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I'm sure you know, but some may not, that Chick was the Lakers' VP of Player Relations for some time. In 1982, the Lakers left it up to him to choose between James Worthy, Terry Cummings and Dominique Wilkins for the first pick in the NBA Draft. Chick chose Worthy. I think you'd be hard pressed to find an announcer that had the effect on a sport the way Chick did. Slam dunk, air ball, leaping leana, finger roll, sky hook are just a few everyday basketball terms that Chick coined.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find an announcer that had the effect on a sport the way Chick did.

I had heard about his VP job some time back and was told of the James Worthy call. A rather splendid one at that, but Hearn had at least the grace of objective judgment. I have also read in places that, in his years with the St. Louis Cardinals, Harry Caray was said to have had a little too much pull so far as whom the Cardinals kept or dumped, and that enough of it came as much from personal likes or grudges as baseball judgement: if you got on Harry's bad side in those years, you could all but kiss your Cardinal career goodbye even if you were one of the league's top players.