Celtics broadcaster Mike Gorman

Joining Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports this week is Mike Gorman, the longtime Boston Celtics broadcaster. Mannix and Gorman discuss Gorman’s 36-plus years calling Celtics games, his relationship with Tommy Heinsohn, the passings of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis and more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Yahoo Sports NBA podcast hosted by Chris Mannix.
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(00:21):
you go back, subscribe and leave a rating or combat
here he is speaking of guys putting the foot in
the row. Chris Mannix, Yes, joining me on the podcast
this week. If there is a list of the greatest
basketball broadcasters of all time on his name is absolutely
on it. Mike Gorman in year thirty seven broadcasting Boston

(00:43):
Celtist games. He goes way back to when the selfish
r on something called Prism New England, which I don't know.
I don't recall that that group out of Philadelphia. I
think originally they had something to do with the Hartford
Whalers too. Um, but yeah, we had those terrible lime
green jackets. I remember most about it. Tommy looked like
a float when he walked into the garden, would get

(01:04):
his attention right away. Thirty seven years all with Tommy Hindson.
I want to get into some of that. But but
you are a true homegrown guy, Mike. You you grew
up around here in Dorchester full disclosure. Might grew up
with my father in the old neighbors. This was before
Dorchester was like this really nice place to go. Now
it's trendy now, it's like where the college kids go
used to be. Where you identified yourself by parish, where

(01:27):
you're from. St. Brendan's. So oh, yep, St. Kevin. So
I knew somebody from St. Mark's. You know, that's the
way it was. But yes, you and your dad and
I were in the St. Brendan's crowd. You you're growing
up was was this an aspiration? Was was being in
broadcasting and aspiration from an early age. You know, it
would be nice if I could say yes, But the
answer really is no. Um. I really had no idea

(01:48):
what I was gonna do. I went to I went
to Boston Latin School. UM. Went to Boston College for
a year, tried to play basketball there. Um. Actually it
kind of SAIMI made the fresh one team. Back in
the days when it used to be freshman were ineligible
to play at the varsity, they had a freshman team, UM,
and it was a good freshman team to Billy Evans
was on that team who had a cup of coffee

(02:10):
in the pros. Terry Driscoll, great player out of Boston College. Hi,
I played for the Pistons for a while. Um So
I kind of kind of made the freshman team, but
kind of ignored my studies. And so when the end
of the first semester came around, ironically enough that the
coach of the team was couz Um and cous called
me and and said, Michael, he really not in our

(02:30):
future play and and you're not doing very well academically.
Um So, actually what cou'se did which kind of solidified
my early ties at the time with the Celtic family.
They before I would ever work for them. Um cou said,
what do you want to do? And I said, well,
I really don't know. And he said, well, you're in
trouble academically here at BC. Um let me make a

(02:51):
call to Lusky over at Boston State Teachers. Would you
be interested in going there? I said, I be interested
in going anywhere right now because I'm trying to keep
my two West deferment because I don't want to get
draft it. Um So I go over and see Jim Luscutoff.
I remember I left my house in the morning a
student at Boston College. I came home that night a
student at Boston State College, which a little difficult explaining
to my parents, but they like the difference in tuitions

(03:13):
so they went too bothered by it. Um So, yeah,
Luski was great. Leski was like, yeah, sure, come play
for us. You won't be eligible for a year. So
I worked out with the team for about a year.
Um and then I just kind of lost interest in
playing ball. And I remember going to Luski thinking like, oh,
he's gonna be really ticked, and he was like, do
whatever you want. He didn't care, so uh yeah, but

(03:35):
I did lose my two S deferment and ended up
going into military for better part of seven years after
I get out of college. UM So, when I was
at Boston State, this is a a very long we did
answer to question podcast for four UM. When I was
at Boston State, I started to think, well, maybe I
could be a teacher and a coach. You know. I
was looking for some way I want to stay around

(03:57):
the game and and and the easiest way to stay
around the games aim to be to become a teacher.
And trying to become a basketball coach. Um, but the
military kind of interfered and I went into the Navy
originally for it's gonna go in for two and a
half years. I ended in there for seven, which isn't
a long story. But um, but when I get out,
I had no idea what I was gonna do. That's
the answer to your question. I had never thought about broadcasting. Um,

(04:19):
I had done some. When you when you're in a
squadron in the Navy, you have collateral duties other than
the actual flying. You have a ground job. And my
ground job was I was the public relations guy supposedly
for the for the squadron, which means I had to
run these meetings all the time. For they were called
A O M s, which are all off some meetings,
so be about fifty guys at a meeting and a
given squadron. And I always when I was in the audience,

(04:43):
I had always found these meetings terribly boring. So I
started doing a little bit of stand up, you know,
in front of before the meeting would start. And UM,
I found out that I kind of liked the microphone
in my hands, and I like being in front or
a crowd. I found it very comfortable to be honest
with you. Um So, when I get out of the Navy,
I was trying to think of how I could get
a job, and that leads to another long story up

(05:05):
so the idea of getting into broadcasting began then. But
you bounced around a little bit early on all around
New England the right you never left. I never left
New England that I really had a I had a
great experience. I mean, this is just dumb luck that
got me into this. Um. I had been out of
the military for about six months and I had it
wasn't working. I was just kind of hanging out, wasting

(05:26):
away and let my hair grow and head a beard.
Um My parents were like, you got to get a job.
You can really got to get a job. You're twenty
seven years old now. Um So I decided, okay, I'll
try to get a job in radio, and just being
ignorant about the whole thing, I decided one morning to
drive over to w BZ in Boston and see if
I could get a job. And so, um I pulled

(05:49):
up at the security gate and security guard said to me,
you know who you're looking forward. I said, I want
to see Gil Santos. He says this Gil, no you're
coming And I said no, and he said, you just
can't wander in here and see Guil. You know, um,
you gotta make an appointment. And why what do you
want to see him about? And I said, well, I
want a job. And he said have you ever done
radio and TV? And I said no, and he said,
he said, you can't start at WBC and Boston. You

(06:11):
have to start out with somewhere else and work your
way back to know you're easy. He said where you
been and I said, I've been the Navy for the
last seven years. And he said, oh, I was in
the Navy. Blah blah blah blah blah. Let me call
Gil see if you'll see you. So he calls Gil.
Get to see Gil because the Navy connection with the
security gul um. So I'm sending there talking to Gil.
I give him my little spiel about what I want
to do. He picks up the phone. He goes, uh,

(06:34):
he was Paul, Gil. Yeah, how you doing good? Good? Yeah?
I got a guy here has got four years experience
and nonforces radio and television be perfect for you. Yeah, fine,
all right, I'll send him down by hangs up the phone.
I said, Gil, I don't have four years experience, and
he said, don't worry about that, and we needed to
get needed that to get you in the door. So
I show up at that with NBAH in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
This is a true story. I show up at two

(06:55):
o'clock in the afternoon. I meet this guy, PAULAVC who
turned out to be a great friend and a great mentor. UM,
who was the sales and general manager of w NBAH
in New Bedford, which at night, if you drove more
than two miles away from our tower, you couldn't hear us.
During the day, we had about an eight mile radius.
Not tower, but we kind of had the city of
New Bedford. UM. So I'm talking with Paul. We have lunch.

