Here’s a little something that ties in nicely with an earlier entry about Billy Packer.
As Newsday columnist Neil Best wrote recently, Packer’s partner Jim Nantz stood up at a CBS press event and said if ESPN’s Dick Vitale receives a nomination to the Hall of Fame as a special contributor, then so should Packer.
Who, Nantz asked, has contributed more than Packer, who is about to call his 34th consecutive Final Four?
“Can you imagine anybody, in any sport, being around that long? As the primary voice of that sport? It’s astonishing.”
Nantz has a point. But the Hall is about politicking. While Dickie V loves to be loved, Packer doesn’t seem to care whether some consider him a misanthrope.
“He’s not trying to win you over. He doesn’t want you to be his friend,” Nantz added. “In every arena he goes into, people think he has some sort of bias against their school. Obviously, he must be doing something right.”
Verne Lundquist, who called Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beater against Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA tournament, seconded the nomination: “If you listen to him, you’ll know more about college basketball.”
If you have any more thoughts on BP, add them to our earlier entry.
