April 4, 2023 • 37 mins
Celtics radio duo Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell join this week’s episode to share stories of their on-air relationship. The episode begins with Cedric Maxwell praising Sean Grande’s ability to bring energy to their broadcast, regardless of the outcome on the floor. As a former player, Max admits he can get swept up in emotions, recalling a few trophy presentation stories from the 2010 Finals and last year’s 2022 Eastern Conference Finals.
From here they go back to the beginning of their on-air relationship, 22 years ago. They discuss how their chemistry developed, their roles on the broadcast team and how beneficial it’s been having the ability to work interchangeably with the broadcast crew at NBC Sports Boston.
Before wrapping up, the crew discusses how their longevity brings a level of intimacy to the stories they share with fans. For example, how intertwined Cedric Maxwell was with Kevin Garnett before he even played for the Celtics.
2:31 – Grande Brings The Energy
4:23 – Max’s Trophy Presentation In Miami
6:50 – How The Duo Began
14:01 – Complimentary Styles
18:15 – Chemistry From The Start
21:08 - Challenges This Season Splitting Time With Radio & TV
25:04 – Kevin Garnett
26:40 – KG Welcoming Back Ray Allen
30:00 – Body Of Work Matters
34:20 – Cedric Maxwell’s Multitasking Abilities
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone. This is view from the rafters today. We're
bringing in a man who hails from basketball country life
is funny. Okay, go don't go there. Not yet. Well
we talked about it that po the Bust One Boys
is the crazy story, not actor a basketball It's the
crazy thing to me. It's like where you came from. Yeah,
we're all older than we think. We are always Gold
League Gray Baby, Welcome inside the Celtics front office at
(00:26):
one hundred Causeway Street. We got another episode of you
from the Rafts coming right at you today. Before we
get into this with Cedric maximum Sean Grandy, who have
called what two thousands something games together, I don't know
who's doing the math on that was you. You're the
one adding them up with you going sixteen eighty one,
sixteen eighty two, sixteen. Who's doing it? I can tell
you who didn't added though, I can tell you two people.
(00:47):
I lost count already, So what do we had two thousand?
Like I didn't. I wasn't keep accounting the first place.
I just show up to work, all right. Well, before
we get into that, I just want to remind everyone
give us a great review and subscribe. We appreciate it.
Audio episodes job and every Tuesday on your favorite podcast platform,
and the video version dropping every Wednesday on our YouTube channel. So,
(01:07):
as I said today, we've got the pair who's called
more games together than any pairing in Celtics history. Am
I right on that? That's what we're told. In fact
that when they when they told me this, the number
thing is kind of silly. And Max and I we're
already joking about it. You can't win that when you're
a numbers guy. But here the thing is, I'm not
a numbers guy. Oh okay, that's the thing. It's like
(01:29):
I do my research and share it. Yeah, because I'm
a play by play guy right now. This is so
this is the funniest thing in the world to me. Like,
in doing play by play, you have to prepare. It's
called preparation. Yes, you prepare for the games. I share
my prep because now we have social media, so I
share the prep with fans and then people who don't
(01:49):
listen to the games, that don't watch the games that
apparently I've done two thousand radio games with Max and
another god knows how many hundreds of games on TV
and the NBA and this and that suddenly I'm a
numbers guy. It's a play by play guy because I
share mine. No, you're a play by play guy who
has the numbers. I have them there at twenty something years,
two thousand games. Yeah, a bunch of numbers. And he
(02:13):
would give you numbers throughout the game. It would give
you percentages of Celtics they have a ninety eight percent.
But they lost or this team did, and not sitting down,
I'm just like, oh, really, so I've just found out
that Sean does have numbers, and I think that is
to me. I'm fascinated by his numbers. More so I
(02:33):
think I told Sean this. I said, more fascinated about
Sean Grandy the broadcaster. When we lose, Sean Grandy maintains
energy throughout a call. It could be the call for
the other team is like and and he'll say something
like and Lebron James, oh my god, what the play?
(02:54):
And he finished it going towards the rim and it's
the winning play. I'm on the other side going, oh man,
damn ye. And then I admire him for that. I
can't keep He keeps a certain amount of energy which
I which I think is great. And I don't have
that energy for the other teams. You didn't have that
(03:16):
in Game seven in twenty ten and Los Angeles when
the Lakers were about to win the championship, you're saying
you didn't. I didn't have the energy. My injurgy was
going down and down until our you know, our engineer
of a sit beside me telling me all of a
sudden max because I was the one supposedly going out
to receive the trophy and they've told me I had
(03:38):
to go and sup and didn't get the trophy, and
and I was like, oh man, this is gonna be great.
Celtics up by what fourteen fifteen whatever they want going
into that quarter, and my engineer, Doug Lane is sitting
there saying, Okay, this is what you have to do
when you go in. I got a wireless Mica on
your dad, and I'm looking to the score going just
(04:00):
going down. But it gets down like six, and he's
still talking to me about this. I said, you shut
a shut up mouth right now, and and to see
the eventually, you know, you see what Ron Artest does
and win the game. Why are we taking well, I'm
going to do it for this is what I do
because that moment prepared him for thirteen years later standing
(04:25):
next to Lisa Salters in Miami with the Eastern Conference trophy,
and so everything comes for not really, I've turned making
an Those can't be a good story. We always do
real stories. It's like my podcast, we say keeping on
the Hunted, it would have been better doing the final
and Lisa and Lisia Salters was it was a it
(04:46):
was a good get to get down there and do it.