(07:16):
We decided to go out and have a beer. We
have a beer over lunch and he says to me
at some point he said, do you play softball? And
I said yeah, and he said you're any good? I said,
I'm real good. Uh, And I was that was my sport.
And I to back up. When you're in the Navy,
especially at the time when I was in there, there
were backups in the different stages of flight school that
you had to go to. So in the backups, maybe

(07:37):
three months before you could advance from one stage to
the other, and they had nothing for you to do
during that three months. You just I had to do
was call in every morning and say you were still alive,
and the other rest of the day off. Um. So
I started hanging around with some Marines and I ended
up playing on a touring softball team that we toured
all through the South and played army bases, towns. Anybody

(07:57):
who wanted to playoffs, we would go play them in
these softball games, fast bag softball. So I was pretty good.
So flash forward out into New Bedford and uh, the
guy says, we were playing a softball game tonight against
our biggest rival in town, the other radio station, because
there's only two radio stations in New Bedford, and um,
it's all for charity. Would you come and play? And
I said sure, So I went and I played, and

(08:18):
I got up four times at four home runs. I mean,
it was really a different level than when I have
been planning. And so at midnight that night I got
the job as the public affairs director of w NBH
Radio and New Bedford and all because of softball, because
of softball, because of softball, and God bless them all
guys at Gil Santos picking up the phone and calling
this guy and saying, you know, lying to him and

(08:40):
get me in the door. And you know, by the
time the softball game was, I think it was about
ten eleven o'clock at night andmore. And I like nineteenes
beer and I remember the VEX say it to me, like,
you have no voices radio experienced to you and I said, no,
I don't have any. He said, it doesn't matter, don't
I'm always um, you know, using Brad Stevens for an
example about I'm always interested about the path not taking
and Brad's off and told me about, you know, almost

(09:01):
being a pharmaceutical rep and staying there and before getting
into coaching. Did you have one of those moments where
it could have gone a different direction, We might have
gone done something else. Yeah, it's interesting that you would
say a pharmaceutical rep because I took an interview with
a guy who was representing Backton Dickinson. I think their
name was the Medical Instrument Company, and it was a
sales job to sell medical instruments and this guy sat

(09:24):
opposite me, uh and and told me for twenty minutes
how I need to get excited about four steps and
things like this and just were you now. So I'm
sitting at all the time thinking wow, this is this
just didn't gonna work. I think it was like two
days later I drove into the w b Z parking
lot and thinking, at least I try to get a
job that I like as opposed to just get a job. Um.

(09:47):
But yeah, at the time, I guess that was a
fairly desirable quantity because I was twenty seven years old
and had six years experience as a naval officer, and
I wasn't just getting out of college. But um, you know,
packing a bunch of medical instruments in the back of
my are and driving around the hospitals and try to
pitch doctors. It was not really what I wanted to do. So, um,
that's why I went to w NBA's in New Bedford,

(10:08):
for I was only there for about fifteen months. Uh,
that's another I mean again, it's all luck. This kid
Mark Haynes, who later was an anchor at w uh NBC,
and it was the morning squad box actor for a
long time. When MSNBC CNBC rather first came on. The
year Marcus since passed away, but Mark was a news

(10:29):
director w p R Radio and Providence. He was driving
to the Cape one day and he flipped on the
air and he heard me on the air and he
called me up. This is a good story. He called
me up and he said, you want to be on
Massachusetts a New England reporter. And I said, yeah, absolutely,
and he said, okay, you can start next week. And
I said, I got to get out of my job.
And he goes, no, you don't get out of your job.
You're just doing this for us on the side of

(10:49):
the job you already have. I said, what do you
want me to do? He said, I want you to
rip the AP wire every morning, and if there's a
fire in Worcester, Massachusetts, I want you to read the
AP wire. And at the end, I want you to
say in Worcester, I'm Corman for w per O News
announcers of fire. In Portland, Maine, I want you to
read the whole store. I don't want to say in Portland, Maine.
I might go him in for w PR News and
I said, yeah, but I won't be there. And I

(11:10):
remember this is this long silence on the phone. He goes,
you're not getting this. I was like, oh, you just
want me to say him there? He said, you say there.
He said, you do that for six months, and I
guarantee you the news. The program director here at w
p r OH will be so impressed with who you are.
Hill off you a job because you're just obviously going
all over the place doing all these stringer reports. Um

(11:32):
It took three months and program director called me and
it was like, you're amazing. You're everywhere every morning I listen,
you're here there. I said, well, I spent a lot
of time in my car not spence reports as well.
Yeah exactly. Um. So I got the job as the
public affairs director at w p r O Radio and

(11:52):
did that for about three months. Where at radio stations
you have a commitment you have to make each month
the public affairs program. Usually it's the stuff if you
find yourself in the car at five o'clock on a
Sunday morning, you try to find something on the radio,
you can't because it's all this public affairs programming. That's
where they bury it all. So I had to do
these interviews every week and After a while, I kind
of got the people to do the interviews themselves so

(12:14):
they didn't need me. And um he used to hang
out with this guy Mark and Markets, like we gotta
get you on the morning doing sports. So one morning
he just said, we've got a new feature here, Mike
Wolman is going to do sports at twenty after the hour,
half the hour. So I started doing that and I
got along really well with a guy named Salty Brian
who was an institution in Rhode Island. It's a great name.

(12:34):
It's a great name, isn't it, especially for Rhode Island.
Salty Brian used to find a kids show and you
had a colleage name Jeff that I used to sit
there and used to be, uh, brush your teeth and
say your prayers with what he said at the end
of every show, and everybody in rode out, and anybody
wrote aland who was listening to this podcast right now,
who's over the age of like fifty years going like, yeah,
I remember Salty, I remember Salty. Um So Salty did

(12:56):
the morning show, and Salty owned mornings, and like he
got ridic of the Sumbers. He got like fifty twos
fifty three's in the morning. It just no radio station
could compete with him, and um, he took a liking
to me, and my one minute sports reports became two
minute sports reports became three minute sports reports. I wanted
to hang around Mike after this. They after dancing Queen,

(13:17):
you know whatever, We're playing at that tower in the
morning and we'll talk about something else. And I eventually
kind of merged after about a year into being his
co host on the air. But and he was the
one who walkestrated the whole thing. He liked me. We
did get along well in the air. He was he
was kind of like the older guy. This is my
best in adventtance to Providence story. I have the job

