J-Speaks: The Passing of The Iconic "Johnny Hoops"

For over 40 years, he was the astute, precise and pro of pros of National Basketball Association (NBA) color analyst, whose is best known for co-piloting both on radio and television broadcast of New York Knicks games for a little over three decades alongside one of the greatest play-by-play analyst in pro sports who most popular catch phrase when a player scored a basket while getting fouled is, “YES AND IT COUNTS!!!” He was a star on the college hardwood and then became a legendary broadcaster both locally in the “Big Apple” and nationally for Turner Broadcasting Station (TBS) and many years later talked shop on of NBATV’s first main programs in its infancy. For a decade, he called college basketball for NBC. He was one of the rare broadcasters in the NBA that never played or coached in the NBA. At the start of this week, the basketball world and the New York said goodbye to his treasured voice.

Longtime radio and television color analyst of the New York Knicks John Andariese, whose nickname was “Johnny Hoops” passed away on Monday at his home in West Palm Beach FL. He was 78 years old.

He is survived by his wife, the former Maureen Hayden. His three daughters, Amy McLaughlin, Julie Collins, and Emily Wright; four grandchildren and a sister Janet Cianci.

The New York Post had reported a week prior that Andariese, a native New Yorker, who was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 19, 1938 had been suffering from advanced dementia.

The New York Times had reported four days back that Mrs. Andariese said that the cause of her husband’s passing was complications of primary progressive aphasia.  

He received get well wishes during the nationally televised contest between the Golden State Warriors and the Knicks on ABC on Mar. 5 from current Knicks’ play-by-play commentator Mike Breen, former Knicks’ assistant coach and head coach Jeff Van Gundy and former Knicks’ lead guard, who also played his collegiate ball at St. John’s University Mark Jackson.

The Post also reported that Breen, whose first season as the Knicks’ main play-by-play analyst was Andariese last as a color analyst visited him at his home in Florida just 24 hours later.

The Madison Square Garden Network said in a statement: “We are very saddened by the news of John Andariese passing. John was a beloved broadcaster and New York icon whose love for the ‘City Game’ was second to none. He spent 34 years at MSG doing what he loved-calling Knicks games on radio and MSG Network0 and his voice will live on with Knicks fans forever.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver echoed those same sentiments in his own statement by, saying that, “John. ‘Johnny Hoops’ Andariese was a New York basketball legend who devoted his life to the game…His reassuring voice and extensive basketball knowledge endeared him to generations of New Yorkers. I knew John for over 25 years, and he was a dear friend and a mentor. He was incredibly kind with his time and taught me so much about the game and sports television…The NBA family mourns his passing.”

Mr. Andariese was a color analyst who combined a sense of humor with a knowledge of basketball that he could take you right into the action from the start of a telecast right on to the final horn.

One of the best examples of that was his call of the John Starks left hand dunk off a left right baseline drive in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals versus the Chicago Bulls at MSG, “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”

“So, big and look who’s at the top. None other than Michael Jordan and he couldn’t do anything about it. What a spectacular move,” Mr. Andariese said of game-clinching play that gave the Knicks a 2-0 series lead, but lost the series to the eventual NBA champions.

That was one of many descriptions of Knicks basketball that fans heard both on the radio and on the small screen and as mentioned earlier many of those calls from Mr. Andariese were alongside Marv Albert, who now is the main play-by-play analyst for the NBA on TNT.

“He was all basketball,” Albert said of his broadcast partner of 34 years on radio and television once in an interview. “He was in very good shape for a long time, and he was always looking for a game. One of his thrills was on game day at Madison Square Garden-he’d play on the court with Garden employees.”

To put into perspective Mr. Andariese’s love for the game of basketball, for decades he would make his own portable record of the NBA each season when he would meticulously cut out the box scores of each game and tape them into a schoolboy notebooks. Some of those books he would tote to games for his own reference.

“I have cases of them,” Mrs. Andariese said to The New York Times. “I’d get up at 2 a.m., and he’d be cutting out box scores and highlighting articles.”

Mrs. Andariese said to The Times that for one of her husband’s birthdays she built him a regulation NBA court in their Montgomery, NY property.

“It had old-fashioned glass backboards, and he had a ball-retrieving thing that kept the balls from going into the cornfield,” she said. “He loved it. His friends would go out and shoot with him.”

This incredible love, joy, and respect for the game of basketball began for Mr. Andariese when he played collegiately at the Fordham University Rams under coach Johnny Bach, the longtime assistant to current Knicks president Phil Jackson when they were with the Chicago Bulls in the early 1990s.

In his four seasons at Fordham from 1956 to 1960, Mr. Andariese was a three-time All-City player, who led the Rams to two National Invitational Tournaments (NIT) and as team captain in his senior season averaged 13.0 points and 8.7 rebounds per contest.

Over the years when they attended dinner events and other appearances, Mr. Albert would always jokingly introduce Mr. Andariese as the “53^rd leading rebounder in the history of Fordham.”

Upon graduation, Mr. Andariese would serve the United States in the Army and played basketball professionally for the Allentown Jets of the Eastern Professional Basketball League, which would later be named in the Continental Basketball Association.

Mr. Andariese broadcasting journey began with calling collegiate games for NBC Sports and was one of the first to do for ESPN beginning in the 1968-69 season.

Four years later, Mr. Andariese was hired by the Knicks organization as a radio analyst for the 1972-73 season, the Knicks second title in franchise history. He would team up with Mr. Albert, who had been the play-by-play announcer since 1967.

Mr. Albert recalled that one of their best memories was when they traveled to Los Angeles, CA for Game 1 of the 1973 NBA Finals between the Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers was when he and Mr. Andariese was go to the famed Pauley Pavilion, home of the then powerhouse UCLA Bruins, who led by the legendary head coach John Wooden.

