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<\/p>\nWhere to start in telling Chris Carrino\u2019s story? He was just named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a Curt Gowdy Media Award recipient for making a significant contribution to the game. It\u2019s the highest honor for a basketball broadcaster.<\/p>\n
You could begin with the cruel disease that afflicted a perfectly healthy 23-year-old more than three decades ago\u00a0and has put him in a wheelchair, forcing him to have a game plan for just getting dressed. But if you are trying to understand why he won the award, that\u2019s not the right place.<\/p>\n
No, you should start with Carrino\u2019s excellence at his craft. He has called Brooklyn Nets games on the radio for nearly a quarter-century, and his sound is as good as anyone in the sport. His play-by-play has the precision of a marksman and a rhythm that perfectly fits the 48-minute melody of squeaky high-tops, made baskets and the roars of crowds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m telling you, he\u2019s in the 1 percent club of the best,\u201d said Tim Capstraw, Carrino\u2019s longtime Nets radio partner. \u201cPeople who are in the business all say it. That\u2019s how high his talent is in terms of smoothness, capturing the moment and his humor.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Carrino received the call from the Hall the other day that left him in disbelief, it did creep into his mind that maybe he was joining legends because of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD, a genetic disease that has weakened his muscles and for which there is no cure.<\/p>\n
He texted with his TV counterpart on the Nets, Ian Eagle, who told him he shouldn\u2019t feel any of that and emphasized that Carrino is being recognized for his excellence on the air.<\/p>\n
Eagle is right. You get into the Hall of Fame because of your ability, not your disability.<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old Carrino will be part of the induction ceremony in Springfield, Mass., this August. If you want to know why Carrino has received the honor, just fire up WFAN the next time the Nets play.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris understands painting the word picture on radio as well as anybody that\u2019s ever done it,\u201d said Eagle, who, along with his national gigs, had laid down the same legacy on TV with the Nets as Carrino has on the radio. \u201cHis voice perfectly fits basketball play-by-play.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1980, in the New York City suburb of Yonkers, Carrino\u2019s father brought home a tape recorder from his job as a recording engineer for a sound effects and stock music company. Carrino started doing play-by-play, emulating the greats at the time, like Marv Albert, Dick Enberg and Charlie Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always tell people that the key to life is to do something that you did for fun when you were 10 years old,\u201d Carrino said.<\/p>\n
As a kid, he was a pretty good baseball and basketball player, but his ability to speak led him to be a high school debater, where he went on to become a national finalist for Iona Prep.<\/p>\n
Eight years after receiving the tape recorder, Carrino was a freshman at Fordham. While schools like Syracuse and Ithaca College are renowned for their sportscasters, Fordham is something of a feeder school to New York broadcasting stardom, dating back to Vin Scully and including current-day headliners, like Mike Breen, Michael Kay and Ryan Ruocco.<\/p>\n
It was legendary sports broadcaster and native New Yorker Marty Glickman, a 1936 Olympian and the first Gowdy Award winner, who basically created sports radio play-by-play as an art form, with terms like \u201cthe key\u201d for the paint and \u201cswish\u201d for a perfect shot. From an era without million-dollar contracts, Glickman later taught at Fordham, and in 1988, there Carrino sat in the back of Glickman\u2019s class, inspired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew two things at that moment,\u201d Carrino said. \u201cI want to call games. And the other thing was: \u2018I don\u2019t know anything about it. I have to listen to this guy.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Glickman\u2019s mantra was to \u201cconsider the listener,\u201d and Carrino quickly developed a good ear for his own words, realizing what he should say, when and how.<\/p>\n
Carrino graduated from Fordham in 1992, determined to continue the school\u2019s broadcasting tradition and make his own name.<\/p>\n