I had to run through the crowd because the game
wasn't over because if we kept missing all these shots.
Sean had a great call, He's prepared, and Marcus Mark
takes it three and this Marcus gets a and then
and then finally you know when, and now I have
to get down through the crowd to get down there
(05:06):
to see the Lisa Salters and the first year you're
high up in Miami. Yeah, and I and the guy,
this guy's busting me through the crowd because he's the
he's the guy who has to take me. So as
I get down to the bottom and finally get through
the crowd, and I remember sitting there saying that I
was like, well, am I gonna say? Because they give
you a few words to say, and she has a
(05:27):
microphone and she's like, well, Ceter Maxwell, Founder's MVP. You're
receiving this troph here and and and still today people
said I said some things were not correct. I said, girl,
it is great being on top. And some people took
offense of that line. I said, I was talking about
the game. I was, so, you know, even then, even
(05:47):
Dan Sean Grandy heads this flying, which I love, he
always says, no good deed goes u punished. So I
busted this crowd to do all this and get that
to the microphones. All of a sudden I get back
lash because something that supposedly I say it, though it
didn't say speaking of no good deed goes unpunished. With Grandy, Max,
you always get a hundred, right, you always get keep
(06:08):
it in a hundred. But if both of us found
out in real life with your wife, if you keep
it one hundred, that's how you end up with fifty
fifty stuff. Um, okay, let's let's get back to how
this started, because we're talking about this is twenty two seasons, right,
if my masters, this is this twenty second season of
you guys, remember two John has told me it's my
(06:34):
twenty six years always twenty eight dude, twenty eight man,
I gotta get me. I'm gonna say I got an
easy one. Well, I gotta get you on right now
with my my consulting that I get retire the rates
retire sooner than well. What happened was we I had
first broadcast partner. I had Spencer Ross as Spencer for
(06:55):
a couple of years, and then they wanted to make
a change the guy Howard David, and Howard David came
in and I had done the game with Sean. Uh,
it's the test that we were talking about. Okay, there's
more to the stories. Yeah, he came. He came in.
Howard has something to do or something happened, and they
brought Sean in and and I, you know, and I
(07:18):
did the broadcast and and we had a good broadcast,
and I didn't know if I was gonna see Sean again.
I said good luck, and the next thing I know,
he had gone. He was gone, you know, to Minnesota.
And then I think once Howard was let go, they
were trying to find and then they came to me
and said, well, um got Sean Granty. So I worked
(07:40):
with Sean already. He said. Guy said, well, you know,
why don't you call him up, you know, you know,
tell him to come up. I said, well, give me
his number, and I called him and talked. You know,
we talked about him coming back, and he was like, yeah, yeah,
I came back. And that's how I let Seohan finished press. Well,
that that phone call is what first made me changed
my mind about leave Minnesota, which I was not going
(08:01):
to do. I was doing TV in Minnesota. I was
twenty something years old. You know, it seemed like a
job I was going to be in for a long time.
But here's something you want, something that has never been
said on the air before that I've never talked about
as they do. When the change was made that Max
was just referring to to Howard David in nineteen ninety seven,
six months earlier, that job had been promised to me
(08:21):
at twenty five years old. I was going to join
Max in nineteen ninety seven to become the voice of
the radio voice of the Celtics. And then a funny
thing happened. Rick Petino arrived and suddenly the profile changed,
and suddenly this is going to be a glamor franchise
under Rick Pettino, and they didn't want a twenty five
year old kid. Yeah, that's kind of kind of the point. Now,
(08:42):
that's funny. And as you like saying about Marty Glickman,
he is gone. I am here and he is not.
But at twenty five years old. That was for about
four or five months, that was the plan that who knows,
Rick might be back. He was overseased, yeah, but in
(09:06):
any case, uh. And then when that got renegged from me,
obviously I was not happy, and I was going to
take the first job that came in. A year later,
Minnesota TV job came and I went and did that
before that in that ninety seven ninety eight season before
I went to Minnesota. That was the night the Howard
David who was doing Monday Night Football and the Celtics,
he got snowed in and he didn't get snowed in Miami,
(09:28):
but he couldn't get back to Boston because it was
snow in Boston. Flight wasn't going to get here. And
they walked into my little booth that I did the
updates and Max. Max and I are first on air together.
Was actually on Glenn Ordway's show in the late nineties
because Max was one of the rotating co hosts that
we would have come in with Glenn Ordway and I
did my little character, my little anti establishment Generation X character.
(09:52):
So that was the first time I worked with Max.
So I'm in my booth. They came into four o'clock
in the afternoon, they said, get over to the garden.
You're doing the game tonight, and about an hour or later,
the aforementioned Rick Petino. I'm like, Jeff Twist marches me
into the office and there I am face to face
doing a interview with Rick Potino and Seltics played that
night and one and Max and I had a w
was December twenty three, it's Christmas, um and he didn't
(10:15):
know numbers though I didn't have anything. That's what I'm thinking.
