Return of Lakers’ Sixth Man

It was a little bit after 5 p.m. Two hours before the sellout crowd at Staples Center stood and cheered for half a minute and waved cutouts with his face on them.

Long before the eggs were coolin’ or the jello was jigglin’, the butterflies were fluttering and the lozenge was settling.

Chick Hearn was anxious about Tuesday night’s broadcast of the Lakers-Utah game. Imagine that.

The man has called play-by-play for Laker games since 1961. But he had not sat behind the microphone since Dec. 16. One hundred thirteen days, a heart surgery, a hip replacement, and 56 days later, he was at it again.

Not just another broadcast.

“I think he’s very nervous,” Marge Hearn, his wife, said. “I think the nervousness might affect his voice. I wish he’d just settle down.”

His voice sounded low and scratchy during a brief pregame chat. (And I do mean brief. First two, then four red-jacketed Staples Center security guards surrounded his broadcast area to keep well-meaning fans and reporters from talking to Chick and wearing out his precious vocal cords).

Hearn had a bright smile and the eyes of a 7-year-old at his first Laker game. But the voice was barely audible.

“It’s a little down,” he said while juggling a cough drop with his tongue. “It’ll be back up.”

Somehow, it always is when the camera goes on. It’s remarkable that anyone in his 80s can be so enthusiastic about anything.

But this is what Chick does.

“He loves it,” Marge said. “He might as well come back and give it another shot.”

“This environment keeps him feeling young,” Stu Lantz said. “That’s what he needs. He needs this environment. He needs to be around Shaq and Rick and Kobe and all the guys. He feeds off of that.”

In return, he’s fed his “word’s-eye view” to multiple generations of Laker fans. His voice had become a constant sound of the game, like the squeaking of sneakers on the court.

“He is the organization,” Kobe Bryant said. “He’s been here longer than everybody. He’s more a part of the Lakers than we are.”

Listening to Hearn’s voice describe highlights while on hold during calls to the Laker offices reminded me how much he was missed. Seeing him back in his usual spot Tuesday night showed how much he belongs there.

“It feels like dad’s back home,” said Sheron Bellio, producer for the Lakers’ pre- and postgame radio shows on KLAC.

It has been a difficult year for the Laker icons. Shaquille O’Neal, the centerpiece on the court, has been beset by bad toes, a wrist injury and now indications that the anti-inflammatory medicine he takes has affected his internal organs.

“I’ve gotta take it,” O’Neal said of the medicine. “If I can’t take it, I can’t play up to the level that I’m used to playing at.”

In Miami on Sunday, he said he had tests taken on his liver and kidneys.

“It came back OK,” O’Neal said. “ Not great, but it came back OK.”

At Tuesday’s shootaround, he said: “Your [organs] are probably great, because you probably don’t take pain medicine. I’ve been taking it for 10 years. There’s really nothing to worry about. But it’s not like my son’s, who has great kidneys.”

For a guy who constantly jokes about retiring in a couple of years (he has been saying it for five years now), this could a reason to seriously consider leaving early. But he said the potential organ damage isn’t scaring him off.

“Because I don’t see myself going for more than five years, so I don’t think about it,” O’Neal said. “In the last two years, I’ve only taken them when I’ve needed them. This year, I’ve needed them. Last year I really didn’t take them that much. I’m OK. I’m not worried that.”

That should comfort Laker fans. But they’d better brace for life without Chick Hearn.

“I think next year will be his last year,” Marge Hearn said. “I mean, you can’t go on forever. Everything comes to an end.”

Yes, everything. Even Hearn’s streak of calling Laker games, which reached 3,338 games before he had his heart valve replacement surgery on Dec. 19.

It’s difficult to imagine Hearn withstanding the rigors of NBA travel any longer. King play-by-play announcer Bob Miller thought about that during a recent trip through customs at the Vancouver airport, as he tried to imagine Hearn enduring the same delays and hassles when the Lakers go to Toronto.

The decision should be strictly Hearn’s. He earned that right, oh, about 20 years ago.

The one development to come from Hearn’s absence was the discovery that Paul Sunderland is a capable replacement.

“As I move aside--as I rightfully should--I’m really grateful to the organization for giving me this opportunity,” Sunderland said Tuesday night as he returned to his role as the pregame host on Fox Sports Net.

“It’s like Kobe loaned me his new Ferrari for four months.”

That’s a good analogy, because Sunderland grew into his role like a sports car accelerating onto the freeway. He was skilled enough that NBC has used him for NBA broadcasts, but the radio side of Hearn’s simulcast duties was new to him. By the end of his stint he was up to speed on radio keeping the listeners informed of the little details and matching his pace with the flow of the game.

He kept the seat warm for him only in the figurative sense.

Out of deference to Hearn, Sunderland refused to sit in Chick’s actual chair at Staples Center, so it was put into storage until Tuesday night.

Hearn brought back his favorite major appliance, too. With 8:40 left in the fourth quarter and the Lakers ahead by 28 points, Hearn uttered the line every Laker fan loves to hear:

“This game is in the refrigerator.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected].