His streak has survived more bouts with colds and hoarseness than he can remember, a couple of near-brushes with pneumonia, snowbound airports and missed plane connections.
Friday night, Chick Hearn called his 2,500th consecutive game for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers-Cavaliers broadcast surely would consist of
”Hearnisms” like these:
”Scott makes a great fake, puts Nance in the popcorn machine, he`s covered with butter and salt . . . No harm, no foul, no blood, no ambulance . . . ”
And, ”The mustard`s off the hot dog . . . he`s yo-yoing . . . a leaping Lena . . . Put this one in the refrigerator, the butter`s hard, the eggs are cooling . . . ”
Hearn is credited with adding a number of phrases to the basketball lexicon, or at least popularizing such terms as ”slam dunk,” ”throws up a prayer” and ”doesn`t draw iron.”
”Those things just popped out,” said the Aurora, Ill., native. ”You know, like, `Put him in the popcorn machine.` I couldn`t say on the air what we used to say when I was playing and somebody faked another guy out.”
Hearn, who is 60ish but refuses to divulge his age, last missed a Laker game in November 1965, when he had a conflicting assignment to work a football game in Arkansas. He`s missed just two games in 32 years with the Lakers and is the only play-by-play man they`ve had since moving to Los Angeles from Minneapolis in 1960.
He`s very proud of his streak, emphasizing, ”That`s consecutive-don`t forget, consecutive.
”I had a lot of colds, a lot of near pneumonia, nausea; I always worried particularly about nausea. But, like the players say, you have to play hurt.”
