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For these legends, announcing hasn't gotten old

In what read as a casual comment, the 75-year-old broadcaster said the plan was for this season to be his last. Lawler, who has called Clippers games since 1978 and slides over to radio when the team's games are televised nationally, said he hadn't made a final decision but is contemplating retirement.

Fans' reaction was instantaneous: OMG.

"I was just planning to text-message a friend in Sacramento," Lawler said, "and it wound up all over the darned Twitterverse."

He pulled the tweet and explained he wasn't declaring this his farewell season, just voicing thoughts he has considered for probably a decade. But he acknowledged he's going year to year, weighing the joys of the job and the excitement of the Clippers' long-awaited ascent against the grind of living out of a suitcase and maintaining a relentless pace much of the year.

"It's a real hard tightrope to walk," Lawler said.

"I think of Chick, who I've known since I was literally a little boy in Peoria, Illinois. He worked right to the very end and well into his 80s and I did not want to do that," Lawler said. "My wife and my family deserve more than that from me."

"The funny thing is, especially for Ralph and myself and lately for Vin, all of a sudden all three of us have got exciting teams and there are years when that didn't happen," Miller said. "And now you think, 'Maybe now is not the time to leave.' We've got teams that are contenders. The Dodgers, the Clippers, the Kings — it's exciting."

Helene Elliott, LA Times