He he you know what I see where you're king. No. No,
he can repeat things to me, which to me is amazing.
When he says memory, he'll say two thousand and no,
when that happened two thousand and eight, yeah, or photograph
that happened two thousand and eight and that was And
I was like, oh, yeah, they get in. He always
(10:36):
gets told me for saying the other day. I'll say
the other day in the heartbeat two years ago, could
be yesterday. I don't know the day, so he does, well,
that's not again. Those are numbers. That's a memory. And yeah,
I remember. I have a bizarre thing that has aided
me in my career, and that I know that in
(10:57):
the two thousand and three, two thousand and fourth season,
when the Celtics lost that lead to Brooklyn earlier this year,
I remembered the game against Phoenix and they had lost
with Marbury Insttomar and I remember that we flew couldn't
fly out the next day because of a snowstorm, and
they won back to back games at Utah at Denver
that night, and then we went to Salt Lake the
next night Celtics won again. I remember all that. Where
are my car keys? No idea, But I have you
(11:19):
all this useless information of institutional memory, which I realized
now they call it that because you're gonna end up
in an institution, because you can't forget all of this.
You have a great memory, and numbers just happened to
fall into that, if you say so. All right, So
getting back to those first couple of games that you guys,
it was kind of like a test run. And yeah,
and when I went to Minnesota, I filled in. They
(11:42):
called me when I was doing it, called on the phone,
they called press Row. This is how old school this is.
Can you get down to Sacramento because Howard David couldn't
do a game in Sacramento And I met Max down there.
So we had done a couple of games together. But
I'm doing TV in Minnesota, so funny to me and
people are like, oh, you're doing TV this year. You're
you're You're good at TV. I'm like, I was kind
(12:02):
of doing it twenty five years ago. But when Max
called me, I thought, not just the games we had done,
but his style. I thought this could be a thing
like this could be a long running thing that fits together.
And I remember vividly we had a long preseason road trip.
(12:25):
Max will tell you about the statistician that we had
in the Rock, Arkansas that I picked out another life
lesson I learned, Yeah, you will, that's what is Chris
rockday the most powerful thing in the world. Uh yeah,
that's probably another story for another time. But I remember
there's a long road trip where all of a sudden
they were there was can you get me to these stats.
She likes stats. Who we had, what we sty and
(12:52):
then remember that, hey we got these stats. We got
to have a statistician on the road. In those days,
I gave you money like a you know, you can
give money to a statistician. And I had come from
doing college football on ABC, where they would have these
sort of nonsense jobs that they would pick out, shall
we say, students that went to that university, maybe to
sit in the truck, uh and lightly lightly So this
(13:18):
is the environment I came up with. So they offered
me three different people. These are three different people that
could do stats for you that night, and I made
a choice, probably based not so much on who might
the best statistician be, but maybe some other intangible qualities.
As it turns out, I don't think she could have
spelled cat if he spotted of the C in the eighth.
(13:39):
But and so that was a bit of a struggle
and a bit of a life lesson. I think we
all learned as a younger. But this is what happened.
Remember that he doesn't remember the Mr Stoll. You look,
I can't tell you when it was. I can't day
that just October happened? That was it? What were you thinking.
(14:00):
I know, we just heard what Sean was thinking during
those first couple of games, that like this, this could
work us being next to each other. What were you
thinking we had a good relationship and you know, and
what were what he was doing and his style because
as an analyst on the other side, you are pretty
much you always say you are the accent, You're the
(14:22):
salt and pepper for what the other guys doing. And
what Sean does is he has a way of telling
you a story. And then what I do is I
add the catch up. I had the mustard, I add
the pickles and all those things. He puts the main
meat and potatoes out there, and that's what I do.
I follow up with that and he's and that's that
(14:44):
is what makes us. I don't try to get in
his lane, and nor does he try to try to
get in my lane, and and and trying to tell
stories like that. I have more. I just waited just
because I think, no the faces that I think it's
become one lane, Okay. I I have he has stories.
I have stories, stories which might accent a certain things
(15:06):
that might have happened, and Sean will tell you what
happened and I can tell you a story that might
have been with Tommy, could have been with Robert Parrish,
could have been with could have been with Larry Bird.
And I think that our listeners a lot of times
like to have that connection. If he tells a story,
I might tell you something about Paul Pierce, when Paul
(15:27):
Pierce first got here, and those guys that I knew
at that time, like Jason Tatum. I will always have
my Jason Tatum story. Jason Tatum didn't really know who
I was, but Jason's hatum saw thirty for thirty and
so that day he comes. I remember that he's geting
ready to shoot around, and I'm standing there. He goes
corn bread, corn bread, corn Breason. But what's what's wrong
(15:51):
with you? Man? He said, Man, I saw that thirty
for thirty two times. Damn you were bad and just
a few more choice words. But those stories will stay
with me. But that's been my connection with the players
that we have now and the players that we've had
in the past, and my connection with you know, Kevin
Garnett and Sean and I saw some stuff on the
(16:12):
plane which you just have been just surreal. When you
think we can't talk about No you can't. Actually, well,
you're keeping on the hunted, ain't you. Hell yeah, you're
keeping on the hunt. Talk about it. This is behind
the scenes with the Boston Celtics. That's part of the
name of this podcast. So let's go. If you want
to drop something, you know, part of you're talking about
my memory whatever part of my memory now is that
(16:35):
I have a lot of his memory in my memory.
