LOS ANGELES -- Lakers announcer Chick Hearn walked out of a
hospital on Wednesday, 16 days after breaking his hip, and said
he'll be back behind the microphone by the end of the month.
The 85-year-old Hearn said his rehabilitation from
hip-replacement surgery was ahead of schedule. He credited his
speedy recovery to the team, hospital medical staff and fans who
sent get-well mail.
"I'm around the basketball players -- young men -- all the time,
and I do think it has a definite effect on my life," said Hearn,
the voice of the Lakers since the team moved from Minneapolis in
1960.
"I guess I think I'm as young as they are. In some cases, when
I see them try to dribble, I know I am," Hearn joked outside
Valley Presbyterian Hospital.
Hearn gave Kobe Bryant a little ribbing a few hours before the
Lakers' star was to return to the lineup after a two-game
suspension for fighting with Indiana's Reggie Miller.
"Kobe found out that he is a basketball player and not a
boxer," Hearn said. "If he gets a little brain implant, he'd be
better off."
He quickly added that the 23-year-old Bryant's temper simply got
the better of him.
Hearn had announced 3,338 consecutive Lakers games -- dating back
to 1965 -- before he had heart-valve replacement surgery in
December.
On Feb. 17, when he was still recovering from that surgery, he
slipped and broke his left hip while getting out of his car. Two
days later, surgeons replaced the ball that connected the femur to
his hip socket.