Whether Hearn was the most famous Laker of them all can be debated, but his career with the team was far longer than such standouts as Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jamaal Wilkes, James Worthy and Michael Cooper.

And he was calling games long before current stars Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were born.

Hearn called a record 3,338 consecutive Lakers games starting in 1965 before missing one because he had to have an operation in December 2001 for a blocked aortic valve.

While recovering, he fell and broke his hip.

Hearn returned to work April 9 and broadcast the Lakers' playoff run to their third consecutive NBA championship.

He called his first Lakers game in March 1961. His last game was June 12 when the Lakers beat the New Jersey Nets 113-107 in East Rutherford, N.J., to complete a sweep of the NBA Finals and earn their ninth title since moving from Minneapolis in 1960.

During the finals, he told The Associated Press he was getting stronger every day and planned to work at least one more season. And he said he believed his call of the Lakers' Game 7 victory over Sacramento in the Western Conference finals might have been as good as any in his career.

As recently as last week, he drove to Las Vegas with his wife to speak at a fantasy basketball camp.

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