So I know when there's a time to tell us
kind of time tell us story. Well, listen, let's face it,
this is the longest relationship be the one of us
has ever had. So uh you after years of hearing
the stories and telling the stories, you know what what
fits and that's why we can is I like to say,
you guys, you just you finishes each other's and I'm
(16:55):
like sandwiches. But you get the point that it just
becomes a natural. We don't need to have a four
hour production meeting to go on the air, and good
luck every game. I know, I don't think we've had
four hours worth of production meetings in twenty two years.
If you were to add them all up about four minutes.
I think that it's just there's there's a best broadcaster.
(17:19):
Best broadcast are people who naturally get together and understand
what they're doing, and it's not contrived because you can
tell people who have studied and I and I learned
this from over the years as I was going through broadcasting,
that I could get all the notes I want, But
if those notes don't fit what he's talking about, it's
(17:40):
going to be awkward for me to get those notes
into a certain area. And you can't just can't want to.
You want to use those notes. You studied and you
did this, and oh this guy choos a certain percent,
you might not even be able to use that. So
that's why I, Tommy Hinson said, let the story tell itself, yall,
you don't need them for the other guy. This is
(18:06):
a chase, Tommy that once got Max on the front
page of the Boston Hell. How long did it take
for you each to like understand each other on air?
Did it happen immediately? Did it happen a couple of
years immediately? That's the reason I refer to that for
a world trip and what might have been it sounds like,
(18:27):
but I think it was casting. People say this guy
is a great actor, this woman is a great actor.
And I'm not demeaning the acting profession, but I think
that casting doesn't get into as much credit as it deserves.
That this was a casting decision and it just worked
out to where we on the surface our opposite in
(18:48):
a lot of ways, but that's we We fit together,
you know, we have, as I always the first couple
of years ago together you had the older guy from
North Carolina who listened to James Taylor, and you had
the younger guy, the younger white guy who listened to
Jay Z right, and so we have such opposite, such
different backgrounds, but it fits together immediately. And let's let's
(19:11):
face it, any broadcast team that works, any show that
works inside the NBA, whatever it is, at the end
of the day, you have people who love each other
who may just batter living hell out of each other
while they're on the air, because that's part of the game.
But it's just chemistry. It doesn't think that's it. It's
chemistry that sometimes you just can't pick. I mean, it's
(19:33):
like playing with Larry. There was a chemistry there that
I had when I first played with Larry that nobody
that I was. And I look at Jason Tatum right now,
and not look at Brown and they have a great
chemistry together, but they had to forge it, yea. And
they talked about it enough. It was I came in.
(19:53):
I was a leading scorer for Larry got here and
Larry Burr comes in the first day of practice, I'm like,
come on, just still my show got to be still
my show. After that that day, I remember going to
the first minute. This was not my prejudice. Side walked
to the first black person I could see after that
practice said you know what, that white guy can play that.
(20:17):
And that was But it taught me a lesson about
getting roles. But it gives you an opportunity, and this
was I would say to Tatum more to Brown. I'd
say to Brown more than Tatum. And the fact that
you're going to get your opportunities that you can highlight
your talent. And that would be evident to me being
the finals MVP. When you had Larry Bird on the court,
(20:40):
he had Kevin mckill there, you had Robert Parish, you
had all these uh Nate Archibald, but these were all
Hall of FAMERUS top seventy five of all time. But
still I got an opportunity to be an MVP in
the finals because of the opportunity that was presented itself
to me. We're talking about chemistry, finding roles, all that stuff,
(21:01):
and that you guys have kind of just fallen into
it with one another since the start, which begs the question,
how challenging has it been this season when you don't
have him all the time, when he doesn't have you
all the time, and you guys kind of have to
figure it out with other people On Aaron and Sean,
(21:22):
you're with Brian Scalabrini and Max here with John Wallack, Like,
how much of a challenge has that been with you
guys not having each other for half the games this season?
I'm curious your as I've got a good name now,
I'll go ahead let you I'll let you go for Sean,
I feel that first of all, as we're talking now,
it's twenty twenty three. At the end of this year,
(21:44):
I think this has been the best year. This has
been my personal favorite year of the twenty two years
i've been here, because it's been a new energy. We
brought a different feel to the TV side. My number
one role has been able to spell Mike so that
Mike doesn't have to do seventy freaking games and hopefully
his run and go on and on and on. If
he doesn't have to do seventy games a year, that
would be the perfect scenario. And then I think it
(22:06):
is added. I think Max and I have had as
good a year as we have ever had because now
we're doing sixty games instead of eighty five or ninety.
And as I have tried to explain to my wife,
the lesson is going outside and being with somebody else
for a little while and coming back it can be
even better. Now she hasn't not Dana. Something tells me
(22:27):
Dana doesn't leave well yet. But I figure if I
if I just keep hammering it where I think, well,
the real the lesson to me of twenty twenty three
is that it's what I've really felt all along, which
is that Brandy and Max, Mike, scal Abby, Eddie, we're
all interchangeable exactly. We can all pretty much do everything.
