Jim O'Donnell: Former Bulls play-by-play voice brutalized in Lyft carjacking
WHEN "THE LAST DANCE" aired on ESPN last spring, Bill Hazen had some renewed pep in his step.
Snippets of Hazen's work as Bulls play-by-play man alongside Johnny "Red" Kerr on SportsVision during Michael Jordan's rookie season of 1984-85 were included.
In the wee, mean hours of last Saturday in West suburban Maywood, Hazen almost lost his life in a brutal carjacking.
While driving for Lyft, Hazen was viciously pulled from his car by two departing passengers in the 1100 block of Orchard Avenue.
He was choked, beaten on the head and violently thrown to the pavement shortly after 2 a.m.
"I kept yelling, 'Please don't do this! Please don't do this!' but it didn't matter," the Arlington High School graduate (Class of '68) said.
"They wanted my car. When they realized that it wouldn't start without my fob, one came back to me, laying on the ground and bleeding, and went through my pockets until he found it."
As a final insult, the bigger of the two reached back on Hazen's dashboard, took his iPhone and smashed it to the ground, "like a football player celebrating a touchdown."
The two then roared off and turned south on First Avenue.
Two men standing on Orchard about 100 feet from the attack saw it, ignored Hazen's pleas and walked away.
THE BUTLER UNIVERSITY ALUM finally staggered an agonizing, lonely block to a minimart to try to find a phone.
Maywood Police were summoned for assistance.
"I was shaking and battered," Hazen said.
He has been under medical monitoring since, particularly for residual brain trauma.
"The young man who was choking me never put his hands over my Adam's apple for some reason, thank God," Hazen said.
"If he had and held it long enough, I'd be dead."
The new Prius was located less than 24 hours later by Maywood police, abandoned near a warehouse with a tire blown out and a rim wrecked.
"The presumption is the two assailants hit some kind of bump while driving like bats out of hell, panicked and decided just to ditch my car."
So, less than two miles of malevolent joy riding almost cost a talented and resilient sportscaster his life.
"I am now a statistic," Hazen wrote in a poignant email to friends and business associates.
"I am one of at least 350+ drivers in the Chicago area who has had their vehicle hijacked in 2021. I was beaten in order for two young attackers to gain possession of my car and its contents."
HAZEN'S CAREER HAS BEEN a study in "hanging in there."
By age 28, he was part of the Houston Rockets play-by-play dynamic.
Five years later, the Bulls and exec Rob Levine signed him to a three-year deal to work with Jim Angio and the SportsVision startup.
Two seasons into that - following the first year of the glory-bound Mr. Jordan - Jerry Reinsdorf's new front office decided to cut costs and simulcast Kerr and Jim Durham on SportsVision and the old WMAQ-AM (670).
Hazen was collateral damage.
He went on to call games for the Indiana Pacers and ESPN International.
Now based at his 28th floor home studio overlooking Lake Michigan, Hazen has freelanced play-by-play gigs ranging from Notre Dame and Northern Illinois football and basketball to the NBA G League out of Fort Wayne.
He also hosts and syndicates "College Sports Weekly," a flowing show that peaked with a network of close to 50 stations before the pandemic.
He has refused to file for rightful PUA unemployment benefits due gig workers over diminished income because of COVID-19. Instead, he chose self-reliance and driving for Lyft.
THIS WEEK, HIS UNCONQUERABLE SOUL carries on.
Hazen is scheduled to begin a seasonal gig with the StarRadio Group of Kankakee on Friday night. He's on tap to call a high school football game between Bradley-Bourbonnais and Lincoln-Way Central.
Will he be there?
"Will I be there?" he responded.
"If I have to crawl to the microphone at Bradley-Bourbonnais, I certainly will be there."
"I am down and the dehumanization part of it makes me sad.
"But I was also spared for some reason known only to bigger spirits than me and still have the ability to feel.
"If I lose that, I lose everything.
"And, of course, some new broadcast opportunities wouldn't hurt the mix either."
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.