If you grew up in Los Angeles, as I did, you just lost a close friend. Chick Hearn, the play-by-play announcer of the Lakers, died yesterday. He broadcast 3,338 consecutive games, from 1965 until last year, and invented phrases that define today’s game—air ball, slam dunk, finger roll, garbage time. He was the voice of the Lakers and of Los Angeles, and in lots of homes, kids heard him speak more than their fathers. It’s no fun when childhood legends pass away.
Author: Peter Maass
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.
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