A year out of school, he didn\u2019t feel right; an unusual weakness was overcoming his body. He would unexpectedly be diagnosed with FSHD, a disease not every doctor even knew about.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, he distinctly remembered going for physical therapy without even knowing if it was the right thing to do. The therapist spoke broken English, and so he wasn\u2019t fully sure if she understood his condition. But she said someone from her home country had FSHD. He was tall, like Carrino, and was a good basketball player. Carrino asked if he still played.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she replied. \u201cHe\u2019s in a wheelchair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrino was taken aback \u2014 and had a new goal to go along with his career ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom that moment on, I was trying to outrun the wheelchair, because I always thought, \u2018That would be the end,’\u201d Carrino said. \u201cThat would be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
To win the Gowdy Award and make the Hall of Fame, you start with ability, but basketball, broadcasting and life are team sports for everyone. To completely understand why Carrino won the award, this is where you have to end the story \u2013 with his support system.<\/p>\n
Carrino has his own version of a triangle offense that made the Gowdy Award possible. It starts with his wife, Laura, his rock. She has supported him in every way and pushed him at the right moments.<\/p>\n
It is aided by his broadcast partner, Capstraw, who, on and off the air, is like the player who does all the little things alongside Carrino.<\/p>\n
And it is inspired by his son, Chris Carrino Jr., who has the ability to take everything in stride.<\/p>\n
Laura grew up in Park Slope in an Irish family that didn\u2019t leave a thought unspoken. She met Chris Carrino on a blind date in 2000. Carrino was 30. He already had FSHD but was doing his best to hide it.<\/p>\n
Laura noticed something a little off in his gait when he walked up to her second-floor apartment. Carrino explained what was going on to her early, but there was still one more conversation that had to take place as the two-year courtship moved toward an engagement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018I just want you to know that there is a 50-50 chance that our offspring could have it,’\u201d Laura said with emotion in her voice a quarter-century later. \u201cThat was probably the hardest thing for me. I sat down and said, \u2018This is where I have to really decide, do I love this man enough to stay or do I have to go?’\u201d<\/p>\n
They were married in 2002.<\/p>\n
Carrino began as the Nets\u2019 lead radio play-by-player for the 2001-02 season, when the Jason Kidd-led team made it to the franchise\u2019s first NBA Finals. In Carrino\u2019s second season, Capstraw would join the on-air crew as the Nets again reached the Finals but fell short of a title.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Tim Capstraw joined Chris Carrino on the Nets radio broadcast in 2002. (Courtesy of Laura Carrino)<\/p>\n
Carrino\u2019s ability was evident to any listener. The star on the radio is the play-by-play announcer, but Carrino avoided canned catchphrases to draw more attention to himself and not the game. Instead, he immediately considers the listeners\u2019 desire to see the action through his words and adds exclamations to plays with a simple \u201cGood\u201d that he draws out with some extra \u201cO\u2019s\u201d for good measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lessons he learned from Marty Glickman are on display every time he\u2019s on the air,\u201d Eagle said.<\/p>\n
Carrino and Capstraw have become an all-time New York sports radio duo. But their teamwork extended far outside the booth.<\/p>\n
The 65-year-old Capstraw \u2014 who played and coached at Wagner College \u2014 does all the things that don\u2019t show up in the box score. As Carrino\u2019s condition worsened, Capstraw would help his partner up and down airplane stairs and get ready for games.<\/p>\n
With Carrino\u2019s upper-body strength gone, his falls meant trips to the emergency room; Capstraw would be there with him in the ER. The stories of Capstraw\u2019s commitment to his teammate are endless.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the most selfless person that you could ever meet in terms of humility, in a profession that it\u2019s hard to stay humble, be humble and that doesn\u2019t reward humility,\u201d Carrino said.<\/p>\n
In 2004, the Carrinos had their only child, Chris Jr. The father couldn\u2019t pick up his son out of the crib, Laura said, but he gave his son a different gift.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just the most positive person,\u201d Laura said. \u201cNo matter what happens, he\u2019s just like, \u2018It\u2019s going to work. It\u2019s going to be fine.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with that attitude, Chris Sr. needed support as his physical condition worsened. One day in 2010, he took a half-hour to get out of a diner booth and Laura\u2019s family roots took hold.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my family, I\u2019m Brooklyn and I\u2019m Irish, we talk about it,\u201d Laura said. \u201cWe yell. We scream. We talk about it. We figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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