NBC Rehires Marv Albert

NBC Rehires Albert
Marv Returns To The Network Less Than 2 Years After Firing

NEW YORK (AQB)--Marv Albert completed his comeback Tuesday, when NBC rehired him less than two years after the network had fired him following a guilty plea in a sex case.

"I'm just so happy to be back and to be part of the NBC situation," Albert said in a conference call Tuesday. "Just walking back to the [NBC] building at 30 Rock was a wonderful feeling - although the security guard did stop me for identification."

NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said he doesn't regret the firing. "We did what we thought we had to do at the time, but Marv has certainly done what he had to do in the interim." He explained that Albert had "worked very hard on dealing with different aspects of his life."

The 58-year-old announcer, who worked at NBC full time for 20 years before being fired, signed a multiyear contract in which he will call NBA games, boxing at the 2000 Summer Olympics and men's hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Of course, Albert also probably would play a role in NBC's proposed football league with Turner Sports.

The network has not determined his NBA partner; however, Ebersol said Albert will not replace Bob Costas on the network's first team with Doug Collins nor will Albert break up the existing teams of Tom Hammond, Steve Jones & Bill Walton and Mike Breen & Matt Guokas.

A possible analyst for the veteran play-by-play man is former partner and czar of the telestrator, Mike Fratello, who recently was fired by Cleveland. "He's somebody that obviously will receive serious consideration not only from us but I'm sure from Turner," said Ebersol, who added that he hasn't yet talked to Fratello.

For his part, Albert said he is fine with not being on the first team. "It's not even a factor. ... There will be plenty of national exposures. I'm very, very satisfied."

According to Ebersol, NBC plans to televise 55-60 games in each of the next two seasons. In comparison, NBC only had 24-25 regular-season telecasts when Albert left in 1997. Albert will call about 14-15 regular-season games for NBC as well as the first four weekends of the playoffs. He will make his on-air return to NBC in the fall, either in the studio or at a basketball game.

Albert, always a workaholic, will continue his current assignments with Turner Sports and the Madison Square Garden networks, which includes hosting a nightly sports wrap-up show and doing about 60 percent of Knicks games on radio.

"It really is not, if you look at it, a tremendous difference as opposed to what I did in the past," Albert said. "I really am keeping an eye on it because I don't want to do too much."

Financially, with all his commitments, "I'm about back to where I was [in 1997], which I'm obviously very happy about."

Ebersol said that since 1997, "it was my most earnest desire to be in a position to have Marv come back here during my watch at NBC, and I'm glad it's so early in the rest of, what I see, as my time at NBC Sports." However, he didn't make a move to sign Albert until he read reports a few weeks ago that Marv was in discussions with Fox.

"It was actually in the media that there was talks going on with Fox," Ebersol said. "It just said to me then, 'This is the time to move, or the opportunity will be three or four years away from us.' I picked up the phone, I think from Paris actually about three weeks ago, and called Marv and off we went."

Although they had been informally meeting for dinners since February 1998, contract discussions didn't begin until June 3.

Albert said he appreciated Fox's interest. "I love doing NFL and I was interested in what they [Fox officials] were talking about but, to me, the chance to do NBA on NBC plus the Olympics and [to] come home, I think, turned it in that direction."

Albert's last NBA national telecast for NBC was the NBA Finals in June 1997. Three months later, NBC fired Albert, after he pled guilty to biting a woman during a sexual encounter in a Virginia hotel room. He also resigned from Madison Square Garden network.

The broadcaster, as you might expect, doesn't like to look back at those times. "It's better to look ahead rather than look back and get involved with any issues regarding how the media handles things. ... I prefer to look ahead. Everything has gone in the right direction the last year or so, and I couldn't be happier about it."

A year-and-a-half ago, though, Albert wasn't sure he would be able to return. "I never took it for granted that all this would begin to fall into place. It was a distant hope."

He returned to MSG to host its nightly sports show on Sept. 14, 1998, exactly one year after his final broadcast on NBC, a Baltimore Raven-New York Giant football game. On Feb. 7, he returned courtside to do the radio play-by-play of the New York Knicks' home opener, his first NBA game in nearly 20 months.

Albert's Turner debut came on TNT's broadcast of the Los Angeles Lakers at Phoenix Suns on April 2. Now, with his NBC debut later this year, the comeback is complete.

"It hasn't completely set in," he said. "It's kind of a euphoria. It's kind of a weird, nice feeling."