Published: May 5, 2010

Only the biggest and brightest stars sit courtside during a Los Angeles Lakers home game. Sitting not too far away from Jack Nicholson is Spero Dedes, a Fordham alumnus who is ascending the sports broadcasting ladder and looking to become as accomplished as the celebrities around him.

Dedes, FCRH ’01, is the radio voice of the defending champion Lakers, and is geared up for the team’s defense of the title in the 2010 NBA playoffs. The Lakers job is just the beginning of the 31-year old New Jersey native’s promising career, a position he has been training for since December 1998, when he called his first Fordham Rams basketball game for WFUV.

Dedes took John Cirillo’s sports communication class during his freshman year, the professor knew that Dedes would be headed for big things after graduation.

“Spero is a unique broadcast talent, and that was clearly evident even as a student broadcasting on Fordham’s WFUV Radio. It was only a matter of presenting his work to the right radio and television executives before he would get the opportunity to excel,” Cirillo said.

In December 2000, Dedes gave Cirillo a demo tape that he completed while interning at WNBC-TV. On a Saturday night, Cirillo popped the tape in his VHS machine, and was blown away by its contents.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was perfect, and at that moment I called Spero and told him I’d like to represent him,” he said.

Like other successful broadcasters that passed through WFUV, Dedes worked with the renowned Marty Glickman, a hall of fame basketball and football broadcaster, to help him improve his craft.

“Marty was incredibly helpful to me,” Dedes said. “He always told me what I needed to hear, and never what I wanted to hear. But when he said he liked my ability, it gave me a lot of confidence.”

Dedes got the Lakers radio play-by-play position in the summer of 2005, but he definitely didn’t consider himself a frontrunner for the job.

“We (Dedes and Cirillo) thought it would be a good idea to apply because I didn’t have many contacts in Los Angeles at the time, and it would help get my name out there,” he said. “I actually forgot I applied.”

The longshot application turned into a dream job.

Like any new member of a team, Dedes had to earn his stripes before truly being accepted. His moment came on the second road trip during the 2005-2006 season, when the Lakers were scheduled to fly to San Antonio to play the Spurs.

He was late for the team flight, so Dedes tried to make up time by going 80 miles an hour on the infamous freeways of Los Angeles to get to LAX.

“I was really nervous, and I thought I might get fired,” Dedes recalled.

He eventually made it to the plane, where coaches, players and trainers were patiently seated, waiting to leave. When they got to the airport lobby in San Antonio, Phil Jackson, the legendary Lakers’ head coach, pulled Dedes aside.

“I think you owe me an apology,” Jackson told Dedes after staring at him for a few seconds.

In an attempt to save himself, Dedes rattled off one sincere apology after another while the 6’8” Jackson looked over him. A few seconds after Dedes finished his apologetic rant, Jackson burst out laughing.

“That definitely broke the ice,” Dedes said.

Much of the Lakers’ playoff success will be centered on the play of future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant. The five-time champion is still about as good as it gets, but there are questions surrounding him during this postseason.

“Mentally he’s still Kobe, but physically he’s not the same as he was even four or five months ago,” Dedes said. “How he delegates responsibility to his teammates in the coming playoff series’ will be a major factor.”

If the Lakers win the championship this June, Dedes will win his second title as a broadcaster(local announcers receive rings too). But at the rate he’s progressing, it may only be a footnote in a storied sportscasting career.