Marv

Edgy MD
Jul 05 2021 08:56 PM

Marv Albert. Unmistakable. Hit his marks and cadences. Ridiculous but not unselfaware. Knew his business. Stupid hairpiece. Not quite as humorous as he seemed to think he was, but seemed to have a Paul Schaeferesque intentional oiliness that he deployed. Tried really hard to be in on the joke within a joke that was the metahumorous theme of David Letterman, but not quite successful, and so was even funnier when Chris Elliot played him.

Certainly no stretch to call him a sex criminal. I mean, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor certainly isn't nothing. And his reporter's detachment seemed to come from a genuine personality detachment sometimes. And yet he defined a landscape from which sprung our two long-time play-by-play guys — both, not coincidentally, Jewish guys from the outer boroughs. On-field reporter for (most of? all of?) the 1986 post-season run.

Marv Albert. What are your thoughts?

Fman99
Jul 05 2021 09:47 PM
Re: Marv

Forgot about all the pervo stuff. I am thinking that's his best case scenario for a lot of regular moes like me who don't follow pro basketball or hockey.

TransMonk
Jul 06 2021 08:29 AM
Re: Marv

=Fman99 post_id=70381 time=1625543257 user_id=86]
...regular moes like me who don't follow pro basketball or hockey.

Loved his radio calls for the NFL on Westwood One, but I never followed the NBA or NHL enough to get mega doses of Marv either. My first association when his name is mentioned is the sex stuff...though I know he is one of the icons of broadcasting.

Benjamin Grimm
Jul 06 2021 08:48 AM
Re: Marv

I mostly know Marv from his appearances with David Letterman. The "Albert Achievement Awards" which would highlight the "wild and wacky".

This segment, at least, isn't as wild or wacky as I seem to remember them being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw6TxGOSPvs

Edgy MD
Jul 06 2021 09:06 AM
Re: Marv

Hubie Brown, then Knicks coach, had to head in to the doctor in for heart observations one season. And the rest of the season, whenever Brown would yell at a ref, Marv's voice would drop as he ominously chided, "Watch the ticker, Hubie!"

It was perverse and ridiculous, but like much of the Letterman world he intersected, there was something strangely sublime in the repetition, and how it helped to make the Knicks games a world unto themselves.

I can't fully describe it, and I hesitate to call it good, but it's the kind of act you can work out when you're given the rope of play-by-play man for an established (but sixth-most-popular) sports team in town, or the host of a cheap talk show with a lousy time slot.

kcmets
Jul 06 2021 09:30 AM
Re: Marv

Marv is on New York's Mount Rushmore right between Murph and Suzyn.

But seriously; Marv, Mel and Murph is a good start. Who else am I missing?

Let's do five, so ours is bigger and better than the one in South Dakota lol...

Willets Point
Jul 06 2021 09:37 AM
Re: Marv

My main association with Marv Albert is the emphatic "YES!"

MFS62
Jul 06 2021 09:41 AM
Re: Marv

Marv is on New York's Mount Rushmore right between Murph and Suzyn.

But seriously; Marv, Mel and Murph is a good start. Who else am I missing?

Let's do five, so ours is bigger and better than the one in South Dakota lol...

Marty Glickman (basketball, football), who Albert considered a mentor. Or John Sterling (basketball and baseball) - although one or two announcers may have used "downtown" to refer to a long basket, it was John who first used it specifically for a three -point basket, and it later became one of Marv's famous calls.

Later

kcmets
Jul 06 2021 09:57 AM
Re: Marv

Glickman, of course!

Edgy MD
Jul 06 2021 10:03 AM
Re: Marv

It also gives you alliteration: Marv, Murph, Mel, and Marty.

Chad ochoseis
Jul 06 2021 10:18 AM
Re: Marv

=kcmets post_id=70393 time=1625585410 user_id=53]
Marv is on New York's Mount Rushmore right between Murph and Suzyn.

But seriously; Marv, Mel and Murph is a good start. Who else am I missing?

Let's do five, so ours is bigger and better than the one in South Dakota lol...

Red Barber is before my time and probably before everyone else's time as well, but from what I know about him and from recordings I've heard, he definitely belongs.

kcmets
Jul 06 2021 10:26 AM
Re: Marv

Agreed, that's a hell of a face mountain. Now if we could only make the stone talk...

seawolf17
Jul 06 2021 11:05 AM
Re: Marv

You kinda have to put Scooter on there too, no?

kcmets
Jul 06 2021 11:33 AM
Re: Marv

Thought of Phil too, then a little devil on my shoulder whispered 'no huckleberries.'

Willets Point
Jul 06 2021 11:34 AM
Re: Marv

You kinda have to put Scooter on there too, no?

HOLY COW!

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gS27G_Cj5qQ/hqdefault.jpg>

Frayed Knot
Jul 06 2021 01:25 PM
Re: Marv

Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jul 07 2021 03:23 AM

The other thing that Marv did, which has gone unmentioned in the tributes/wrap-ups of his retirement, was to hold down the sports segment on the local nightly news back when that was one

of the more visible jobs to have in sports broadcasting. It was that which spawned the Albert Achievement Awards and the Letterman appearances etc. but it's tough to remember now what a

plum job that was back then before essentially being replaced by SportsCenter which itself is a dying entity these days thanks to streaming (and sometimes screaming) video.

But Marv's main association is always going to be not just with the Knicks but with those Knicks of the late-60s/early 70s. It's what his age contemporaries plus the generation after him knew

him for and no other NYK team before or since has been nearly as popular or remotely as good. The Ewing teams which at least went to semi-finals and finals were ugly to watch, were only

somewhat good, and had rosters which weren't one-tenth as popular. Marv had a wide resume but that one association dwarfs all the rest.

P.S. Scooter a bit too much of a novelty/clown show to sit up high among the others mentioned above.

Edgy MD
Jul 06 2021 08:13 PM
Re: Marv

Of course he is. Red Barber changed the way New Yorkers speak.

It is interesting how many legendary New York sportscasters came out of the south: Barber, Allen, Murphy, McCarver, Lindsey Nelson, Warner Wolf (from DC, but it was a southern city back then), and Russ Hodges all come to mind.

G-Fafif
Jul 06 2021 09:19 PM
Re: Marv

Marv couldn't have been nicer to this then-ten year-old when I bothered him for an autograph while he was eating dinner with his family (including, upon reflection, young Kenny) at the Garden's STH restaurant.

To be fair, our family had his voice as our regular dinner guest during those championship seasons.

Lefty Specialist
Jul 07 2021 06:28 AM
Re: Marv

The thing about Marv is that he would bring excitement. I could never listen to a Marv broadcast without getting a bit excited, even if it was a blowout between two teams I didn't care about. His voice conveyed urgency in the play-by-play, which always drew me in when I listened. He was best in a continuing action game like basketball for that reason. Marv wouldn't have been good in all the dead air that is baseball. Gary brought up the good point that back in the day, the Knicks didn't broadcast their home games on TV. So you HAD to listen to Marv on the radio. That's where a whole generation of Knick fans in the 60's/70's learned to love him.

G-Fafif
Jul 08 2021 07:21 PM
Re: Marv

June 18, 1977: NBC rearranged its GOTW schedule so New Yorkers that Saturday could see their favorite pitcher pitch in Montreal, albeit for Cincinnati. Assigned on the fly to deliver Tom Seaver's start to heartbroken Mets fans and other onlookers were two familiar personalities to soothe the shock — Marv Albert on play-by-play, Art Shamsky on color. They did a creditable job,