(13:38):
for about three weeks, maybe a month, and I'm living
in Bristol, Rhode Island, and I'm out the night before
in Newport and I ended up spending the night in
Newport and woke up at seven o'clock in the morning.
I'm supposed to be on the air and I'm in Newport,
and I'm like Jesus is you know? So I went
out and I jumped my carrent at the time, I
had an MG convertible, so and the top was still

(13:59):
down from the day before. So like I'm coming up,
it's like half raining and I'm just trying to get
drive from Newport. And this is long before the days
the cell phones or anything else. But Salty says on
the air he comes on the at six o'clock it
was Mike's not here. I wonder where Mike is, you know,
And Mike's driving and MG, if anybody spots him on
the highway, flash your headlights out of okay. So I'm
driving along and all of a sudden, like headlights and
I'm flashed at me all over the place. And I

(14:22):
get there like oh, ten minutes of seven, So I'm
an hour late for my for the shift on the air,
and again and on the air, and about eight o'clock
the secretary for the general manager of the station comes
up to me and during a break and she goes, Dick,
would like to see you after you get off the air,
And I'm like, this is the end of my job here,
would probably I'm back into bedfrood if I can. I'm lucky.

(14:44):
So I go in to see this guy, Dick, the
general manager, and I'm standing there and he's on the phone.
He just waits for me to sit down, and he
gets off the phone and he says, how much Lee
Way do we have on these podcasts for language? Yeah,
we have plenty. He looks at me and he goes,
this late ship is good, keep it up. So now
I'm thinking like, Wow, I got a four hour a
day job, but they're encouraging me to be late. Because

(15:06):
of the reactions, it becomes content. And it became content.
It became like where's Mike in the morning? Okay, so
I became kind of like Waldo for a while. It
was like where is Mike? Mike wake up today? What's
he driving? In? Driving today? Anybody with him? So? When
does this How does this all lead to Boston? How
does this all lead to the Celtics? I know you

(15:27):
and Tommy. You've credited Tommy a lot with your early
stages of working together. So I mean, I'm in Providence
now for maybe a part of a year, and we
get you r I basketball, um get the radio rights
to it. And they had a pretty good team. Sly
Williams was on that team, and that G Williamson. They
had some really good players and and and we're playing
a pretty big time schedule at the time at Maryland

(15:49):
played a lot of good games. Um. So I did
the games for a year on radio and m to
back up a little bit. When I was in New Bedford,
they told me, like I said, I want to play
by play, said you sell it, you can do it.
I don't care what your selling, you can do it.
So I sold boxing. I sold high school football, high
school basketball, high school baseball, Southern Southeastern Massachusetts University basketball,

(16:12):
two advertisers are saying. And I would go basically by
two hours a time from w n BAS, which you
could get for it not much, and I would go
out and then sell against that thing. And then I
would go do the games myself, just like we're doing
this podcast, my own equipment to go set it up
with the microphone and go do the games. Uh So
I had some experience. And now I'm in Rhode Island
and we get you are by they're pretty good, and um,

(16:34):
Dave Gavitt hears me and um says, would you be
interested in doing some stuff with Providence? And I said, yeah,
what do you think? He said, Well, our TV writes
are up, we're about to go to Channel twelve. Um,
maybe we can figure away that you can do the
games on Channel twelve. Well, and again this sounds like
I'm making this happen. I'm not in the intern between
having that conversation with Dave and the game's actually starting. Uh.

(16:58):
The weekend guy at twelve leaves abruptly, and I get
a call from from the TV manager on Channel twelve
say would you be interested in auditioning for the job.
So I auditioned for the weekend job and I get
it a week after I get it the money through
Friday guy abruptly leaves and goes to Orlando. So now
I'm on seven nights a week, six and eleven on
Channel twelve. I'm doing it all, and I'm doing this

(17:20):
for maybe two or three months, so I become really
visible in the rhode out of the marketplace. Uh. We
negotiate and get the rights to Providence College basketball for
like five games we're gonna televise on Channel twelve. Um.
I'm sitting in a meeting one day and they're debating
who they wanted to use for color, and I said
we should get Tommy Heinsen. They go like, Tommy hines
would never want to do this, and I said, well,

(17:42):
and you get kicked out of this, I said, let's
give it a try. So I call the Celtic offices
and I say, can I have Tom Heinsen's phone number?
And they go yes, at which would never happen today
right now, ers of people. They give me Tom's phone number.
I called Tom, um, introduce myself to him on the phone,
and was like, sure, I'd love to do those games,
you know. So Tommy and I end up doing five

(18:04):
Providence College games one year, and we did five Province
College games the next year. And that's when he told
me about Prison and that the Celtics were about to
get involved. And nobody was involved in pay cable. That
was unheard of, and it was let's go really back
to the dark ages here now, um. But nobody had
really heard of pay cable, so that was all brand
new and people saying nobody's gonna pay money to really

(18:25):
watch games and blah blah blah. But they had Prison
had got the rights, Prison had decided to do it.
Prison higher Tommy and Tommy basically facilitated things. Tommy and
a guy named Bob Caparral, who was a wonderful friend
who was a lawyer at the time working on some
other projects with with the prison people, and between he
and Tommy, they hired me. And I think I worked

(18:49):
the first seventeen years on one year contracts. You know,
I always start I was gonna lose my job at
the end of the year. But yeah, Tommy who clearly relationship. Yeah,
I mean I can't put into words the relationship I
have with Tommy Hinson. We've been together for thirty seven
years doing the Celtics, two more years of doing college basketball,
so forty years we've been together. Um, we like each other. Um.

(19:16):
I think we understand properly who's who in the relationship.
Who the expert is, who the who the mechanic is. Um,
and I'm the expert, He's the mechanic clearly so um
So yeah, Tommy and I just have from the very beginning.
I mean I've told this story many times. The very
first game we did was holy Cross and Providence at

(19:37):
holy Cross, and um, I've got my notes all spread
out in front of me, and it's the first college
game I'm doing on TV. And I've got I've got
fourteen different color codes, I've got names of the players,
how many people are in their families? Those side by stories,
what the major is who they love with their favorite
every all is blowny, I am, so I haven't spread
out in front of me. And Tommy comes into the
booth and he looks at it. He says, what's that ship?

(20:01):
And I said, those are my notes. He reaches down,
he crumples them up and he throws him off the
balcony that we're working and he goes, we don't need those.
We're going to talk about what we see in front
of us right now. And that's how we have done
games for thirty seven years. Did you know doing those
Providence games that it would be a good Really, sometimes
you when you work with somebody, it's not always, not

(20:23):
always in sync and not always on the same page.
Did you know during those Providence Games that it was
going to work? Yeah? I did, really um again because
you know, I grew up in Dorchester, as we touched
on early and you know, me and my buddies, we
used to take the train in and climb up the
fire escape on the side of the old Boston Garden
and you get to the second floor and you're bang
on the door and one or two things was gonna

(20:44):
happen either. Feel like I've heard a story like that
before I really in my own either a copyright, our
show was gonna come and you then you're gonna have
to run. Uh But usually seventy percent the time, somebody
sitting in the second balcony came up and opened the
door to see what the racket was, and you would
make your way in. And it's said the second balcony
for the first quarter. You get to the first balcony
in the second quarter, and by the fourth quarter, bols around.

