The Los Angeles Lakers will hold a school supplies drive at tonight’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers in connection with their annual Chick Hearn Night.
Fans are asked to bring new school supplies to Star Plaza by the Magic Johnson statue in front of Staples Center beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Supplies sought include spiral notebooks, composition books, packs of college-ruled filler paper; folders; packs of dividers with tabs; boxes of pencils; boxes of blue or black pens; highlighters; pairs of safety scissors; manual pencil sharpeners; rulers; dictionaries; thesauruses; and calculators.
Donors will receive a Lakers prize.
All donated supplies will benefit the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Homeless Education Program.
All fans attending the game will receive a Chick Hearn T-shirt.
Since Hearn’s death in 2002, the Lakers have designated their home game closest to the Nov. 27 anniversary of his birth as Chick Hearn Night, which also includes the presentation of scholarships to two students attending the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Hearn was the Lakers play-by-play announcer from the start of their radio broadcasts during the 1961 NBA playoffs until his death. He coined many phrases, including slam dunk, which have transcended basketball into use in everyday life.
Hearn’s skill as an announcer is credited with helping turn the Lakers from a team that drew 4,008 fans for its first game in Los Angeles in 1960 to becoming one of the nation’s most popular teams at the time of his death.
Hearn was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
“He was the best basketball announcer ever,” Lakers television play-by- play announcer Bill Macdonald said, citing Hearn’s passion for the game, delivery, cadence, humor, knowledge, love of the team and honesty.
“We were just all lucky to grow up listening to him.”
