Marv Albert

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Marv Albert bigraphy, stories - Television and radio broadcaster

Marv Albert : biography

June 12, 1941 –

Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig; June 12, 1941) is an American sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he is commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball." From 1967–2004, he was also known as "the voice of the New York Knicks."

Including Super Bowl XLII, Marv has called the play-by-play of six Super Bowls, NBA Finals and seven Stanley Cup Finals. He has also called the Wimbledon Tennis Championships for TNT with Jim Courier and Mary Carillo. He also worked as a co-host and reporter for two World Series (1986 and 1988).

Albert currently works for Turner Sports and CBS Sports. He serves as lead announcer for NBA games on TNT, calls regional NFL games on CBS, and also calls NCAA tournament action for CBS and Turner.

Early life

Albert was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, where he went to Abraham Lincoln High School.Corcoran, Tully. , The Topeka Capital-Journal, October 26, 2007. Accessed September 17, 2009. "Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., is to high school basketball what Odessa Permian High School, in Texas, is to high school football. Basketball rules there. Stephon Marbury starred there. Marv Albert went there. Even Jesus Shuttlesworth, the fictional baller played by Ray Allen in He’ssic Got Game went there. Kansas coach Bill Self may be spending a bit of time there in the next year, too. Lance Stephenson, a 6–5, "395"-pound junior guard from Lincoln who is the No. 4 overall player in the class of 2009 recently contacted Self about his interest in Kansas." While growing up, members of Albert’s family owned a grocery store on Brighton Beach Avenue between 3rd and 4th streets known as Aufrichtig’s. He then attended Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications from 1960 through 1963. He then graduated from New York University in 1965.

Family

Albert’s son, Kenny, is also a sports commentator, who calls baseball and football for Fox, New York Rangers games on the radio, and has been one of NBC’s commentators for ice hockey at the Winter Olympics, as well as NBC’s NHL coverage. His daughter, Denise, is a reporter for NBA TV.

Marv has two younger brothers who also are announcers. Steve Albert is currently the Phoenix Suns play-by-play announcer, and has also called play-by-play for several other teams, including the New Orleans Hornets, New Jersey Nets, New York Islanders, New York Mets, and Golden State Warriors. Steve is best known for his work on Showtime Championship Boxing, notably the Holyfield-Tyson bouts. Al Albert was the former play-by-play announcer for USA Tuesday Night Fights, the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets. Al also called national NBA games on the USA Network during its brief tenure in the early 1980s.

Sexual assault charges

Albert became the focus of a media frenzy in 1997, Albert went on trial for felony charges of forcible sodomy. A 42-year-old woman named Vanessa Perhach accused Albert of throwing her on a bed, biting her, and forcing her to perform oral sex after a February 12, 1997 argument in his Pentagon City hotel room. DNA testing linked Albert to genetic material taken from the bite marks and from semen in Perhach’s underwear. During the trial, testimony was presented from another woman, Patricia Masden, who told the jury that Albert had bitten her on two different occasions in 1993 and 1994 in Miami and Dallas hotels, which she viewed as unwanted sexual advances. Masden claimed that in Dallas, Albert called her to his hotel room to help him send a fax, only for her to find him wearing "white panties and garter belt." Albert maintained that Perhach had requested that he bite her and denied her accusation that he’d asked her to bring another man into their sexual affair. He described the recorded conversation of hers with the police on the night of the incident "an Academy Award performance." After tests proved that the bite marks were his, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery charges, while the sodomy charge was dropped. Albert was given a 12-month suspended sentence.