We could all set over like, Okay, this is the
year I've done TV. Max had several years where he
(22:49):
was filling in regularly on TV and I was doing
I was with different people you know that would fill
in on radio side, and the Max can do that.
I loved it when he was over there because it
was it put us light on him. You put a
spotlight on the Grandy and Max Brent. Oh, if you like,
it's the same thing now if you like Grandy, Oh,
he does this every night. You don't understand. People come
up to us and they say they always have an
(23:10):
excuse as some crazy thing happened. That's why they had
to listen. Oh, the power went out in my house.
I had to listen to you guys. Stuck in the car,
I had to listen to you guys. I'm like, we
do this every night. We're here every single night for
your entertainment. You don't have what you can join us
at any time. But I think that this year has
just punctuated what I thought, which is that it's one
big team that's interchangeable and listen mask you go on
(23:32):
TV tomorrow. Obviously I can do TV. But it's it's
nice that we've all gotten to share different things. I
think it's been a great year for us because it's
been a little juicier when we're together because we're doing
sixty games now and not nighty Well had to I like, um,
the said the energy of it, and Sean said, sometimes
the excuse, but sometimes people just like radio. Now that's
(23:55):
been a that's been a staple here in Boston for
a long time. U people will still tell me the day,
you know, I will turn the radio. I would turn
the TV to sound down to hear him how the
radio goes. And obviously it's two different mediums that you're in.
Had a guy the other day. Sean talks about excuses,
but this guy didn't have excuse. He says, well, you know,
(24:18):
we're in we're in Walpole, we're in the prison down there,
and uh man, we love you guys every night, I said,
because it's our bedtime and turn the TV off and
we listened to you. So I think it's obviously different audience.
I love them. I love the guy. We had one
time and I was talking about something and I told
(24:38):
Sean and Sean was telling me about the guy who
listened to us all the time in Australia, and so
you think, like he's listening that whatever it is in
the morning to us, and we would talk to him
and that he would text Sean back and I always
Sean was and Sean is also the other thing about
him was. He was on top of all the tweeting, texting,
(25:01):
all that stuff, you know, once it got started. Sean
also informed me about his opinion about when they were
Celtics about to make a trade for Kevin Garnett, which
I did not like and Tommy Heinson did not like.
And we were both like, you're gonna cheer with him,
You're gonna get al Al Jefferson, you're gonna get rid
of him. I was gonna whoa, no, no, whoa. And
(25:21):
Tommy Hinson, I quit quit right now if they get
rid of Al Jefferson. Qu And Sean said to me said,
you don't know, you do not know how good he is.
I'm like, what, the dude's an older guy, man, isn't
It can't be that. And he makes the first first
exhibition game, he makes this wrap around pass throwing it
(25:43):
to Paul Pierced around his back, and I went, well, Al,
it was nice to take your parting gift because you're
out of here and fell in love with, you know,
Kevin Garnett, the big ticket and you know, to bring
a championship and to you know, to talk to him,
and even somewhat mentor mentor did some mentoring to him.
(26:04):
I think that you and I won and I think, uh,
we were doing a podcast and you were talking to
him about you know, Kevin and Paul were on together,
and I remember You're looking at me and I said, hey, Kevin,
when you're gonna bring Ray back? And you went to
me like, WHOA wait a minute. This was this was
(26:26):
a few years ago, years ago. It was before that
time was seemed to be ready, and it was ready.
It was it was being prepped and it was ready.
And then talking to him, it was it was really good.
And then to finally see those guys together that hug
to me when they retired Kevin's number and Ray walked
(26:49):
out on the floor, that might be one of the
most lasting moments I think I have with the Celtics.
Maybe ever it was it Paul Pierce screwed it up
when he went out there and gave the third I
didn't want that, but I could have. I could have
just sat there and watched those two guys embrace. And
I'm not not, you know, hey whatever this thing, but
men embracing. But I was still fascinated about the energy,
(27:13):
the power Kevin Garnett bringing them up on stage, Ray Ray,
come on up here, boy, you next that man. That
was one of the best moments that I felt like
I had a hand in that by telling Kevin, yeah,
you're the godfather, man, you got to bring Ray back
a live nah man. I don't want said no, you
got to do that. And I think in his mind
(27:35):
maybe it wasn't just me, but I'm sure a lot
of people have said the same thing. The hold he
has over people and the magnitude of him as a
player and a person I don't think people appreciate. And
then was pushedback when Kevin Garnett first got here because
you can't say about anything about Larry or any of
the other Celtics. Same thing's happening with Jason Tatum right
now because Jason Tatum every night is breaking some Lowry
(27:55):
Bird record and people are pretty oh, Larry didn't shoot
the threes and he didn't. Then John half a check,
John Hapchick played forty seven minutes a game, so yeah,
he was gonna put it. So everyone just pushes back.
But then when it comes to Jason Tatum Knight, twenty
years from now, they'll be everybody to be complete. Well,
Duce isn't as good as as JT. You know, he's
as jac was great in the play, and that's sort
of the nature of it. But man Kevin Gren at
(28:17):
night was I'd never seen Ray Allen and Bryan Scalabrini,
two guys that don't get nervous about anything, and they
were both nervous. That was even now, the hold he
has on people, it's something that was more than a dap.
That was like a hug that really meant something. There
was just so much more than you could have imagined.
