On August 5, 2002, the sports world and the Los Angeles Lakers organization lost a legend. Chick Hearn passed away at the age of 85 leaving the Lakers without the iconic voice that had been calling games since 1965.
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Recently, on an episode of Jeopardy, a contestant chose a question from the Basketball Hall of Famers category. The following question was asked by Jeopardy host Alex Trebek:
Trebek: This Legendary Lakers Announcer Who Popularized The Term ‘Slam Dunk’
Even though every die-hard Lakers fan would’ve hit the buzzer without hesitation, these three contestants had no idea what the answer was, via Instagram:
A video posted by Ryan Ward (@lakers_examiner) on
Along with broadcasting 3,338 consecutive games for the Lakers at one point, Chick was forced to break the streak in 2001 to have cardiac bypass surgery. Hearn coined numerous phrases used on a daily basis in the NBA. Here are a few of phrases Chick made famous during his time as the Lakers announcer:
-“Slam dunk”
-“Air-ball”
-“Charity stripe”
-“Dribble-drive”
-“Garbage time”
-“Give and go”
-“Matador defense”
-“No harm, no foul”
-“Ticky-tack foul”
These are only a few of many terms Hearn coined during his run with the Lakers. Only Vin Scully of the Los Angeles Dodgers can be mentioned in the same breath as Chick in terms of iconic sports announcers in this country, but for some reason, these Jeopardy contestants were clueless when posed with this trivia question.
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