Marv Albert

I'LL BET YOU HAD NO idea who Marv Albert was.If you are reading this, I can guess a few things about you. And one of the things I can guess is that you could not have picked the "Voice of the New York Knicks" out of a police lineup.Until, of course, he was actually in a police lineup and his sex life started making headlines in the only section of the newspaper your teen-age son reads.And suddenly, of course, you found yourself in the awkward position of explaining rough sex, oral sex and cross-dressing to kids who have barely enough information to get their imaginations around the concept of the missionary position.

As the Eliot Spitzer-prostitution scandal followed a now-familiar script this week - hastily called news conference, terse apology to family and the public, stricken wife at his side - and ultimately culminated in his resignation yesterday, a nation inured to this kind of public drama had only one question left unanswered. What do you have to do to earn $5,500 an hour, the highest figure charged for the Emperor's Club women? And do you have to wear anything special? After podium appearances by the powerful to answer charges of gay sex, not-quite sex with interns and airport bathroom sex, we all know more than we need to know about the intimate lives of public officials - except that one important fact: Is it worth it?

To the suggestion that maybe he's working a bit too hard and that he should kick back a little and smell the sneakers, Marv Albert says get that shot out of here.2 If so, you really ought to get out more often.

You've no doubt heard that it's better to be lucky than good, but in Dick Vitale's case, a considerable bit of both qualities have served him well.Vitale, whose college and professional basketball coaching career didn't exactly set the world afire, happened to be available at the same time a new all-sports channel called ESPN was starting up in 1979.The channel needed someone it could call its own, an identifiable, perhaps even larger than life presence, while Vitale needed work. The two interests dovetailed nicely, and 18 years later, ESPN is perhaps the most recognized sports voice in the United States, and Vitale is one of the most important figures in sports broadcasting.

Fern policy is in trouble when the big news is that Bill will submit to the Senate a treaty he signed a year ago.What's keeping the U.S. stock market up is panic money gushing out of Thailand and Indonesia. It will move on.What this country needs is one campaign finance law for Democrats and another for Republicans. Or, maybe, has.Marv Albert is a broadcast media guy pushing the envelope for what newspapers print.Pub Date: 9/24/97

FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, these are confusing times. In a global sense, with communism fallen, communications have never flowed more freely. Yet in the United States -- model of democracy for the world -- fears increasingly arise about indecent expression, particularly as it affects young people.The Supreme Court weighs obscenity on the Internet. Maryland officials propose a ban on investments in music companies that produce "gangsta" rap. Television comes under attack for airing so little programming fit for children.

It arrived just in time for the NBA Finals. At first, I wasn't sure about the purchase, but what sports fan can be without a Marv-o-meter?Maybe I should have ordered that three-CD set from K-Tel, "Boxcar Willie and Slim Whitman Meet Godzilla and Rhodan." But, in the name of research, the Marv-o-meter is more important.You see, Marv Albert is calling the NBA Finals for NBC, and some are inclined to believe that his play-by-play will reveal a bias for the Knicks, for whom he's long been a local announcer.

WASHINGTON -- I'd never even heard of Marv Albert. As a girl child, I had a V-chip installed in my brain that blocks out TV sports and their announcers.This man dribbled his way on and off the national screen without leaving a single imprint, let alone toothmark, on my consciousness.And if there's anything I know less about than professional basketball, it's that other indoor sport invariably referred to as kinky sex. Is that when you do it with the lights on?But for the past week, the subject du jour and de la nuit was Marvin: the man, the teeth, the hairpiece, the garter belt, the guilty plea.

First things first: He doesn't sound much like his father.That may be what people want to know most about Kenny Albert, voice of the Baltimore Skipjacks on WLIF (1300 AM) and son of Marv Albert, voice of football, basketball, hockey and boxing for NBC and other broadcasting outlets.Kenny has that droopy-lidded Albert look, but, hearing him on radio and forgetting his lineage, a listener would surmise only that the Skipjacks are fortunate to have a fine, young announcer who happens to come from New York.

CBS and Fox have wasted no time sniping at each other over interpreting NFL ratings, and the real season doesn't even start for three weeks.In case you've forgotten, Fox has lifted broadcasts of the NFC from CBS, where they had rested for 38 years, for a crisp $1.25 billion over the next four years.CBS numbers cruncher David Poltrack lau- nched an attack late Monday, claiming Friday's Fox broadcast of the San Francisco-Denver game, which garnered a 6.5 rating and a 13 share in national Nielsen ratings, was 20 percent below a San Francisco-San Diego game last Aug. 28.(Let's pause for the first official "On the Air" numbers explanation: Each national rating point equals 942,000 homes, while shares measure the percentage among homes where a television is in use.)

FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, these are confusing times. In a global sense, with communism fallen, communications have never flowed more freely. Yet in the United States -- model of democracy for the world -- fears increasingly arise about indecent expression, particularly as it affects young people.The Supreme Court weighs obscenity on the Internet. Maryland officials propose a ban on investments in music companies that produce "gangsta" rap. Television comes under attack for airing so little programming fit for children.

WASHINGTON -- I'd never even heard of Marv Albert. As a girl child, I had a V-chip installed in my brain that blocks out TV sports and their announcers.This man dribbled his way on and off the national screen without leaving a single imprint, let alone toothmark, on my consciousness.And if there's anything I know less about than professional basketball, it's that other indoor sport invariably referred to as kinky sex. Is that when you do it with the lights on?But for the past week, the subject du jour and de la nuit was Marvin: the man, the teeth, the hairpiece, the garter belt, the guilty plea.

I'LL BET YOU HAD NO idea who Marv Albert was.If you are reading this, I can guess a few things about you. And one of the things I can guess is that you could not have picked the "Voice of the New York Knicks" out of a police lineup.Until, of course, he was actually in a police lineup and his sex life started making headlines in the only section of the newspaper your teen-age son reads.And suddenly, of course, you found yourself in the awkward position of explaining rough sex, oral sex and cross-dressing to kids who have barely enough information to get their imaginations around the concept of the missionary position.

Fern policy is in trouble when the big news is that Bill will submit to the Senate a treaty he signed a year ago.What's keeping the U.S. stock market up is panic money gushing out of Thailand and Indonesia. It will move on.What this country needs is one campaign finance law for Democrats and another for Republicans. Or, maybe, has.Marv Albert is a broadcast media guy pushing the envelope for what newspapers print.Pub Date: 9/24/97

Say this for Marv Albert: He is cool under pressure.Albert, NBC's lead NBA announcer who faces arraignment today in an Arlington, Va., courtroom on felony sodomy charges, worked his two Eastern Conference final games over the weekend without either mentioning his difficulties or showing any strain from them, displaying occasional flashes of wit.That Albert, who has called NBA games on the radio and on television for 30 years, would perform so well under...

Just on the common sense face of it, there really doesn't appear to be any way that Marv Albert can work any more basketball games this season for NBC.Albert was indicted Monday on felony sodomy charges in Arlington, Va. Even allowing for the constitutionally mandated presumption of innocence until guilt is proven, and his adamant denial of the charges, the fact is that his presence on NBA telecasts will cause the viewer to wonder why Albert is there....

You've no doubt heard that it's better to be lucky than good, but in Dick Vitale's case, a considerable bit of both qualities have served him well.Vitale, whose college and professional basketball coaching career didn't exactly set the world afire, happened to be available at the same time a new all-sports channel called ESPN was starting up in 1979.The channel needed someone it could call its own, an identifiable, perhaps even larger than life presence, while Vitale needed work. The two interests dovetailed nicely, and 18 years later, ESPN is perhaps the most recognized sports voice in the United States, and Vitale is one of the most important figures in sports broadcasting.

The easiest way to appraise NBC's bold acquisition of the U.S. television rights to the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, and the Winter Games in Salt Lake City two years later is to view it as a protective move.In the short term, that's a pretty good assessment. The Peacock network has denied the second most valuable piece of sports programming -- after the NFL -- to the other networks into the next century.NBC president Robert C. Wright and sports chief Dick Ebersol denied the other day that Disney's acquisition last week of Capital Cities/ABC was the driving force behind its quick gambit.

The easiest way to appraise NBC's bold acquisition of the U.S. television rights to the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, and the Winter Games in Salt Lake City two years later is to view it as a protective move.In the short term, that's a pretty good assessment. The Peacock network has denied the second most valuable piece of sports programming -- after the NFL -- to the other networks into the next century.NBC president Robert C. Wright and sports chief Dick Ebersol denied the other day that Disney's acquisition last week of Capital Cities/ABC was the driving force behind its quick gambit.

To the suggestion that maybe he's working a bit too hard and that he should kick back a little and smell the sneakers, Marv Albert says get that shot out of here.2 If so, you really ought to get out more often.