It shook the building, it did to his foundation. Yeah,
(28:39):
I mean I think the Celtics lost that night, right Dallas, Yeah,
lost that night. We don't do well on retirement. I
don't think that. I don't. Yeah, I don't remember. I
just just remembered the energy once he stepped out on
the floor and you and I was just happy that
they did it. I think Larry did it. Larry's was
a whole another way, when they just had a whole
(29:00):
day for l They just came in, it wasn't even
the game and they came in and they said, everybody
down and we all were here, and this championship team
and that championship team. It was such a cool moment,
and I was happy that they had Kevin Garnett for
at least after the game where everybody could give him
the love. Paul Pierce, same thing, because you know, I
(29:22):
had my mind was like, Okay, here's your jersey going up.
All right, you're right, you know, I was waiting to
get on the courts to start the second half. It
was the first person that came up to me after
my jersey was retired and said, dude, man, they said,
and it was it was so and I felt like
(29:44):
so special that he took his time to do that
because he was startlingest Lee at that time. And to
acknowledge me like that, to acknowledge me like that, man,
it was the coolest thing from a person who was
of the opposition. This conversation, Mark, this is Mike and Tommy,
Grandy and Max. This is institutional memory because if you
(30:08):
haven't been here, the significance of Kevin Garnett being there
at Max's retirement, Kevin Garnett eventually coming here, the bond
with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce watching that break apart
the many years are trying to get everybody back together,
and before you know it, people are coming up to you, going, hey,
I used to listen to you guys when I was
in high school. I used to listen to you guys.
And then you realize, okay, because you're listening. We're all
(30:29):
older than we think we are. But you realize the
body of work it matters to me in sports, I've
done a lot of national stuff and it's great and
it's prestigious, But being the announcer for a team and
telling a team story and then being able to do
it for multiple years, and being able to do it
for one of the most story franchises, there is a
(30:50):
responsibility that comes with that. That, to me is what
is so important that you are. It's a shared experience
that when people turn on a game without turning on
TV or radio or whatever, and they hear one of
us or both of us together, whatever it is, that
that matters. I got. I gotta ask you, though, why
wasn't it ready that Kevin Garnett conversation and ray at
(31:11):
that time? When well, sometimes within the walls of where
you're working, you gotta you gotta follow some direction, and
at that time, it just didn't feel organizationally that we
were there yet. I just jumped out in and you
just jumped out and I was like, oh, dear god,
oh we're never getting KG again. No, but it worked
(31:34):
out and and you know, in hindsight, I'm glad that
you did that because that might have been one of
the first real nudgees. And it was kind of it
wasn't like public, but it was in front of people
who were on the call um. I think it might
have helped it. Did it did? And I say that
only because and I wasn't trying to splat just splash man. Yeah,
but it was just at that time, to me, you
(31:56):
had Kevin in a situation we had to respond on
and had to respond in time. And it wasn't one
of the said he got a chance. Oh man, I didn't.
I'm not sure. I don't want no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. You are that dude, right, you're the
guyfather and you're gonna bring this thing back together. And
when it happened, man, it was like I said, I was,
(32:19):
I was a static, But I remember the look on
your face more than anything else once I ask it.
We never we've never actually talked about this before, but
I was like, oh, oh no, that's funny that you noticed.
I'm sure everyone else did too. Took the light rather
whoa no. No. This is the both the beauty and
the danger of being granted Max, which is that we
(32:41):
you never know where you tend to talk about things
when listen, everything happened at the start of this year
and there was a coaching change. I thought to go
on the air and say, hey, Joe Missoula just called
a time out without acknowledging what had just happened and
what we'd all been through. I think that there's sort
of the advantage of being not in this building twenty
four to seven that you've got to be able to
(33:03):
you're connected to the audience, and we felt we owed
the audience a conversation. So we record a ten minute
thing and we put it online and we said our
piece because we always have no matter what it is
that's affecting the team or affecting the NBA, and we
just went through you know this, the pandemic situation in
black Lives matter, and you just cannot we all have
to share these experiences. Couldn't be together, you couldn't be
(33:25):
blind to that. And I think that we understood where
the organization was. What Emay and what happened. But for
you just to turn the page without acknowledging would not
have been respectful to your listener, to a viewer, I
think that without just saying something about it, and and
(33:47):
I think that we on that radio site get a
little bit more liberty to talk about it than Mike,
for sure, or Scale would because it's a different medium
when we get a chance to talk. Where I was
telling they got a thousand commercials, so very seldom they
get a chance to talk about anything and you and
(34:08):
this and that and the gameplay, and whereas we have
a little bit more to Sean's favorite part, Yeah TV said,
it's like, yeah, this three in the Air is brought
to you by listen. We're running out of time. We
got to rap here. But I'd be remiss not to
ask Sean thirty seconds to describe to all of our
listeners Max's multitasking abilities during a broadcast. It's extraordinary. I've
(34:29):
never seen anyone be able to learn so much more
about the world outside of basketball while a basketball game
was going on than Max. I've I've learned just I've
learned more things about the animal kingdom and just different
he has life outside the NBA outside of basketball, and
I'm lucky enough I get all immersed in all the
(34:52):
numbers right and the preparation so to be able to
look over during Max Er in the second quarter of
a game instead of being able to try to pronounce
the starting center for the San Antone Spurs watching some
yeah YouTube video about what a snake eating a pig
or whatever it is. Um Listen said, you a better
person for absolutely. Did you happen to Sean did you
happen to know over in Africa that you know who
(35:16):
kills the most people over there? I said, hippos, He's
like lions. They're like, no, he was killed more people
than than anything else over in Africa. And here's really
here's where that paid off. One of our first years together.
