and beats the hell out of his car.

“A jury wants him to go to anger management but he’s too good to go to anger management. That doesn’t impress me. He obviously needs anger management.”

Barkley says much the same thing in an interview he taped with ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap for this weekend’s “Sunday Conversation” on Sunday’s 8 p.m. edition of “SportsCenter.”

Dodger Woes

The Dodgers’ move from Channel 5 to Channel 13 is not a good thing for most Dodger fans in the Coachella Valley. Time Warner Cable, which dominates the area, does not carry Channel 13.

New Dodger Show

KFWB (980), which becomes the Dodgers’ flagship radio station next season, will begin broadcasting “The Jim Tracy Report” next week. It will be on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:15 a.m., with an encore airing at 9:15 a.m.

New Racing Show

With the opening of Hollywood Park’s season Wednesday, Fox Sports Net 2 will begin carrying a two-hour show, “Trackside Live,” from 3-5 p.m. every race day (7-8 p.m. on Fridays). The show, offering four live races a day, will be produced by TVG, the horse racing channel that allows horse players to bet from their homes and is now being carried by Adelphia and the Dish Network.

Gone will be the popular “Hollywood Park Live” with Kurt Hoover and Mike Willman, although those two will be part of the new show.

Short Waves

Fox wants to make Joe Buck, Cris Collinsworth and Troy Aikman its No. 1 NFL announcing team, but there are some snags and an announcement is probably about two weeks away.... Bill Walton plans to attend 30 NBA playoff games in 30 days as part of a “Love It Live” tour. He’ll start out in Sacramento on Saturday and will be at Staples Center on Sunday. From each site, he’ll either work a game for NBC or file a report for NBA.com or NBA TV.

Recommended viewing: The second part of Lisa Guerrero’s interview with Barry Bonds will be shown on tonight’s edition of the “Best Damn Sports Show Period” on Fox Sports Net.... Fox Sports Net sure gave short shift to the halftime ceremony honoring the Minneapolis Lakers at Staples Center last week.... With NASCAR coming to Southern California next week for the Winston Cup Napa Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway in Fontana on April 28, a number of drivers will make appearances on “Wheel of Fortune” next week. Contestants will be NASCAR fans.

Radio Daze

Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian had baseball Commissioner Bud Selig taking calls from listeners on their “McDonnell Douglas” show on KSPN (1110) Monday, making for an interesting hour of talk radio. Then they negated the positive with a silly, contrived and phony feud on Wednesday. That’s typical. They put a Muhammad Ali impersonator on the air on April 1 without explaining that it was an April Fool’s joke. The impersonator, Kevin Lamp, the brother of former major league pitcher Dennis Lamp, was so good that a couple of callers thought they were talking to the real Ali. Their listeners aren’t too bright either.

In Closing

KSPN boxing expert Johnny Ortiz went on “McDonnell Douglas” Thursday and reported that Oscar De La Hoya will announce his retirement next week. If it comes true, Ortiz got a big scoop. But the report was denied by promoter Bob Arum and the De La Hoya camp.