During Game 1 of The Finals, Mr. Albert said that Mr. Andariese had one of best moments of his career when he had the opportunity to interview actor Peter Falk at intermission.

“Any time we were in L.A. or New York, Falk would come over to us to look at the halftime stat sheet,” Mr. Albert said.

The dynamic duo would co-pilot Knicks games on the airwaves for WNBC-FM from 1972-74; for WNEW from 1974-76 and from 1982-84; for WPAT for the 1984-85 campaign and for WNBC for the 1985-86 campaign.

Mr. Albert and Mr. Andariese would bring their great chemistry to the small screen for MSG from 1986 to 1997 and would go down as one of the very best and most memorable in the eyes of all Knicks fans.

“When I think of all the years. All the broadcast that I worked with John. His love for the game. His knowledge of the game. The unique ability to be able to break it down for the fan and his sense of humor come to mind to me,” Mr. Albert once said of Mr. Andariese.

In the early part of his broadcast career with the Knicks, Mr. Andariese also did color commentary for the NBA on TBS from 1984-86. He and play-by-play analyst Skip Caray, who son Harry Christopher “Chip” Caray III served as the play-by-play man for the Orlando Magic from 1989-96 and currently in that same role for the Atlanta Braves of MLB did the broadcast of the 1985 between the Philadelphia 76ers versus the Boston Celtics and 1986 Eastern Conference Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks versus the Celtics for TBS. He would later co-host a show called NBA2Night with current play-by-play analyst for the NFL on CBS Greg Gumbel.

Mr. Andariese as mentioned earlier would be the television color analyst for one more season for the Knicks on MSG working alongside Breen in the 1997-98 NBA campaign.

After being replaced by Knicks legend and Hall of Famer and two-time champion with the Knicks Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Mr. Andariese would go back to calling Knicks games on the radio for the next 14 years, rejoining Mr. Albert, as well as working alongside the likes of Mike Crispino, Gus Johnson and Spero Dedes for WFAN, WEPN and WEPN-FM, before retiring in 2012.

“After what seems like a lifetime behind the microphone and having the good fortune and privilege to be part of nearly 40 years of Knicks’ history, I’ve decided it’s time to step away to spend more time with my wonderful wife Maureen, my three beautiful daughters and my four grandchildren,” Mr. Andariese said then.

“I’ve been blessed to be able to cover one of the greatest sports teams on the planet, one of the most knowledgeable and passionate fans. It’s now time to shift focus to my family and my position as CEO of TVI Media. I’m grateful to MSG Networks and the Knicks for giving me this wonderful opportunity and for all the love and affection shown to me by our New York basketball savvy fans, who have been such an important part of my life. I’m pleased beyond words to have been able to share my enthusiasm and passion for Knicks basketball with them. I’ll miss you all.”  

In 2014, Mr. Andariese was given one of the greatest honors an NBA broadcaster could get when the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted him as the Curt Gowdy Electronic Media Award for Outstanding Lifetime Coverage of Basketball.

When Mr. Andariese received this great honor four years ago, he was joined by Albert and Breen, the two men who sat alongside him in front of the camera and on the airwaves calling Knicks games.

Along with working as the CEO and founder of TViMedia, an advertising sales company in Manhattan, NY, Andariese, he also hosted one of the first main shows on NBATV called, “NBA Legends with Johnny Hoops,” which was broadcast from the NBA Store on Fifth Ave. in New York, NY.

On the show, Mr. Andariese would sit down with some of the true legends that have made the NBA what it is today from Hall of Famer of and five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers Earvin “Magic” Johnson to Knicks’ Hall of Famer Willis Reed.

It was on this show that you learned a great deal about certain key moments in the career of these great legends like from Reed when he said to Mr. Andariese of that famed walk from the locker room onto the court at MSG during warmups of Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals on May 8 of that year, which had the crowd going crazy, “That was a scary moment John. That’s not a thrilling moment.”

Reed, who missed Game 6 because of a severe thigh injury and torn muscle hit the first two shots, which would be his only points of the game and the Knicks would go on to win and capture their first ever title.

On Monday, the NBA and Knicks fans said goodbye a true voice of basketball. A man who knew the game inside and out. Who co-piloted many of Knicks broadcast with two of the best play-by-play men in sports in Marv Albert and Mike Breen. A man who brought to life what you heard or saw on the NBA hardwood and brought to life for all fans to see and hear. He was a wonderful, husband, father, and gentleman to whoever he met, like this proud blogger who got a chance to meet him 11 years ago, when I got a chance to cover a Knicks versus Indiana Pacers matchup at MSG.

Having a chance to converse with “Johnny Hoops,” who was a rare analyst that never played or coached in the NBA was an amazing experience and I learned a lot from him a short quick conversation that most people will never get in their lifetime.

John Kenneth Andariese was a New York treasure who could commentate and analyze a game in such a way that you thought you were hearing poetry in motion and it was a beautiful experience each time you heard him speak. That if anything is what will be missed.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 3/15/17 5:30 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia Motors with Rick Kamla, Caron Butler and Sam Mitchell, with commentary by Jeff Greenberg; 3/14/17 Newsday article, “John Andariese, Longtime Knicks TV-Radio Analyst, Dies at 78,” by Neil Best; 3/14/17 New York Times article, “John Andariese, Knicks Broadcaster Known as ‘Johnny Hoops,’ Dies at 78,” by Richard Sandomir; www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2985-nba-eastern-conference-finals-76ers-versus-celtics; www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1986-nba-eastern-conference-finals-bucks-versus-celtics; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Reed#Second_championship; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_NBA_Finals#New_York_Knicks and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Andariese.