(21:05):
You would grabbed those two seats you saw empty for
the three quarters from up stairs down the corner of
the bench. And um, I saw a lot of games
that way. And this is you're too young to remember
any of this, but your dad was certainly would. They
used to have NBA doubleheaders, you know, so you could
go see the Pistons play the Bulls and then the
Celtics play the Sixers and the same night. And then
when I was in high school, the last two years
in high school, I worked on the ball game. Uh

(21:27):
so that was the ball game was the best. You
would come in that pay like thirty bucks or forty
bucks for two watch the Bruins play, then put the
floor down and watch the Celtics play and then take
the floor back up for the next Bruence game. I
didn't know you're part of the bull game that I
love doing that. That was great because that was stealing.
That's the first time I said, Wow, you can actually
get paid for being in the building. That's a good deal.

(21:48):
What you know, the the amount of time you and
Tommy have been together, any real disagreements between the two
of you over all those years. Yeah, we had a
And I can respond so quickly to that because it
was only there's only been one. We had a very
very very loud verbal argument in a restaurant in Orlando. Um,

(22:09):
I don't know how many years ago. It was, has
to be fifteen years ago, twenty years ago, and it
was it was a little bit about our roles getting
confused and he thought I was doing too much analysis
and I thought he was doing too much talking. Period.
Uh we uh we had to be kind of separated
at a table in a restaurant in Orlando, which was

(22:30):
funny because we were both too old to be having
that kind of a scene. But um, by the time
the game rolled around that night, we had kissed and
made up and uh, you know, we're We're just friends.
He's he's like my uncle, he's like my older brother. Um,
he's just He's Tommy, and I know him well and

(22:52):
he knows me well. And I think neither one of
us really liked the experience in Orlando when we thought
back on it, you know, we had we had kind
of like the perfect relationship and we had messed it
up for a short period of time and a short
a period of time, I mean seven or eight hours.
But no, Tommy's Tommy's the best. He's the best. When
people that are younger listening to this don't really remember

(23:13):
you work with Couzy two for a long time as
part of a three man boot there. Yeah, we did
with Couse for a while. Uh I ever forget work
in a game with Couz in Atlanta where late in
the year where I tasked, I said task to him.
I said, Bob, what about the night's game? And he went, Michael,
these are two teams going absolutely nowhere. I can know, Bob,

(23:35):
can you hear the clicks right now? The people turn
this off. But Couz, God bless cuz cou'se. You're always
getting a straight shot from cuz he's not sugarcoat anything. Um.
But we didn't do too many three man broadcasts. UM.
The first I don't know what it was, maybe fifteen years,
sixteen years. I did the Celtics. I just did the
home games, and um, I went and did the Big East.

(23:57):
When when they were doing the radio games and that
they were Bob and Tom and and early on red
um that it was just like three guys at the bar.
There was no play by play, there was no commercial reads.
It was like they talked over the action. But if
you're gonna be sitting with three buys, three guys at
a bob who better than Tom Eines and Bob Coosey

(24:19):
and read how back? Nobody complained them. I've had this
conversation with with guys like Marve Albert, Mike Breen as well,
about you know where kind of signature calls come from,
whether it's you know, bang for Marvel or Mike Breen,
Yes for Mark. You've got a couple that you you
kind of go to on a big shot, whether it's
just a straight yeah or got it? I mean, is
there what's the genesis? And how much did you think

(24:41):
about what to say in those types of moments? Got it? Well?
I knew you had to have some sort of signature,
not a signature call, but you have to have something
that you were comfortable with for big moments. And I
remember talking to Johnny Most about it when I first
got the job. Again, I was fortunate because Johnny could
have really stone walled me, you know, but Johnny never
had need I had to be the television guy. He

(25:01):
was very happy to being the radio guy. He could smoke,
he could eat, he could do all the stuff he
wanted to do while he was sometimes in real time
on the air sometimes. And I remember some of those
early early games. So so john was very very helpful
to me. And so the very first games, I did
remember meeting Tommy and said like, I want to meet
you in the press room because I don't know anybody

(25:22):
in the press room. He's like, yeah, I don't worry abody,
I'll meet you in there. And so he met me
by the way, he said, let's go see it with
Johnny Most. So then he get introduced to Johnny Most
and and Johnny was like, you know, he tried to
coach me right away, tried to mention me right away.
He was just delightful. Um And he said you've got
to come up with some sort of signature call. He said,
I want you in the next couple of weeks to
give me three or four examples. If it, I'll tell

(25:42):
you what we think it's good. And and that's where
got it came from. You know, he got it. He
heard me do that. He said, stick with that. That's good,
that's good potential. Um. So, I mean, I don't know
if I was the first one to say got it.
Sometimes I feel like I've been the last one to say,
do you have a favorite Johnny most story? Because he

(26:03):
was traveling with you guys right back then. I mean, yeah,
he was. It's not so much a favorite story and
that there's any punch line to it. But those were
the days of the coffee shops in the hotel and
John lived in them, just absolutely lived in them. Um.
We would arrive check into a hotel, within fifteen minutes
he was in the coffee shop. And if that was
five o'clock at night, if you went out to dinner,

(26:24):
came back at a few days and we're going through
the lobby of eleven, dirty John was still lay a
drinking coffee. Um. And he used to be have the
Herb Cole, the Senator, used to come by and see
him all the time when were in Milwaukee. He had
this a long line of celebrities, politicians who really liked him,
who would come meet him in these coffee shops. So
I would jump into occasional slap, pull up a chair
and said and listen to him him talking. Uh but no,

(26:47):
I I don't have a particular Johnny Most story, nothing
about like the year piece being in his year for
a year. Uh dentures flying out when he was Could
Johnny Most have been hired in today's day and age?
I mean, could that voice a great question be hired? Um,
that's a great question. I'd probably not. Probably not. I
don't think I could be hired probably today. Boston accent.