We're playing the Jazz and at the end of the
Stockton I don't know where I'll tell you why. That's
what I do. The end of the I didn't get
her back, And you know, I think Mike's the only
(35:37):
one going to the Hall of Fame. So Stockton them
alone are still playing for Utah, right, And at the end,
Max is trying to come up with some analogy about that,
and he's got all these wild Kingdom stuff, and he goes,
let's just hope that, you know, let's John Stockton a Carmelone.
Now they're just not the same. They're kind of like
the old lions and they would you say, they send
them out to the hyenies, send them out outcast to
(35:59):
the you know, where they get eaten by the hyaenes.
And I just pause for a second. I said, we
can only hope a similar fate. It's not a wait.
Karl Malone and John Stockton there, it was perfect. I
wish that I was listening that day. That's perfect. No.
Sometimes I'm two or three rows behind you guys, and
I'm just watching what Max is doing, and I'm like,
this is unbelievable. When he's able to accomplish during this game,
(36:20):
he's winning game after game in Solitaire, or he's learning
about the Animal Kingdom, the multitasking ability is top notch.
Along along way, eating every now and then a little
bit of food shows that Sean has asked me before.
That's something I drank a good Did you just burp?
I'm like, yeah, I did. That's a real broadcast. All right, Well,
(36:45):
that's a perfect mic drop for the end of this no,
congratulations to you guys. You gotta we gotta get you
out of here so you can go and call your
two thousand something game to tell me I'll just go
to work. I'll tell you when I get down there.
But no, we appreciate the time. Congrats to the career
that you guys have built together there on the radio,
and we can't wait to hear them any more of them,
so appreciate you coming on. Thank you. H
Welcome everyone. This is view from the rafters today. We're
bringing in a man who hails from basketball country life
is funny. Okay, go don't go there. Not yet. Well
we talked about it that po the Bust One Boys
is the crazy story, not actor a basketball It's the
crazy thing to me. It's like where you came from. Yeah,
we're all older than we think. We are always Gold
League Gray Baby, Welcome inside the Celtics front office at
(00:26):
one hundred Causeway Street. We got another episode of you
from the Rafts coming right at you today. Before we
get into this with Cedric maximum Sean Grandy, who have
called what two thousands something games together, I don't know
who's doing the math on that was you. You're the
one adding them up with you going sixteen eighty one,
sixteen eighty two, sixteen. Who's doing it? I can tell
you who didn't added though, I can tell you two people.
(00:47):
I lost count already, So what do we had two thousand?
Like I didn't. I wasn't keep accounting the first place.
I just show up to work, all right. Well, before
we get into that, I just want to remind everyone
give us a great review and subscribe. We appreciate it.
Audio episodes job and every Tuesday on your favorite podcast platform,
and the video version dropping every Wednesday on our YouTube channel. So,
(01:07):
as I said today, we've got the pair who's called
more games together than any pairing in Celtics history. Am
I right on that? That's what we're told. In fact
that when they when they told me this, the number
thing is kind of silly. And Max and I we're
already joking about it. You can't win that when you're
a numbers guy. But here the thing is, I'm not
a numbers guy. Oh okay, that's the thing. It's like
(01:29):
I do my research and share it. Yeah, because I'm
a play by play guy right now. This is so
this is the funniest thing in the world to me. Like,
in doing play by play, you have to prepare. It's
called preparation. Yes, you prepare for the games. I share
my prep because now we have social media, so I
share the prep with fans and then people who don't
(01:49):
listen to the games, that don't watch the games that
apparently I've done two thousand radio games with Max and
another god knows how many hundreds of games on TV
and the NBA and this and that suddenly I'm a
numbers guy. It's a play by play guy because I
share mine. No, you're a play by play guy who
has the numbers. I have them there at twenty something years,
two thousand games. Yeah, a bunch of numbers. And he
(02:13):
would give you numbers throughout the game. It would give
you percentages of Celtics they have a ninety eight percent.
But they lost or this team did, and not sitting down,
I'm just like, oh, really, so I've just found out
that Sean does have numbers, and I think that is
to me. I'm fascinated by his numbers. More so I
(02:33):
think I told Sean this. I said, more fascinated about
Sean Grandy the broadcaster. When we lose, Sean Grandy maintains
energy throughout a call. It could be the call for
the other team is like and and he'll say something
like and Lebron James, oh my god, what the play?
(02:54):
And he finished it going towards the rim and it's
the winning play. I'm on the other side going, oh man,
damn ye. And then I admire him for that. I
can't keep He keeps a certain amount of energy which
I which I think is great. And I don't have
that energy for the other teams. You didn't have that
(03:16):
in Game seven in twenty ten and Los Angeles when
the Lakers were about to win the championship, you're saying
you didn't. I didn't have the energy. My injurgy was
going down and down until our you know, our engineer
of a sit beside me telling me all of a
sudden max because I was the one supposedly going out
to receive the trophy and they've told me I had
(03:38):
to go and sup and didn't get the trophy, and
and I was like, oh man, this is gonna be great.
