MARLOWE REACHES NEW HEIGHTS.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH MEDIA

Three seasons into figuring out how to build a career as an NBA broadcaster, there's been a dramatic spike in the learning curve for volleyball legend-turned-Denver Nuggets TV play-by-play man Chris Marlowe. And he has managed to avoid the altitude sickness that can go along with it.

In just the last three weeks, Marlowe had to describe a brawl at Madison Square Garden between the Nuggets and New York Knicks, endure one of the city's worst blizzards that postponed a game and witness the media crush that has come with the arrival of Allen Iverson to a lineup still in flux while Carmelo Anthony finishes a suspension.

Before the Nuggets' game against the Lakers tonight at Staples Center, Marlowe, on the call for the Denver-based Altitude Sports & Entertainment network, might want to take a detour to the beach to get his bearings back.

``There's not much party time available,'' Marlowe admitted before boarding a plane Thursday. ``It's a road trip to L.A., but it's right back to Denver for a game against Utah on Saturday night.''

Staying focused and illness-free during the constant motion of frigid NBA time travel has been one of the major adjustments the mild-weather native Marlowe has managed to skate through since taking the Nuggets job for the network that popped up as competition to Fox Sports Net in the fall of 2004.

A year before that, Marlowe, an established Southern California- based broadcaster who left Fox Sports to do events for ESPN, was up for the Lakers' radio play-by-play job when the team decided it was time to split the simulcast that the late Chick Hearn had mastered for so many years. Despite help from then-Lakers TV play-by-play man Paul Sunderland -- Marlowe's TV beach volleyball partner for 10 years back at Prime Ticket -- the spot went to Joel Meyers.

But not long after that, Marlowe would reach new heights in the Mile High City. A call came from Nuggets assistant coach, Chip Engelland -- a fellow Palisades High alum -- informing Marlowe about the new network needing a broadcaster.

``It was always a goal of mine to be an NBA broadcaster -- basketball was my first love in terms of sports and the NBA is the epitome of basketball,'' said Marlowe, a two-sport standout in high school and at San Diego State before volleyball became his athletic calling. That led to his captaining the 1984 U.S.Olympic indoor team to a gold medal, winning eight pro beach tournaments and launching his broadcasting career as the TV voice of beach volleyball, which he still does for NBC and has taken him to the past five Olympic broadcasts.

Other Palisades connections -- Kiki Vandeweghe (then the team's general manager) and current FSN West and Prime Ticket executive producer Tom Feuer -- put in recommendations for Marlowe. It didn't hurt that Bill Walton and NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol also stepped up with a good word.

Marlowe, paired with former NBA player Scott Hastings, says he thinks the fact they were experienced but fresh faces and voices for a new network was the ultimate selling point.

``I had great friends who helped push me in, but I also think I was ready,'' said Marlowe, who at that point had put in about 25 years into his post-athletic broadcasting career doing all kinds of events for all kinds of networks.

``They say you have to be ready when get your chance, and it's been a great situation, a lot of the same enthusiasm when Prime Ticket started in the mid '80s. It's great to be on the ground floor of a burgeoning network. Everything's positive.''

Feuer, who added Marlowe to the FSN Prime Ticket pregame coverage during the Clippers-Nuggets playoff series last season, says of Marlowe's work: ``As an athlete, Chris was the most tenacious I have seen in any sport. He always played his best when the stakes were at the highest. As a broadcaster, what sets him apart is his extraordinary sense of humor as well as his passion and enthusiasm for what he's doing. He's done a marvelous job on the Nuggets broadcasts. He is definitely a disciple of Chick Hearn with his colorful `words-eye view' of the game.''

Now if only Denver could figure out how to add beach-front property.

``I think that's the only thing I really miss about living here,'' said Marlowe, who lives there year-round with his wife, Laurie, and daughters MacKenzie (13) and Grace (11). ``There are so many positives. Plenty to do, the air is clean, the water is great. I can deal with the snow now. But if they could just figure out how to move the beach here, it'd be the most ideal place in America.''

Lampley maintains his innocence

The legal mess that HBO boxing broadcaster Jim Lampley has gotten into with an arrest Wednesday on suspicion of domestic violence, violating a restraining order and dissuading a witness will sort itself out in the courts.

But for the time being, Lampley, who is out on bail, is emphatically aserting that he's not guilty.

Thursday, Lampley's publicist, Howard Bragman, issued a statement from him saying: ``I am innocent of the charge ... and will vigorously defend myself ... I'm confident that the process will prove that I'm not guilty of this charge. I thank my friends and family for their support during this difficult time, and ask for the understanding and patience from the media until my legal situation allows me to discuss this in more depth.''

Lampley, 57, did not appear at Thursday's restraining order hearing, but his girlfriend Candice Sanders did, The Associated Press reported. Sanders, 28, claims Lampley and his son showed up at her Encinitas home on New Year's Eve. She said in a deposition that Lampley was ``high on pot'' and had been drinking before he threw her against a wall several times, then threw her against a door before she was able to run to a neighbor's home to call police, she alleges.

Sanders, who claims she suffered injuries to her head, neck and back, also is accusing Lampley of assaulting her at a restaurant two months ago, an incident Sanders says ``was kept quiet by his associates because he was to broadcast a major fight two days later.''

HBO's next boxing assignment for Lampley is Jan. 20.

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``It was always a goal of mine to be an NBA broadcaster,'' says Denver Nuggets play-by-play man Chris Marlowe, a Southern California native.

Altitude Sports & Entertainment Network

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