(27:09):
I mean, I've tried to fight that for a while
that I said, like, I'm not gonna fight who I
am you like, And I heard enough guys on the
air that you know, Tommy tim Brando doesn't have an accent.
So and Timmy is a good friend of mine. Um,
so uh yeah, I to go back to john and
the signature call. I kind of took god it and
I ran with it. Um. Occasionally you try to throw

(27:33):
something else into be different. But when the game's on
the line, that's the call that I'll probably resort too,
because because it's it says it all and allows me
to shut up. You know that the I firmly believe
less it is better in terms of broadcasting, sometimes to
the point that my producer will say, like he's still
live out there. You're right, Uh what it means like

(27:54):
he wants me to talk more. But especially in those
big moments, right, you know, you kind of want to
let those breathe as much as much as you can.
And so to say, once it got it and then
let it go. And and Tommy's great. Tommy doesn't try
to jump in scals new occasionally stick sticks his foot
and where he might be better to let it play.
But um, Scot is gonna be very good. Scott, Scott

(28:15):
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and tomorrow. The shots or the moment that resonates with

(29:21):
you the strongest, the because so many that you've seen
all those championships over the years, But was there one
moment that stands up more than others? Yeah? Well, um
bird steal in the Isaiah inbounds pass probably does, mostly
because and South's obviously had greater moments in one championships,
but we were never involved in those broadcasts, you know.
We we used to be able to go to get

(29:41):
through the second round. And now with a new contract
in the NBA, the locals can only do the first
round of the playoffs and then they through, so so
my highlights are limited to earlier rounds. Um My, My
biggest possible highlight was was my wife was in Europe. Uh.
She was my wife at the time. I was trying
to get her to be my wife. Um. She was
in Europe and it was coming back through Boston and

(30:03):
was going to meet me and we were gonna discuss
our future because she had been a scholarship post college
in Europe for a year. Um, and she was flying
home the day. We were playing a game a'sunde the
afternoon in Boston and the game went to overtime and
I'm like, I'm again, this is dirty years ago. There's
no cell phone or something. So she's gonna come out

(30:24):
at the airport. She's gonna get off the plane and
go through the gate and there's gonna be no Michael,
and it's gonna be no Michael to find and then
she's gonna get on playing in Pittsburgh and I'm never
gonna see again. Um and Larry hit a Followay jump,
ridiculous Falloway jump shot to beat Portland's right at the
buzzer at the end of the first overtime, and I
can remember I remember literally just telling taking my headsets

(30:44):
off after it was kind of like got it Celtics win.
I took the headsets off point and I said, point
to time, and I said, you got this. I ran
down and got my car, drove over the airport like
it was like the graduate Like I pulled up a
double parked in front. I walked into terminally over there
while the international flights come from and she's coming through
the door as I walked in just in time, and
she never left. That was thirty years ago. I've been

(31:06):
married thirty years. You know that that you mentioned the
Isaiah Steel and Johnny's call almost has become synonymous with it,
you know, the and that that was you think about
that play, you also think the end there's a Steel
But yeah, I mean that's yeah, you know, probably some
of the best calls I haven't had. Unfortunately didn't have

(31:27):
anything to do with the Celtics square college basketball games.
Um I did the Santa Clara Arizona game when Steve
Nash was a freshman and they were fifteen. They beat
it two. Um I did Vanderbilt lost to my directional
school and forgive me, I forget who they were now.
I did that game in the n c A tournament
that was just came right down to the final five

(31:47):
minutes with like a heavyweight fight. Everybody made basket after
basket after basket. Um So. I did a lot of
Big East Tournament games in Masson Square Garden that were
very memorable. I did some Georgetown Syracuse games in the
cart A Dome with like thirty people. Um So, most
of the bigger moments that I really had broadcasting. Uh,

(32:08):
we're in college games because of the fact that the
NBA wouldn't last do it. So you you came in
with the Celtics, and right around the time this young
kid from Indiana is making his way, I thought it
was gonna be easy. They had like two championships and
the parents in the final in the first like four
years and there I think like this is great. Then
we go like eighteen years or whatever without anything what

(32:30):
were early members of Bird though, just his um, his focus,
his concentration. Um. He used to walk into the old
garden and he used to have those rampways because of
the circus. So you walk up the ramps back and
forth to get in. And I can remember we're coming
in like three thirty in the afternoon for games at
seven thirty, and as I walked up the ramp, the

(32:51):
sound of a ball hitting the court. We get louder
and louder, and you get to the top and you'd
look down and there was Bird with Corky. Who was
this guy Um? And just Kyrie like is like this
a little bit Bird was down there and Bird wasn't
like standing outside the three point line. Tried practice in
thirty threes. He was practicing little jump hooks in the lane,

(33:11):
little finger rolls off to the left and right, little
left handed shots. And then you'd see him do it
during the game, and you know, people at home are
going like, how did he make that up? But he
didn't make it up. He had been working on that
and he knew exactly where he was going to use it. Um.
There are two guys that that that I've seen in
my career that completely dominated the moment. And that would

(33:35):
be Bird and Garnett uh and and we were dominant teammates,
the ultimate teammates. They they made everybody better all the time,
not just on the court, off the court when they're traveling,
when you're doing things, and and Bird Kevin Moore so
much when on the outside. But but Bird on the
court was was such a leader. Um and and was

(33:58):
you know, as soon as he stepped across the lines,
he was playing you know, and everybody uses those analogies,
like everybody else was playing checkers, he was playing chess
and all that stuff. But it's true, Um, Larry was
a five better capita at basketball. I know what he
was in the rest of his life. I didn't get
to know him that well. I wish I'd got to
know those guys better. I know Kevin mckaye a little bit,
but I wish I had got to know those guys better.

(34:19):
But because I wasn't doing the road games, as you know,
that's where you really meet guys. That's where you get
start a relationship with the guy that doesn't isn't based
on ask him a question about the last five minutes.
It's a night's game. So Um. Having never traveled with
those guys, I never was really that close to those guys.
I was much much closer to the Paul Ps Kevin

(34:39):
Garnet team. Um, they're they're my favorite team of all times,
as much as that's heresy to a lot of the
Larry Bird folks. The they're my favorite team and Paul,
without question is my favorite player. What do you remember
though about the I mean, when you have that many
stars kind of put together hall of famers put together
in that eighties era, I mean how functional were they were?
Did they like each other? They get along? I mean

(35:01):
yeah they did because Kevin was outspoken and funny, Chief
was just willing to go along. Uh. Danny was Danny
even back then. He was Danny was always kind of
pushing people, prodding people a little bit, trying to hustle
you into some game. He knew he could beat you
at UM. And you know, it was very different scene
because instead of the uh, the comfort with which these

(35:21):
guys travel nowadays, on these seven fifty sevens and all
decked out in first class with beds in them and
everything else, you were traveling commercially and you had to
you know, you had back to backs, and you had
to get up and be on the first light out
the next morning. So you know, I get these things
now where it says, you know, uh, bags and bus
at nine, at ten o'clock in the morning, you had
to be on the first flight out, So you know,

(35:43):
bags and bus was like at four after you had
played the night before to go and play again somewhere
that night. So, um, there wasn't. I can remember that.
I used to send mL car out first off the
plane because again the media would be waiting, and then
there's no security in those days, so the media kick
him right to the gate where you were landing, and
they would send them l out first, and he was

