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As he sits in the broadcast booth to call another Los Angeles Lakers’ game, Spectrum SportsNet analyst Stu Lantz often pulls out his wallet.
Then, Lantz will see a photo of Chick Hearn, the Lakers’ famed play-by-play broadcaster who called the games for 42 years over 11 title runs. After working with Hearn for 15 of those years, Lantz received Hearn’s press badge shortly after his passing in 2002.
When the Lakers (12-9) host the Phoenix Suns (12-8) for the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday (Spectrum SportsNet, 7 pm PT), Lantz undoubtedly will pull out his wallet to look at Hearn’s press pass.
“I don’t go anywhere without it,” Lantz told Sportskeeda. “It’s right next to my driver’s license.”
Lantz shared various memories about Hearn, witnessing the late Kobe Bryant’s career-high night (81 points) and final game (60) and more.
Editor’s note: The following one-on-one interview has been edited and condensed.
Stu Lantz on his bond with Chick Hearn, witnessing Kobe Bryant's 81-point explosion & LeBron James' scoring record
You’ve called so many memorable Laker games over the years. Which ones stick with you the most both for the accomplishment and the atmosphere?
Lantz: “There were more than a couple. Kobe’s 81-point game sticks out tremendously. Then, Kobe’s last game where he got 60. That sticks out quite a bit. But there are also a couple that Chick had missed because he had open-heart surgery. He missed a little bit of time. His first game back after the surgery, that was very, very touching. The reception he received from the 19,000 plus fans that were there when they said he was back and doing the game, he received a standing ovation. That really touched me tremendously.”
How did you wrap your head around Chick’s long streak of calling games? (Hearn called 3,338 consecutive games in the regular and postseason, a stretch that lasted from Nov. 21, 1965 to Dec. 16, 2001 before having heart surgery.)
Lantz: “Doing anything for that long is remarkable. But what he did was truly amazing. He took such pride in what he did. He took such pride in not missing any games. In my 15 years with Chick, there were a lot of games that he should not have been working. He was either not feeling well, or his voice went completely gone. There were two occasions where at halftime, he had lost his voice completely and they had to replace him. I moved over to his chair in one game. I had Magic [Johnson] come up and sit in my chair. Another time, I had Derek Fisher and came up to my chair as I moved into Chick’s. The streak was very, very important to him.”
What was it like to be in Chick’s chair during those times?
Lantz: “I didn’t like it at all (laughs). I told him many times that what he did was unbelievably difficult. Sitting in his chair when he’s around is not a comfortable feeling at all. It’s not a comfortable feeling at all. Maybe it would’ve been different if I had some background in play-by-play. But I never ever had done any play-by-play. To go from one half of having Chick do it to the second half of having me do it, was quite enlightening (laughs). It was quite embarrassing, to be quite honest. I was so in awe of what he did and how he did.”
When you say it was enlightening, what did you learn?
Lantz: “I learned how hard it was. I learned there would be no one, no disrespect to anyone that I worked with in the past and am working with now, but there is no one that can do that job as well as Chick. He was just remarkable. That job was made and created for him. Whoever created radio and television play-by-play announcing for sports, especially for basketball, obviously had a picture of Chick in their mind. It was definitely him.”
Whenever he felt under the weather, what things did Chick to do still power through and call the game?
Lantz: “He was such a remarkable talent. It’s like in the acting field. When the red light goes on, you can forget everything else because that’s when you have to go to work. That pretty much sums it up for Chick. There were times that I’m thinking the game is about to start, and there is no way he’s going to be able to play. Then that red light would come on. It was like he was somebody else. He was the Chick of the microphone. I remember one time when his daughter was very ill and about to pass away, he was not with it at all. We would talk, and his mind was completely somewhere else. But the red light went on, for those couple of hours, he was Chick Hearn the announcer and not necessarily dealing with anything off the floor. So, all of those things add up to why he was and will always be the best ever.”
I understand this is tough to ask because there’s so many choices. But what’s your favorite ‘Chickism?’
Lantz: “Oh my goodness, gracious! When you think of all the things that he put out there, I don’t know how anybody can come up with just one. He had all the terminology for basketball. The ‘refrigerator’ is really good. ‘He can’t throw a pea in the ocean,’ for example. How do you come up with stuff like that just off the top? It’s not like he sat home and was trying to think of things to say. All of these things were just the spur of the moment. ‘Words-eye view,’ all of these things were when he was doing radio only. His ‘words-eye view’ was so that the people who were listening could also see the game through his call.
Oh man (laugh). The list of Chickisms, I don’t know how many there are. But every announcer that does basketball repeats some of the stuff that Chick has created. ‘No harm, no foul;’ ‘the charity stripe,’ – I use that all of the time. I remember him saying, ‘A referee made that call in braille.’ When there was a shot that appeared to go in and then rolls and rolls and comes out, he called it ‘a heartbreak.’ He was truly creative.”
