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Pastimes : Basketball Junkie Forum (NBA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (753)	6/9/2001 6:33:23 PM
From: MythMan	Respond to of 2233

>>Ali weighed 160 3/4 pounds. Frazier-Lyde, who has lost nearly 50 pounds since she began boxing, weighed 164.<< Holy sH*t! they could both kick Kobe's arse -g-

To: Thomas M. who wrote (753)	6/10/2001 10:22:03 AM
From: MythMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2233

Finals are a return to the top for Albert "I never thought I'd be back" after a lurid trial, NBC's top basketball voice said. Like the 76ers' Allen Iverson, he's been beat up, hobbled, left for dead. And like the scrappy little guard with a past, NBC sportscaster Marv Albert has resurrected himself and regained a national stature that many thought irrevocably tarnished. Albert, NBC's top NBA play-by-play man for 20 years, is back doing the NBA Finals for the first time since 1997, when a highly publicized sex scandal led to his banishment from the airwaves. "I never thought I'd be back," he says quietly. "I didn't know what to think at that time." In September 1997, Albert was charged with forcible sodomy and assault after biting a woman on the back during a romp in a hotel room in Arlington, Va. Albert declared his innocence, and there was a trial featuring testimony of kinky sex, cross-dressing and Albert's hairpiece. He immediately became the punch line to jokes around the country. Three days into the trial, Albert pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. Within hours, he was fired by NBC, his full-time employer since 1977. Hearing the posse, Albert quickly resigned from cable's Madison Square Garden Network, where he had been the signature voice of his beloved New York Knicks and Rangers. At that point, nobody would have blamed Albert if he had gone home and curled up in the fetal position for, oh, the next decade. Instead, after an 18-month hiatus, Albert and his trademark "Yessssss!" were back in the game. First with MSG, then with Turner Sports and, in June '99, with the big boys at NBC. He returned to his No. 1 NBA spot at the beginning of this season, with ex-76er Doug Collins as his analyst. "I feel very fortunate, the way things have worked out," says Albert, who insists his age is 56. (Other sources list him as 60.) "I really appreciate things. Life couldn't be better." Returning to the NBA Finals "is the last step, if you're looking for symmetry. Standing on the court [before the opening game Wednesday], I thought, 'This is great.' I had come full circle." Though still a workhorse - he does the NBA for NBC and TNT, a nightly sports wrap show for MSG, and the Knicks for radio - Albert says he's slowed down a notch. He credits his wife of two-plus years, ESPN producer Heather Faulkiner, for the change. (How could we forget the image of her holding Albert's hand walking in and out of the Virginia courtroom?) "She's been very instrumental in guiding me in the right direction," he said. "In the past, it was all work. I had difficulty relaxing. I'm still working a lot, but I'm reflecting on other things that are important. That's the key." Back to Iverson, it's no wonder that Albert can relate to The Answer. "I've never seen a guy so resilient, with all the hits he takes and his style of play. It's very hard to find someone else to compare him to when you look back at NBA history." As for Albert, there's no looking back. He's exactly where he's wanted to be since he was in third grade. "I remember doing a composition where I said I saw myself as the voice of the Knicks and Rangers and a sports columnist for the New York Times. Two out of three's not bad."