ON SPORTS MEDIA

Hubie Brown used knives, forks and tape recorders to stand in for Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard as he and Dr. Jack Ramsay conducted a makeshift chalk talk explaining why Orlando Magic center Howard struggled so much in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Ramsay also said that Bynum’s footwork impressed him and that Howard must have been frustrated when he could make only one shot.

And that Ramsay is here, 84 years old, sharp as ever, gently willing to teach players, reporters and fans happened only because Ramsay was talked into being in the crowded three-man ESPN radio booth.

During the regular season Ramsay does ESPN radio games with underappreciated veteran Jim Durham but now that it’s the Finals, ESPN television anchor Mike Tirico has taken over radio play-by-play duties and Brown, who also concentrates mostly on TV during the regular season, is an analyst.

“I didn’t want to do it,” Ramsay says. “What do you think? How does it sound? Three men on radio, I thought it was a bad idea but I let myself be talked into it.”

Whether Ramsay is the third man or the 300th, he’s a treasure. In Los Angeles you can hear Ramsay only if you have satellite radio but if you do, give him a listen.

Ramsay is a cancer survivor and has dealt stoically with his wife’s Alzheimer’s disease, but his sharp basketball mind and his curiosity about the world puts him on the road, has him watching tape and coming to practices in NBA cities even when he doesn’t have to.

Brown makes sure that Ramsay is prodded to speak. He nudges Ramsay in the arm, says ‘As Jack said, the other day,’ pokes Ramsay in the shoulder to talk about Bynum. So Ramsay starts speaking.

“Bynum has some good foot moves,” he says, “better than Dwight Howard. He just needs to get confidence, needs more experience, more touches. He’s only playing 20 minutes a game. But Andrew’s got some skills.

“I watched him while he was rehabbing last year and he was at a shoot-around, he and [Sasha] Vujacic I think.

“They’re shooting off the apron, threes, from the corner, and Bynum is shooting those like free throws and hitting a pretty good percentage.”

For nearly an hour Saturday, Ramsay and Brown discussed basketball, including how to adjust going west to east or east to west.

Brown noted that today’s players don’t have to get up at 4 a.m. to catch commercial flights or wait for their luggage.

And Ramsay, in a way both clear and honest, said he would like to see Howard start relying more on his head and less on his abundant physical skills.

“He didn’t adjust to what the defense was giving him,” Ramsay said. “The Lakers were taking away the middle. He never looked to see where the defense was, if you feel nobody is on your right side or your left side but they’re in the middle, why go there? He kept doing that.”

So the conversation continued, about history, geography, basketball and footwork and it’s a conversation that will continue on the radio and however you can find it, it’s worth finding.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com