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Basketball fans know (if they do not, pity them) what a gift Chick Hearn was to their game. But what made him truly great was that, if you were radio station surfing and not a basketball fan, you still couldn't pass by when Chick Hearn was on the air. As Vin Scully does with baseball games, Chick Hearn simply made it impossible for you to dislike basketball while he was on the air. That, ladies and gentlemen, is an artist. Praised be Thou, O Lord our God, for not making this good man suffer an unconscionable length of time.

Thanks for making me listen, too, Mr. Hearn. You made this year's NBA playoffs a treasure for me, though basketball is not my primary game interest. And I will miss you. For a life lived well, and often in spite of too many senseless sorrows (I understand one or two of his own children died some years earlier), you go to your reward a winner - and for such a winner, there is but one valedictory...your own, pronounced on so many victories over so many years:

Well, Chick's game is in the refrigerator. The door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard, and the Jell-Ooooooooooooo's jiggling.

And something unique has gone from our world...

Great tribute, BD. I started listening to Chick during the Lakers' record-breaking, championship season of '72 (when his color man was Lynn Shackleford), and I haven't missed many of his broadcasts since. Never met the man, but felt I did. He'll be greatly missed by many. May he rest in peace, and may God bless his wife Marge and the rest of his family.

Before recently, Chick had an unbelievable streak of missing only 1 day of work in 36 years. But he had another streak that not many knew about. As far as I know, when he put a game "in the refrigerator," it always stayed there......except once. (It happened so long ago that I forgot the game). Ever since then, whenever he put a game in the fridge and the Lakers were on the losing end, I rooted like mad for a comeback --- not just because I wanted to see the Lakers win, but I wanted Chick to be wrong....just one more time. And I was always disappointed.

"Well, Chick's game is in the refrigerator. The door's closed, the light's out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard, and the Jell-Ooooooooooooo's jiggling."

Goodbye to a great man.