(36:04):
supposed to engage all the reporters, and then Larry and
Kevin would trying to sneak by in the back. You
get out and get into the bus as fast as
they could. Um. But again they I think it was
much harder on them, um, excuse me, much harder on
them in the sense that they didn't get a chance.
They have a nutrition is trying to work out their

(36:25):
food menu for them. They weren't pfet's waiting for them
on the plane. There are a lot of potato chip
eggs and cokes and uh, guys have smoked and um
so it was it was a very different atmosphere. Um
But again, I that's if I have one regret from
all those years, it's Um, I wish I could have
got to know them better, because I would. I would
literally arrive at the garden, I would go to the

(36:45):
press room. I would sit down with Johnny and Tommy
and we were talking about the game, and then Tommy
would say, come on, let's go see Red. And we
get down in Red's office and I would sit there
and never say a word, and Red would proceed to
talk for twenty minutes about what was going to happen
tonight and who was good and who was bad, and
then we go out and do the game. As soon
as game was over, I walk down and stays getting
my car and go home. Um So I had no
contact with them. Um Again, you tend to go to occasionally,

(37:08):
go to shoot around and practices when you're on the road.
When you're at home, if you don't have to go,
you don't go. Um So, Uh, they were more strangers
to me. Even though I did all those games, they
were more strangers to me. And I think and in
one level. I remember talking to a broadcasting class about this.
It made me a better broadcaster because I didn't know
them and and so they were all heroes to me.

(37:30):
You know, Larry Bird was Larry Bird and McHale was
Kevin McHale. Um, there were great players that I was
getting a chance to call play. They weren't the guy
who stiffed me last night, who I either liked it
didn't like or you know. The hardest thing when you
do and play by plays is to not cover up
for guys you like when they make mistakes. You know. Um,
so I was. I always felt I was pretty objective

(37:52):
doing those guys, uh, much more so than I was
doing uh the ps is because I just really liked
Paul and so Paul made a bad pass, it usually
was because the other guy was in the wrong position.
You know. Who doesn't get a lot of credit for
those eighties teams, those Casey Jones. Yes, uh, you know,
and one of the most impressive resumes of any credible resume,

(38:15):
going from the University of San Francisco and a couple
of championships to Olympico Medal to come in here and
win like Seminar eight championships in a row, um, and
and and a remarkably sweet man. Why why was he
the right guy for those teams when you think back
on on how he coached them? Um, could anybody have
coached those teams? I don't know whether anybody could have

(38:36):
coached those teams. I think because there were so many
strong egos there. He he didn't try to be the guy. Um.
He didn't try to make his personality bigger than than
than the players, and I think that help a lot.
I remember being in the game in Utah, and Um,
Larry had something like twenty five points, twelve rebounds, eleven assists,
and and and and eight blocks and nine blocks and

(38:58):
steals and with the fourth category it was, but he
was like one away whatever it was. So there's about
five minutes left in the game and Casey takes Larry out,
and in case he comes walking by the table when
I come out, and I give him a little wave
and I said, look, Larry's one steel away from like
a quadruple double. That's kind of heard of, you know,
case you just want to know. So Kay says, oh,
that's pretty cool. So I see him walk up and
say something to Larry and he goes back and system beats.

(39:20):
Larry never gets back in the game, and um so
I see Casey afterwards and I say, uh, what what
happened with what the quadruple double? He said, oh, I
told him. He just looked at me and he said,
I've done enough blanket damage around here tonight. It sounds
like Larry, yeah, exactly, But it also sounds like Casey.
Casey wasn't gonna say, oh, get back in there. In

(39:41):
Case he was like, that's the way you want to
do it. There's another famous story, which I'm sure is
probably half true, of Casey diagramming a play on a
key time in a big playoff game and all of
a sudden a towel flying into the middle of his
diagram and with Larry, and he looked up at Larry,
and Larry said, give me the blanket ball, And in Case,
he said, looked at the other guys would give him
the blanket ball. And that was the end of the

(40:02):
time out. They gave it a Larry, he went one
on one, won the game, and that at the end
of that, so much stuff that happened. Could you imagine
stuff like that happening today? Like in today's media culture
like bird through towel, that would be the suspended for
two games, right that? Five thousand questions two weeks later,
people going, I know it's a two weeks ago, coach,
but what did you think when you saw the towel? Hey,

(40:23):
I'm always amazed watching Brad and and watching Doc who
was a master at it, but watching them handle these
postgame pregame press conferences. Not so much the postgame because
that's usually focused on what just happened, but the pregame
press conferences. And you have media there who haven't seen
the Celtics in three months and they want to know,
you know, what do you think of Marcus Smart breaking
his hand? You know, well that was a while ago.

(40:44):
I thought all about it. How it's going. Um So,
I'm amazed how these guys handle that. Some coaches don't
like stan Van Gundy is not going to pop pop. Yeah,
popa answered that classic, although pop smell it out lately. Yeah,
it's always I always thought the pup his um his
rep was undeserved to some degree. There were two he

(41:05):
didn't want to do the in game interviews and that
became kind of a bit for him to some degree.
But if you asked him a real question after a game.
He was phenomenal, like he will not if you say
talk about something, He's not going to He's going to
talk about what if you say how important? Because report
he should be thrown out, open up, talk about Yeah,
if you say how important, he'll say very and that

(41:27):
will be the end of it. But if you say,
you know noticed Lawarcus soldiers playing more through this spot?
Is that by design? And if he thinks it's interesting,
he'll he will, He'll fill up your notebook. He's he's
excellent like that. Oh no, he's the best props one
of my favorite coaches of all time. For his political views. Yeah,
for his Yeah, he's got he's got some interesting ones.

(41:49):
There Um. Two tragedies that befell the franchise during your
time broadcast always let bias in the eighties, and of
course Reggie Lewis passing away in the nineties. What do
you view as the most consequential for the course of
of the franchise, Lenn passing or or Reggie's passing. That's
a good question. I've never been asked that question. My

(42:11):
first reaction would be to say bias, um, because he
there were people at the time, we thought he was
better than Jordan's UM and had more size, UM had
a chance to be a lifetime plan. Reggie was a
wonderful player and and and the whole Northeastern thing made
it even more special. UM. But but Bias could have
been a Lebron type of player at the time. UM.

(42:34):
So I I thought the fact that that that radically
changed our direction for quite some period of time. And
what because as I remember correctly, they got no compensation
from the NBA for him. It wasn't like, well, gear
the number one pick next year. Kind of too bad Boston, UM.
And so that was I would say that was more
consequential to the franchise. Uh. Reggie's passing was more emotional.

(42:58):
We didn't know Lan Bias. We only knew what then
Bias might be and could be to help us be
a better basketball team. Everybody knew Reggie and everybody loved Reggie,
so emotionally that was much more devastating. But on the court,
I probably would have said bias. Trying to think about again,
fast forwarding and almost to today, about what how a
situation like Reggie's would unfold in today's sort of climate.

