LIKE IT IS : Packer’s pomposity won’t be missed at all

WALLY HALL

Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/231487/

It was long before he was tagged Billy PACCker because of his loyalty to the Atlantic Coast Conference, where he played college basketball (Wake Forest ).

Packer was in Little Rock, the guest speaker at a UALR basketball banquet.

Paying him several thousand dollars to speak was part of the motive. The main reason, though, was so he would know UALR really existed.

Standing in a restaurant on top of a bank, overlooking the Arkansas River, Packer went on and on about the natural beauty of the state and how it reminded him of North Carolina.

He was friendly, courteous and down-to-earth.

Fast forward a few years, and the guy changed.

The two words that seemed to describe him best were condescending curmudgeon.

He worked 34 Final Fours, and along the way it seems he began to believe he was the most important player in the game.

No one is bigger than the game.

Years before his last Final Four, controversy had become his middle name.

It started with a shocking remark about Allen Iverson, continued to his outcry when the Missouri Valley Conference got four teams into the NCAA Tournament field (two made the Sweet 16 ) and then to his dismay when St. Joseph’s was named a No. 1 seed.

Oh, and there was the slamming of 60 Minutes, too — CBS’ most respected and long-running program.

In 1994 he had words on television with Nolan Richardson, coach of the eventual national champion.

When ESPN’s Jay Bilas showed up on CBS last March, there was little doubt that Packer had worn out his welcome. Bilas, though, didn’t get the gig. The very talented Clark Kellogg did.

When the news broke Monday, many people, including Packer, said all the politically correct things.

No high-ranking person at CBS was going to throw the 68-year-old Packer under the bus, even if he was the one who continually placed himself in front of the grill.

For all the irritating things he did in his final years, the things that might have cost him his credibility in the public eye — as well as with CBS — were two things he said.

First, he said he wasn’t a sports fan. Seriously, in a televised interview, the man who had the best seat in the house for the Final Four 34 consecutive years said he simply was not a sports fan.

The second came last year when Duke and North Carolina were in an intense battle and Gerald Henderson broke Tyler Hansbrough’s nose with an elbow.

Packer adamantly claimed Henderson was going after the ball even though replays showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the ball was past Henderson before his arm started moving.

Packer refused to admit he was wrong, which was pretty much his attitude about anything and everything the past 15 years.

Just two years ago at the ACC Tournament he was honored with a loud chorus of boos.

One of the most respected individuals involved with college basketball, NCAA senior vice president Greg Shaheen, gave a statement Monday about Packer that said:

“When you examine the popularity of college basketball, there is a correlation to the country’s growing interest in the sport and the time Billy Packer first became a lead analyst for the Final Four.

“ From the famous Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird game, to the remarkable championship runs by North Carolina State and Villanova, the game-winning shots by Keith Smart and Scotty Thurman, the back-to-back titles by Duke and Florida, and for the countless other Final Four games and moments, Billy was there to deliver his excceptional analysis and commentary to the home of television viewers around the world. He will be missed.”

Other than that last sentence, it is hard to argue with Shaheen’s assessment. But the problem most basketball fans had with Packer was that he seemed to believe it was his right instead of his privilege to sit midcourt for the best games each season.