As Hearn’s sidekicks, they got a kick out of their jobs

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.

Between them, the former Bruins worked as mostly silent partners with the lexicon-expanding Hall of Fame broadcaster for 15 seasons, Shackelford for seven in the 1970s and Erickson for eight in the “Showtime” era a decade later.

Seated next to probably the most beloved figure in Lakers history, they enjoyed front-row access to teams that won five NBA championships and featured such larger-than-life stars as Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not to mention one Francis Dale “Chick” Hearn.

And, every now and then, they even got to speak.

“He was not easy to work with, not easy at all, because it was his show,” Erickson says of Hearn, the Lakers’ announcer for 42 seasons before his death in 2002.

“But,” he interjects, “it was a great experience.”

With the action moving left to right across our radio dials, or vice versa, Erickson and Shackelford may have felt superfluous at times, but that doesn’t mean they were any less enthralled.

“There were times when I’d said, ‘Gosh, maybe I’m not really needed here,’ and that could be frustrating,” Shackelford says. “But it was a lot of fun too. I mean, the guy was immensely talented and quick and sharp, a one-of-a-kind. . . .

“I kind of sat there sometimes and just admired the talent. And I’d think, ‘Jeez, they’re paying me to sit here and listen to all this and to learn all this.’ It was pretty impressive.”

Says Erickson, who played five seasons with the Lakers in 1968-73 and counted Hall of Famers West, Chamberlain and Baylor among his teammates, “Being able to see the things they did day in and day out was absolutely remarkable -- and it was the same thing working with Chick. It was a great thrill.”

Erickson, 65, and Shackelford, 61, both say they came upon their Lakers broadcasting gigs almost by accident.

Shackelford, who won three NCAA titles playing alongside Abdul-Jabbar at UCLA, may never have signed on as a Hearn sidekick if his pro career had lasted more than 22 games with the ABA’s Miami Floridians in the 1969-70 season.

“I didn’t have anything going,” Shackelford says, “so I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds like fun.’ ”

He was hired after meeting with Hearn and then-owner Jack Kent Cooke, who insisted the announcer needed a partner.

“Cooke always told me that he said after the interview, after I’d walked out of the room, ‘I want that young man,’ ” Shackelford says. “Well, what he really wanted was somebody he could pay cheaply -- $12,500 a year was my starting salary -- and would man the phones in the summertime trying to sell season seats.”

Shackelford, who also served as the team’s traveling secretary, was preceded in the job by Al Michaels, ex-Laker “Hot Rod” Hundley and Dick Schaad, none of whom stuck around long.

Hired in 1970, Shackelford stayed on through the 1976-77 season before taking a job as sports director at Channel 9.

“Jack Kent Cooke,” he notes, “was very frugal, shall we say. In seven years, I’d gone from $12,500 [a year] to $19,500.”

He was irked when Pat Riley, his inexperienced replacement, was hired at an annual salary of $20,500.

Erickson, meanwhile, launched a broadcasting career at about the same time. After helping UCLA win NCAA titles in 1964 and ‘65, he played 12 NBA seasons, averaging 9.5 points and 4.5 rebounds and winning a championship with the Lakers in 1972.

In 1979, he was working NBA telecasts on CBS when the Lakers called and told him they needed a “temporary” replacement for Riley. Coach Jack McKinney had been involved in a near-fatal bicycle accident, assistant Paul Westhead was taking over as coach and Riley was moving to the bench as his assistant.

Riley, of course, never returned to Hearn’s side and Erickson stayed on through the 1986-87 season. Replaced by Stu Lantz, he later worked as an on-air analyst for the Phoenix Suns.

These days, the father of five is a business consultant. He lives in Santa Monica with Adrienne, his wife of 42 years.

Shackelford lives in Ojai with his second wife, Daralyn, and has worked in golf-course management for more than 20 years. He has one son from a previous marriage and four stepchildren.

The former commentators, echoing the thoughts of most Lakers fans, say the broadcasts aren’t the same without Hearn.

“For people who grew up in Southern California, and it’s the same with [Vin] Scully, he’s just irreplaceable,” Shackelford says. “The Lakers are Chick, and Chick is the Lakers.”

For Hearn’s on-air sidekicks, that knowledge was essential.

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jerome.crowe@latimes.com