CLEVELAND – Those of you who have read this space a time or two know that it is the view of this writer-and sometimes-broadcaster-that our radio and television choices as sports fans are based just as much on who’s calling a game as they are on who’s playing in one. Thus, I was more than a bit interested when the American Sportscasters Association came out earlier this week with its list of the 50 greatest sportscasters of all-time. Now, I recognize that the sport with the most history in this country is baseball, and the sport with the biggest television audiences in the modern era is football; also that this is a subject that reasonable folks-and lots of others-can disagree about. But I read the list, checked it twice, and somehow can’t get away from the conclusion that basketball announcers got snubbed, and badly so. Now, other groups got snubbed too. The deepest dividing line in the industry being between “professional journalists” and “ex-jock analysts,” it is equally obvious that analysts were snubbed, across all sports. But this is a basketball publication, so let’s focus on basketball.
Ok, the top three are purely baseball, still-active Vin Scully, Mel Allen, and Scully’s mentor Red Barber. Fourth on the list, Curt Gowdy played basketball, but as an announcer he is best known for football and baseball. Not a coach or player nor a play-by-play announcer, verbose Howard Cosell is fifth, best known for boxing, football, and speaking authoritatively on things he knew nothing about. Sixth is Mickey Mantle’s biggest fan Bob Costas; seventh track and field and other Olympic sports announcer Jim McKay (whose best work wasn’t sports at all, when terrorists kidnapped and then killed members of the Israeli team in Munich in 1972). Eighth is Keith Jackson, much better known for college football than the NBA, and ninth is baseball turned football announcer Al Michaels. It is not until the tenth spot that an announcer is named arguably more closely associated with basketball than any other sport, Dick Enberg (“Mr. Oh My”). (And how many Super Bowls did Enberg call, and how many years did he spend calling Angels’ games?).
Moving down the list, Marv Albert at no. 17 is probably most known for basketball, as is the late Chick Hearn at no. 21. The recent television voice of college basketball, Jim Nantz, is no. 24. Then, of all things, the first basketball analyst listed is Bill Walton at no. 39, followed closely by Dick Vitale at no. 47. And a truly great basketball announcer from the long line of Syracuse graduates in the business, Dick Stockton, is on the list at no. 48.
Now as to the missing. No, ESPN’s Dan Shulman is probably too young, and former MLB voice Sean McDonough may be also, though both are great on television basketball. In another era Jim Thacker called zillions of ACC games wonderfully for years (remember “Jim Thacker and Billy Packer”), though his audience was regional. And while a certain announcer we all love may be best known for college and pro football, sweet-sounding Verne Lundquist remains awfully good on basketball (he trained analysts Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers, as well as Terry Bradshaw, Dan Fouts and Pat Haden).
So who’s really missing? On the play-by-play side, venerable Ron Franklin-who we still hear on ESPN’s Big 12 telecasts-called Final Fours on radio beautifully for a long time. And the greatest basketball radio announcer in history, basketball’s version of Jack Buck who called Michael Jordan’s games in Chicago and now is NBA lead for ESPN Radio, Jim Durham, should be in the top ten rather than nowhere to be found. Most of you recall the brilliance of CBS when its producers moved ex-player and virtuoso analyst Pat Summerall over to play-by-play, reinventing television sportscasting with his minimalist style. Well, Durham is to basketball radio what Summerall was to football television, that is, a wonderfully succinct minimalist. (And yes, Summerall should be no. 1-ahead of Scully-rather than no. 45).
And then there are the analysts. Hubie Brown is, in this writer’s opinion, the greatest analyst in history, of any sport, and missed the list (how did Walton make it and Brown not make it?). And while some folks don’t like him personally, it is clear that Billy Packer invented the television analyst position for college basketball (and called 34 consecutive Final Fours). Much more the analyst to Dick Vitale’s showman, Packer gave us a ton more than Vitale ever did (and respectfully, also a ton more than we’re getting now from Clark Kellogg). Well, Hubie and Billy shouldn’t feel too bad, since John Madden is only no. 29-and since the John Madden of baseball, Tim McCarver, also didn’t even make the list. Who did Bill Walton pay off? And in this writer’s opinion, the best college basketball analyst in television today, Fran Fraschilla, should have made the list.
Lastly, while lists like this tend to favor veteran rather than young announcers, two fairly recent additions to the profession should be mentioned-both of whom work primarily in the studio. First, as unfortunate as is his recent publicity in connection with alcohol, Charles Barkley has been a breath of fresh air in recent years, teaching us a ton in between wonderful-and often biting-humor. (I hope TNT is smart enough to give Barkley a chance to fix his recent problem, as NBC and others gave to Marv Albert not long ago in the wake of a much more egregious offense). And then there’s Bob Knight. Reminding this writer of Mike Ditka, or of his own close friend Bill Parcells, Knight could have been the greatest analyst in the history of college basketball any time he wanted to over the last twenty years, and even now can be that for an extended time if he so chooses. Brilliant, ruthlessly honest, beholden to no person or interest, dry, funny, sarcastic, a world-class teacher who loves the game, I hope Knight’s health and excitement sustain him for many years in his new profession (unless of course the St. John’s job should open up, and Knight have a taste to go back and coach some more).