(43:20):
I have a hard time seeing well he hadn't died
during a game, of course, he died practicing. But you know,
the the NBA would never have allowed Reggie to play
in today's league. Sad way, Chris Bosh is now pretty
much out for medical reasons there. I mean, people kind
of forget that, those that weren't around when that was happening,
how crazy that was. When he had a dream team

(43:40):
of doctors saying don't do it, one doctor saying it's
it's okay, and you know, lo and behold, Yeah, what
happened there? So hard to talk about, Yeah, very hard
to talk about. Um, you are with the team. Now
there's a former college coach is having great success. Brad
Stevens considered one of the best UH coaches in today,
you know, bar none of a lot of them. I

(44:02):
buy that. Yeah, I buy it too. I think he's
he's an incredibly good coach. And you were around when
when Pettino was here though, and Petino came in with
a lot of fanfare. You know, it was great college
coach coming out of Kentucky. He coached his first few
years basically with the core of his Kentucky teams. I mean,
there was Antoine and Walter and Tony Delk and all
those guys. From what you say, why didn't Rick Pettino
work as a as a as a pro coach in Boston.

(44:27):
I think the answer to that is, I think Rick
got some bad advice from people coming in here saying
that he had to be in charge of everything, because
if he wasn't in charge of everything, that there were
people here who wouldn't I don't know, stabbing the back.
I don't know what the the argument was, but the
but but Rick was told by people the way I
understood that that he had to have full control and

(44:48):
this wouldn't be the job to take. So as a
result of taking full control, he took the President's tile
away from red, which was already wrong foot, just way
off on the wrong foot, and and and um, it
just kind of went downhill from there. Um. I mean,
Rick's basketball credentials are are impeccable. Um. And I I

(45:08):
go back to rickby and assistant coach at Syracuse and
his first into Providence. I got to see him up
close and and you knew this guy was going somewhere
because he just was so intense on what he was
doing and had really good ideas. UH. In college especially
embraced the three point line when everybody else was saying
this is bad for the game. And Roley Massamina was
refusing to take three point shots because I was bad
for the game. And Rick's making twelve of them with

(45:30):
guys like Pap Lewis and the guys you never heard
of going to the final four. UM. So, I mean
there's no question Rick is a is a brilliant basketball guy.
I just think he was given the wrong information as
to how he needed to operate here in Boston. UM.
And I think he his plate became too much of
what he controlled. He controlled everything and it just turned
out to be too too great a load. UM. And

(45:54):
I I do think the pro game being a great
we know this. This is I'm not to stay something
that I think is remarkable here. But being a great
pro coach to college coach doesn't mean you're gonna be
a great pro coach. In fact, it probably means you're
not going to be UM. And so Rick was one
of the few guys who I think could have succeeded

(46:16):
on both levels really well. UM if he had let
other people on the business and other people and stuff.
He just should have taken control of basketball operations and
nothing else. Instead he tried to take control of the
whole franchise and it just didn't work. Um, it didn't work.
People remember you know Rick saying, you know Robert Parrish

(46:36):
rby Bird not coming through that door. Um, that wasn't
really the problem. That the problem was more, uh taking
on too much to begin with, and not being able
to do what you wanted to do best. And you
just taking reds title was astonishing even at that my
at the age I was at around the still working
for the team, beginning working with the team, that that

(46:57):
you would take Red Hour Backs title from him, even
if he's what was he chairman at that point of
putting upstairs to some degree that that doesn't that's not
a good way to start your career. No, it just
it just was wrong. I mean it was it was
bad advice, and it could have been rectified pretty quickly.
Uh it wasn't, And it just proceeded to get worse
and and and Rick became an island. Um it was

(47:21):
really not. I can remember very clearly, um in Miami,
Uh watching Rick on the sidelines and and and Paul
Piers coming out of the game, and and and watching
Rick the way he embraced Piers as he came out
of the game. I was doing the game with Tommy
and Bob both and I remember turning to them during
the time out and I said, he's done. He's not

(47:41):
coming back, um, and they're like, yeah, you're crazy. I said,
he's trust me. I could tell I've been around this
guy for a long time. He's done. I remember going
to the locker room afterwards and um, going in and
it was dead silent, couldn't have found Jeff twists. And
I said with his coach, and he said, he's in
the room over there. I don't over. I knocked on
the door and his voice said come in, and I

(48:03):
walked in and which I sat there with him for
about two minutes and he just said to me, I'm
not going back and I'm done. Uh. And I said
to anything I can do for you outside in terms
of how do you want to hand the media or whatever,
and he said, I'll figure that out, but I'm done,
and I just said, good luck. Remember what do you think?
What do you think? Broken? No one thing, just accumulation

(48:31):
of a lot of things being unable to get make
the system work the way he wanted to work. I think, Um,
you know, but with a lot of college coaches, they
can threaten minutes with guys. That's the big hammer to
motivate guys. You can't do that in the post, you know,
Paul Paiss Nathalon Walker, We're gonna play their amount of minutes.
Doesn't matter what you say and what you do. Um.
So I think he had lost those guys. You know,

(48:53):
they probably be polite to the state and say he hadn't.
But from where I sat, he had lost most of
the guys on the team, and and he knew it.
You know. Sometimes you see, you know, I look at
the pistons in some clubs that we were playing lately,
and I'm saying, like, wow, there's a gap there between
between the bench and the actual players. Um. And just

(49:16):
you know, again, Rick just didn't have control of the team.
They didn't want to do what he wanted to do anymore,
and and didn't believe in that. That's you get to
a more positive subject. But that's the great thing about
Brad is these guys all believe in Brad. They believe
that when he draws up a play, they really think
it's gonna work. Um. And you know that that you
constantly hear these guys that have come through here in

(49:38):
the time, especially in the early years when Brad had
a lot of guys going through, when they go through
their exit interview and then to a man, they would say,
I'm a better player now than I was when I
got here. Um, And uh, that wasn't the case with
with Rick's guys. Guys were getting worse, they weren't getting better.
A lot of those same lines. Um, Danny Ainge has
emerged one of the better gms in the lake, you know,

(50:00):
covering him, you know, back in his playing days. And
and after that, Didjemy Inkling then that that he might
turn out to be this impressive as good as a GM.
I didn't, Um, but I'm impressed. I mean, he really
is really really good at what he does, which which
which doesn't surprise me because we could be talking about
anything right now and Danny was going to be good
at it. I mean, Danny was good at everything he

(50:21):
was baseball, football. I mean a lot of people and
say it was one of the best high school quarterbacks
that I saw. Um. So yeah, Danny was is really
good at everything he does. Um. I can remember when
he was named the job, and Red had this way of,
at least with me, where he would be talking to

