A Lakers title is no slam dunk, but Chick Hearn would have loved it

Lakers haven’t won a championship since their longtime broadcaster died, and he hasn’t been forgotten by his widow or the fans.

L.A. Times: The other day Kobe Bryant was saying he just “missed some bunnies” in the first game of the NBA Finals, or as Chick Hearn would’ve been telling us, “Marge could have made those shots.”

It doesn’t seem so long ago, but it will be six years this week, Chick doing his final Lakers broadcast after 42 years behind the microphone, a championship-clinching victory over the New Jersey Nets.

Two months later a fall in his backyard led to his death.

“If he was still here, he would have been so happy, I don’t think he could have stood it,” Marge says. “I think he would have finally had his heart attack.”

What a hoot. Marge, about to turn 91, married for almost 64 years to Fran, as she still refers to her high school sweetheart, and as feisty and original as the voice who once worked 3,338 consecutive Laker games.

“We were soul mates,” she says. “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds like us.”

The same might be said about Chick and Lakers fans, everyone knowing just what he meant when he would say, “He’s in the popcorn machine,” or who he was talking about when he would mention “The Big Fella.”

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