Another tough one. What’s your favorite Chick memory that made you smile or laugh the hardest?
Lantz: “Oh my goodness. One that has left me smiling or laughing the hardest, there have been quite a few of those. Chick would often say, ‘I’m working alone now.’ He had said something right before that made me laugh so hard that I had to take my headset off. I didn’t want to do that on the air. So I’d take my headset off. Then he’d say, ‘Now I’m working alone!’ I couldn’t respond to that because I’m still laughing. He was so talented. He could’ve been a stand-up comedian if he wanted to.”
I asked Bill Macdonald for his memories about calling Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game. What do you remember most about that day starting from before the game, calling the action and witnessing Kobe’s historic night?
Lantz: “I didn’t really think about things going into the games, per se. That’s the beauty of live sports. It’s all happening in real-time. I can’t create any kind of verbiage or whatever to go along with real-time. It hasn’t happened yet. I have to wait until it happens. That’s sort of what Chick always did. We would come up with all of these things in real-time. I didn’t process stuff ahead of time. Things that I processed ahead of time were things like when Chick came back from his heart surgery and I knew he was going to be working that night. That was a very nervous day for me, just with the anticipation of him coming to the arena and sitting in his chair and he and I talking for so long before the game and seeing his lovely wife, Marge, and talking to her. Those are the things that I would prepare for then. As far as the job itself, I didn’t prepare mentally for something special to happen. It just happened in the moment.”
Lantz: “It happened in the second half when he continued to be him (laughs). Like you said, this wasn’t the first time he did something special. Kobe scored 62 points against Dallas (Dec. 20, 2005) and didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t that unusual for him to go off like that. He had that ability. More than anything, he had that mindset. He was so focused on what the job was. During the game, that ‘Mamba Mentality’ totally took over.”
The context of Kobe’s 60-point game was different because we knew it would be special since it was his final game. But when do you recall that Kobe would have a historic performance then?
Lantz: “I really didn’t know. I knew he was going to go out with a real bang, so to speak. He wanted his last game to be a memorable one (laughs). But I don’t know if he even envisioned what he did in his last game. That last quarter, he was running on fumes. He was dead tired. But yet he kept it up and kept it up. Talking to him after the game, he almost didn’t believe that he could finish the game like that!”
How would you describe the emotions and atmosphere with witnessing LeBron James breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record?
Lantz: “At the beginning of the season, I knew it was going to happen. It wasn’t something that was a complete surprise. What was a surprise was LeBron’s longevity to do it. Years ago, I was one of those who thought that record would never be broken because nobody is going to play that long and certainly play at a high quality that long. As LeBron always does, he’s able to do incredible things. I remember him coming out of high school before he got into the league. All we heard about was this kid from Akron- ‘LeBron James.’ I kept saying to people, ‘I feel sorry for him because there is no way he can live up to all of the hype!’ Not only did he live up to the hype. He exceeded the hype, and he still does! It’s just a remarkable feat for LeBron. Every point that he scores is a new record. It’s amazing to see what he’s doing.”
You’ve received praise over the years for hitting the sweet spot on these various things: having chemistry with Chick and his various successors; offering insight from a former player’s perspective and being candid with both your praise and criticism. What’s been the key to excelling in those areas?
Lantz: “I just think it’s about being honest. When you do what I do, it’s almost thinking like, ‘Are you going to believe what I tell you, or are you going to believe what you see?’ If I try to cover up and say something is happening and your eyes are telling you something different, then I lose credibility. I have to be as honest as I can be. But my job isn’t to do like some, and that’s to embarrass the players. I try to never embarrass players. But I still have to be as honest as I can be. I think that’s one of the reasons why Chick said at one point, before we got together, that if the opportunity ever presented itself he wanted to work with me. I thought he was just being Chick and being a nice guy. But true to his word, it happened. He gave me the call, and we went on from there.”
You received the 75th Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award for your 36 years as the Lakers’ on-air analyst. What does that honor mean to you?
Lantz: “It means a tremendous amount to me because it puts me in the same sentence with Chick and Vin [Scully]. Any time you have done something that they have done, you have to be quite proud.”
What was your reaction when you heard the news?
Lantz: “It was kind of a surprise (laughs). It was a big surprise. They tricked me into going to Spectrum for something they wanted me to do. Then when I got there, they sprung that on me. It was a big, big surprise. I don’t know how I processed it at the time because I was in such shock. They have it documented. They filmed the reaction. As I reviewed the footage of that, I looked at myself and said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing there. I look like a zombie just walking around not understanding what’s being said.’”
Mark Medina is an NBA insider for Sportskeeda. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.
Also read: "I beat ya!": Lakers' play-by-play announcer Bill Macdonald on calling Kobe Bryant's 81-point game, racing with him, Chick Hearn and more (Exclusive)