(50:42):
do to you, but he wouldn't be looking at you.
But when he wanted to make sure you were really listening,
he kind of locked you in with us there. And
I remember when he was describing Danny and he said,
Danny's this, Danny's this, Danny's this, and then he looks
at me and he goes, and that son of a
gun is lucky. I'll forget that because Bett was like,
you gotta have luck, you gotta have luck. Um. So

(51:06):
Red certainly recognized what Danny could be. Um, you know,
And I wonder whether Danny is is so good now?
You would know this much better than I. But uh,
if he's so good now, do people want to deal
with him? They're afraid to deal with him because everybody
who deals with them seems to ultimately come out not
only in the short end, on the real short I
think it's a mix of it. I think some of
the new guys are a little gun shy about making

(51:29):
a deal, whereas some of the older guys want to
be the one that beats him on a deal. To
some degree. So I'm sure that's true. I'm sure that's true.
And you know, the thing I see with a large GMS,
I just shouldn't say a lot, but it seemed obvious
to me with some GMS is they're afraid to make
deals that they would rather go into this season with
what they have and then if all those fails, you

(51:51):
fire the coach and then then you get your second
go around, as opposed to with Danny is taking a team.
That's what fort and nineteen know whatever. The Celtics are
right now, and you know Danny's on the phone with
somebody trying to make this team better. Um uh. That's
the probably the most fun aspect of working for the
Celtics all these years is they want to win the

(52:12):
whole thing. They did. They don't want to get in
the playoffs. They don't want to say, oh but we
got to the second round. That that there would never
have been even when they would were bad enough to
only get to the second round. There was a belief
that somehow, maybe this will be a miracle and we
can win it. Um And so working for a franchise
that is always trying to win the whole thing, as
opposed to just try to be better than the next guy.

(52:35):
Is part of the reason I stayed here as long
as I have, because it's just is it's so much
fun to watch them do it too. I mean, that
was a long drought in the nineties, but um, to
watch them come back and see what the position Danny's
put them in now where this team is gonna be
good for a long time. You know when championships will
see that. That comes down to a lot of things.
But are they in the hunt they in the conversation, Yeah,

(52:58):
I would say we're going forward now. I like I
like with their position better with Cleveland's positions in since
in terms of salways and things coming up, Um, Toronto
is very good. But yeah, again, any any discussion of
of who's going to represent the East Boston's prime in
that discussion, and that's that's gonna be that way next year,
in the year after, in the year after all the

(53:19):
nineties you got to go to Barcelona, right, you were?
I did Dream Team. I was with it. Yeah, I
didn't get to go with the dream team in a
little bit. Um, that was fun. That was fun that
they really was a dream team. I mean they they
they had their own private bus that they had blocks
roped off so people can't get near the hotels. I mean,
they were like the Beatles. One of the best books

(53:40):
I've read in a while was Jack McCallum's Dream Team book,
where he basically wrote a chapter on every player on
that team. And man, they seem like they had a
good time over there, like larger than life isn't even
I don't think that's an appropriate phrase to describe it. Yeah,
I tell you a funny story because I'm with my
future son in law and my daughter UM, and we're
talking about barcelon own it. This is recently, like a

(54:00):
week ago, And I said, you remember when you took
the walk with Charles Barkley and she said. He immediately protupts.
She said did she do what? And I said, We're
sitting around a table and Kristen was seven years old,
eight years old maybe um and Barkley stood upt the
table and he said, I want to take a walk,
Come with me, and he puts his hand out and
Christen like just grabs his hand and off they go.

(54:21):
I'm going I hope this works out well, which you did. Uh,
It's just you don't even know where he's going to
be going at that point exactly. But he took her
around the block. Is notn't like that people were watching
him for autographs. She thought it was really funny that
he brought it back. Um, and her her fiance is
just like, you were hanging around with Charles Barkley and
you don't even remember it. She was like, yeah, but yeah,

(54:43):
that Barcelona experience was once in a lifetime experience. I
was doing tennis. I could tell you some good tennis stories.
Uh so thirty seven years, will we see you? At
fifty years, you'll see me. I hope see you, but
hopefully I'll be sitting with Steve Paluka down in the base. Um.
I I don't see the end right now. Um, but

(55:08):
you know, I gotta give somebody else a chance to
do this job eventually. I really would like to because
I think this can happen in the next three or
four years. I'd really like to stay for one more championship. Um,
I'll never forget doing the parade that if from the
team and the piercing guy that team. So yeah, one
more duck boats ride that'd be good. Then then I'm

(55:29):
ready to go. I feel like Tommy ready to go.
Play golf with you dad. Yeah, well he's got plenty
of I feel like Tommy will find a way to
He always changed the schedule every single year. He'll find
a way to be doing one game a year until
it's till the very end. He well, at least he
says to me all the time. You're like, you know,
like we can. We'll just take over that student studio
show you and me. We'll just sit there, we're watching
on TV. You have a couple of subs, and then
we'll talk about it. We'll go home. It'll be good.

(55:50):
Oh it sounds good to me. People like that's not
gonna happen a while. The Tommy, the Tommy hights and
meal planned is it cracks me up. But I see
him in studio. It is a subs, it's chocolate mill Kit's,
it's tremendous. He just sort of and he has that
same I mean, you dealt with it on a much
different level, but that same sort of mindset in studio.
Whereas I'm going to talk about what I see, I'm
not gonna go in, you know, prepped for for doing this.

(56:12):
When I see it, I'll talk about it. Well, there
was a time, you know, and and I used to
enjoy doing Big East Games because you were literally introducing
teams to people. They didn't know who the players were,
um and and players were changing every two or three years.
Um and so I really like that. But when we're
get into doing what we're doing, like people don't want
to hear necessarily background information. There's so many places they

(56:34):
can go find that when they when they nobody stumbles
upon us, there's like a hundred two hundred, three hundred
stations on your cable box. Nobody. It used to be
there was four or five and seven, and then thirty
eight came along and that was a big deal. Um,
nobody stumbles on us. People know exactly where we are.
They go there to listen to that game that night.
They want to know like his Marcus smart back is
he okay, that's good to know. How close is going?

(56:55):
And Heyward, okay, that's good to know. All right, let's
go play. Um and so all those biographical stories of
you know, one of nine kids, as brother does this,
his father is sad. I just do all that stuff
out about it eighteen years ago, and I just sit
there Tommy and go, oh, look at that. Well, Mike,
it's been a pleasure listening to you, pleasure working with

(57:17):
you these last few years, and uh, thanks for joining
me here on the podcast. I appreciate St. Brennan's is
proud of you, Chris trying to live up to it.
That's it for this week's episode. Thanks to everybody for
joining in, thanks to my guest, and as always, you
can download archived episodes on iTunes, tune in, Stitcher, really
anywhere you can download podcast. While you're there, post a comment,
leave a rating. You know I appreciate it, and I'll
see you next week.