Post#5 » by JulesWinnfield » Wed Mar 15, 2017 3:55 pm
Im a day late with this but didn't see it posted and i just heard about it 10 minutes ago...John Andariese passed away at age 78. Knicks fans of a certain age will remember him as a long time color man on tv and radio, mostly working with Marv Albert. NBA fans of a certain age will remember him doing work nationally in the past with TNT and ESPN. When ESPN briefly had the NBA in the early 80s before losing it for nearly 20 years, he was their first color commentator. He was the lead color commentator for the 1985 and 1986 Eastern Conference Finals on TBS. Above all though, he was a constant presence on MSG network for the Knicks, remaining so even after Clyde Frazier moved over from radio to TV and took his job as the lead color commentator for the network at some point in the late 90s
I had the fortune of meeting Johnny hoops a couple times and he was an incredibly nice guy. At the end of the day he adored the sport of basketball and it shined through. If you did as well, it was hard not to like him
RIP Johnny Hoops