Looking at the magnet I got at last night’s game got me wondering whether any team ever came back and beat the Lakers after Chick declared the game “in the refrigerator.” Does anyone remember that ever happening?
by texicali74
@Los Angeles Lakers
9 Comments
GOAT Announcer. Lakers broadcasts haven’t been the same without him.
I don’t remember watching it happen personally but it did happen once and as I recall he didn’t put games away so early afterwards.
I can’t find the broadcast but I found an old forum topic with some anecdotes.
https://www.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=121595
The Bulls did it, back in 1993. I was pissed!
The fun part was trying to guess when Chick was going to put it in the fridge.
Easily the greatest Laker ever
He put it away and they came back in one game that I watched. I think it was either Denver or Phoenix. He said if they came back and won that he’d walk home, and then they came back and won.
I remember it happening once in the early to mid 90s and it was a big deal
Another one of his announcing team use to call him chicky burger
I remembered it happened once. I can’t remember against who or when. But I remember Chick saying he was going to retire the refrigerator and come up with something new. He never did and he brought back the fridge a few games later.
I remember it happening a few times during the post-Magic rebuilding years, when the Lakers weren’t very good, and the team wasn’t winning as many games and didn’t have many decisive wins. That gave Chick fewer opportunities to put the ballgame in the refrigerator, so he started taking more chances with games that weren’t completely secure. I don’t remember the specific games, however.
On the flip side, he put the game in the refrigerator during the first quarter of a game against the Kings in 1987 when the Lakers were up 16-0. The Lakers scored the first 29 points of the game and the score was 40-4 at the end of the first quarter.
[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-02-05-sp-1036-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-02-05-sp-1036-story.html)
*Chick Hearn may have set a record, too, after Sacramento Coach Johnson called timeout with the score 16-0.*
*“The game is in the refrigerator,” Hearn solemnly told his listeners.*
*At the time, the teams had played a total of 3 minutes 47 seconds, thus giving Hearn his record entry: earliest pronouncement of a Laker win by broadcaster with a Hollywood star.*