A RESOUNDING `YESSS!' FOR FANS.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

Before he reached halfcourt at Staples Center to do the opening for Game 1 of the NBA Finals just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, he had his powder-blue tie adjusted by well-wisher Paul Sunderland, received a kiss and hug from Ann Meyers and got a fist-bump from partner Doug Collins.

Marv Albert was back doing an NBA Finals broadcast. And all seemed right with the sports world again.

The Hall of Famer best known around here as the voice of the New York Knicks and the East Coast counterpart to Chick Hearn had done NBC's first eight NBA Finals broadcasts, but this one was his first in three years.

The gap? Uh, well, hmmmm. Just taking care of some personal business.

Face it, sports is a forgiving environment, a place to escape the crummy news of the world and constantly relive excitement of achievement. Albert's calls of basketball remind too many people of too many good times.

So when the soon-to-be 60-year old bit off more than he could chew, immersed in the media circus event of 1997, NBC fired him after he pleaded no-contest to misdemeanor assault charges involving an incredibly played-out scandal involving a former lover. Yet, it really was only a matter of time before Albert would be able to show his face and be accepted back into the broadcasting loop.

It took less than two years, actually. The Madison Square Garden network eased him back with some sports-anchor work and on Knicks radio games. Turner brought him in for some NBA regular-season games. When Fox started talking to him about working NFL games, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol felt it was time to reclaim him or face the prospect of losing him.

With Bob Costas voluntarily stepping aside from the NBA Finals play- by-play role, Albert became the leading man this season, and Wednesday completed the circle.

He told a group of reporters before Game 1 that the final step of this comeback really wouldn't hit him until he was standing on the court before the game, finishing a rehearsal of the opening and feeling that ``tenseness that every player and coach has, waiting for the start, hearing the crowd and everyone talking in my earpiece ... there's no greater feeling.''

Wednesday, there were no cat-calls from the crowd, no smirks from players who walked by the NBC courtside table. It hasn't been forgotten, but Albert, the punchline to jokes just a few years ago, said he doesn't hear anything about it anymore unless asked by a reporter what it was like to go through that experience.

``I felt helpless during that whole time, because I knew what happened and I couldn't get involved in how it was reported,'' Albert said during an interview in an NBC production trailer. ``I think things are better than ever in a lot of ways, but I wouldn't want to go through that again to get to this point.

``Life is too good to want to revisit that. I always appreciated things before but even more so now. You can't go back. It'll drive you crazy. I see coaches and athletes who get annoyed when they hear things and beat themselves up. You can't do that. These days, with scrutiny and the extent to which people can express opinions about what we do, you gotta look ahead.''

As a media member for most of his life, and with a daughter who worked for ``Inside Edition,'' Albert said he understood to an extent the coverage he received. The pundits have opinions. But they also deal with facts that sometimes are contorted.

The process has reinforced his beliefs about how and what to report during a broadcast of any sporting event and toughened him toward criticism.

``So much these days with media outlets is a pile-on mentality,'' Albert said. ``And you see the same thing in sports, where something is said, whether it's right or wrong, and they run with it.

``I've always been careful with what I've said on the air. I kid around, too, but everyone has got to be careful about that stuff. I see it more and more in sports when an athlete or coach says something they said was taken out of context. Sometimes it is, but then it's reported over and over and becomes real.

``I always had great respect for the media. They are allowed to have their opinions. But I can empathize with people who go through similar ordeals. Or my eyes are open, put it that way.''

His return Wednesday wasn't so much a feeling of a triumph, he said, since he has been broadcasting for three years, ``but at the Finals, it's very special.''

Everyone around agreed with America's favorite ``Yesss!'' man.

Said Collins, who leaves NBC to coach the Washington Wizards after this series ends: ``He's where he belongs. He should be here. He's the voice of the NBA and the best at what he does.''

Lead game producer Eddie Feibischoff, who said he grew up playing basketball imitating Albert on the playgrounds like everyone still tries, added that ``I haven't seen him change at all. When he makes a call, it's his call, and it still defines a moment.''

On the broadcast, Albert called Game 1 ``one of the classic games in NBA Finals history,'' and you had to believe it.

Or, as he said standing outside the media room at Staples Center late Wednesday night: ``That was something, wasn't it?''

He meant the game. But the statement meant much more.

--Lending expertise: Susan Stratton, the longtime producer and director for Lakers games on KCAL Channel 9, has spent the last few seasons doing the same duties during the NBA Finals for Japan's HKN on the high-definition TV coverage sent back to that country.

Staples Center is one of the few venues in the country wired for HDTV, including a state-of-the-art production facility in the offices near where Stratton works.

``Once you see a game in HDTV, you don't want to go back,'' she said. ``They are very impressive people to work with. They are very creative in the broadcast.''

--NBA by the numbers: Only 51 percent of the TVs turned on in Los Angeles on Wednesday night had the Lakers-Sixers Game 1, according to Nielsen's arbitrary statistics that don't take into account public gatherings, sports bars or restaurant viewers. The rating was a 32.9. In Philadelphia, the TV share was 60 percent, with a 41.0 rating.

Nationally, an estimated 39 million viewers watched for a 12.4 rating - 18 percent more than the Lakers' Game 1 win over Indiana last season - and a 23 share, which won the night for NBC over the other networks. The telecast peaked to a 17.2 rating in the fourth quarter and overtime.

The NBA figures more than 2.5 billion people around the world care about these Finals, as it's televised to 205 countries around the world in 41 languages by 91 telecasters.

First-time telecasters include MTV (Lebanon), ITV (Korea) and Baral Radio (Mexico). Ninety percent of the world feed comes from the NBA Entertainment division's transmission.

NBA.com also offers live audio on the Internet in German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Dutch, French, Hebrew and, if anyone needs it, English.

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--In what could preclude her from actually playing in the league, Marion Jones has been brought on board by NBC as a courtside reporter on WNBA games, starting with the Houston-Phoenix telecast Sunday. The track star from Thousand Oaks High and North Carolina says ``journalism and basketball have always been a passion of mine since I was a journalism major at UNC.''

The starting point guard on the Tar Heels' 1994 national-title team must soon learn that TV is no place for journalism.

--Golf under the TV lights returns Monday, July 30, with an expanded Tiger Woods event at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert. Woods will be paired with Annika Sorenstam and compete against David Duval and Karrie Webb in a $1.7 million alternate-shot team event. When Woods and Duval met at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, it drew a 6.9 rating, and a Woods-Sergio Garcia match last year jumped 10 percent to a 7.6 rating. So why not add a few gals and try to draw more viewers in the middle of summer?

--KMPC-AM (1540), which recently signed to do USC football and basketball, also will cover the Trojans during the College World Series with broadcasters Rory Markas and Justin Dedeaux. CBS' coverage of the USC-Georgia opener Saturday has Greg Gumbel and Ray Knight on the call amid the clinking of aluminum bats. ESPN and ESPN2's coverage starting today at noon will include the unique ``dead center'' camera angle as it does for 13 of the 15 games in the tournament.

WHAT CHOKES

--After months of frustration, ESPN finally fixed the ``Bottom Line'' scroll that runs on ESPN2, ESPNEWS and during ``SportsCenter'' to stop when a commercial comes up, then continue when the show comes back. Wasn't that simple?

--Fox's influence on the ABC coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals. Actually, it was Michael J. Fox who had the input. He did voice-overs for the telecasts' opening segments that aired this week.

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SOUND BYTES (see text)