Whether or not you're a basketball fan, if you're a lover of the language of sports, you should note the passing of Chick Hearn, the Los Angeles Lakers' longtime play-by-play man. Hearn, who died on Tuesday at the age of 85, spent 42 years calling Lakers game (including an incredible 3,338 consecutive games), and even if you never got to hear him broadcast, you've heard his work.
Hearn's language added color not just to the sport of basketball, but to sports culture in general; terms he's credited with creating or popularizing include "slam dunk," "air ball," and "no harm, no foul." Several other phrases of his have also stuck: "Caught with his hand in the cookie jar," "He faked him into the popcorn machine," and my personal favorite, ""You can put this one in the refrigerator. The door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard and the Jell-O is jiggling.'" ESPN's obituary does a nice job of running down several "Chickisms" as well as the highlights of the man's career. The world of sports will miss him.
