August 2, 2002, Newsletter Issue #69: THE GAME IS IN THE REFRIGERATOR...

Tip of the Week

Chick Hearn may be the greatest pro basketball announcer ever, and he was voted California`s sports-caster of the year in February 1995. He had a streak of calling 3,338 consecutive Lakers games, between Nov. 21, 1965 and December 16, 2001. His 3000th consecutive game was Jan 19, 1998 He is the voice of an era , and has seen it all.
Here is a biography from the LA Times:
"In the `50s he was the local sportscaster in Peoria, Illinois, and was the voice of Bradley University and the Peoria Caterpillars. Born Francis Dayle Hearn, the Aurora, Ill., native began his Lakers broadcasting career in 1961. Chick was the first to describe the distance of a shot in feet."Also, he has invented many descriptive phrases, called Chick-isms. Here are a few of the ones that we use all the time.
Air ball=A shot the misses everything.
Charity Stripe=Free-throw line.
Dribble Drive=Drive to the basket while dribbling.
Finger roll=A shot where the ball rolls off the shooter`s fingers.
Fly-swatted=A shot blocked with a lot of force and authority.
Give & go=Give the ball to a team-mate & cut to the basket.
The mustard`s off the Hot-dog=A player attempts an unnecessarily showy, flashy play which ends up in a turnover or is otherwise unsuccessful.
And probably the most popular,
Slaaaaaam Dunk!!!=A dunk with authority, also Chick was the first to use the phrase "slam dunk".

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