Celtics up by what fourteen fifteen whatever they want going
into that quarter, and my engineer, Doug Lane is sitting
there saying, Okay, this is what you have to do
when you go in. I got a wireless Mica on
your dad, and I'm looking to the score going just
(04:00):
going down. But it gets down like six, and he's
still talking to me about this. I said, you shut
a shut up mouth right now, and and to see
the eventually, you know, you see what Ron Artest does
and win the game. Why are we taking well, I'm
going to do it for this is what I do
because that moment prepared him for thirteen years later standing
(04:25):
next to Lisa Salters in Miami with the Eastern Conference trophy,
and so everything comes for not really, I've turned making
an Those can't be a good story. We always do
real stories. It's like my podcast, we say keeping on
the Hunted, it would have been better doing the final
and Lisa and Lisia Salters was it was a it
(04:46):
was a good get to get down there and do it.
I had to run through the crowd because the game
wasn't over because if we kept missing all these shots.
Sean had a great call, He's prepared, and Marcus Mark
takes it three and this Marcus gets a and then
and then finally you know when, and now I have
to get down through the crowd to get down there
(05:06):
to see the Lisa Salters and the first year you're
high up in Miami. Yeah, and I and the guy,
this guy's busting me through the crowd because he's the
he's the guy who has to take me. So as
I get down to the bottom and finally get through
the crowd, and I remember sitting there saying that I
was like, well, am I gonna say? Because they give
you a few words to say, and she has a
(05:27):
microphone and she's like, well, Ceter Maxwell, Founder's MVP. You're
receiving this troph here and and and still today people
said I said some things were not correct. I said, girl,
it is great being on top. And some people took
offense of that line. I said, I was talking about
the game. I was, so, you know, even then, even
(05:47):
Dan Sean Grandy heads this flying, which I love, he
always says, no good deed goes u punished. So I
busted this crowd to do all this and get that
to the microphones. All of a sudden I get back
lash because something that supposedly I say it, though it
didn't say speaking of no good deed goes unpunished. With Grandy, Max,
you always get a hundred, right, you always get keep
(06:08):
it in a hundred. But if both of us found
out in real life with your wife, if you keep
it one hundred, that's how you end up with fifty
fifty stuff. Um, okay, let's let's get back to how
this started, because we're talking about this is twenty two seasons, right,
if my masters, this is this twenty second season of
you guys, remember two John has told me it's my
(06:34):
twenty six years always twenty eight dude, twenty eight man,
I gotta get me. I'm gonna say I got an
easy one. Well, I gotta get you on right now
with my my consulting that I get retire the rates
retire sooner than well. What happened was we I had
first broadcast partner. I had Spencer Ross as Spencer for
(06:55):
a couple of years, and then they wanted to make
a change the guy Howard David, and Howard David came
in and I had done the game with Sean. Uh,
it's the test that we were talking about. Okay, there's
more to the stories. Yeah, he came. He came in.
Howard has something to do or something happened, and they
brought Sean in and and I, you know, and I
(07:18):
did the broadcast and and we had a good broadcast,
and I didn't know if I was gonna see Sean again.
I said good luck, and the next thing I know,
he had gone. He was gone, you know, to Minnesota.
And then I think once Howard was let go, they
were trying to find and then they came to me
and said, well, um got Sean Granty. So I worked
(07:40):
with Sean already. He said. Guy said, well, you know,
why don't you call him up, you know, you know,
tell him to come up. I said, well, give me
his number, and I called him and talked. You know,
we talked about him coming back, and he was like, yeah, yeah,
I came back. And that's how I let Seohan finished press. Well,
that that phone call is what first made me changed
my mind about leave Minnesota, which I was not going
(08:01):
to do. I was doing TV in Minnesota. I was
twenty something years old. You know, it seemed like a
job I was going to be in for a long time.
But here's something you want, something that has never been
said on the air before that I've never talked about
as they do. When the change was made that Max
was just referring to to Howard David in nineteen ninety seven,
six months earlier, that job had been promised to me
(08:21):
at twenty five years old. I was going to join
Max in nineteen ninety seven to become the voice of
the radio voice of the Celtics. And then a funny
thing happened. Rick Petino arrived and suddenly the profile changed,
and suddenly this is going to be a glamor franchise
under Rick Pettino, and they didn't want a twenty five
year old kid. Yeah, that's kind of kind of the point. Now,
(08:42):
that's funny. And as you like saying about Marty Glickman,
he is gone. I am here and he is not.
But at twenty five years old. That was for about
four or five months, that was the plan that who knows,
Rick might be back. He was overseased, yeah, but in
(09:06):
any case, uh. And then when that got renegged from me,
obviously I was not happy, and I was going to
take the first job that came in. A year later,
Minnesota TV job came and I went and did that
before that in that ninety seven ninety eight season before
I went to Minnesota. That was the night the Howard
David who was doing Monday Night Football and the Celtics,
he got snowed in and he didn't get snowed in Miami,
(09:28):
but he couldn't get back to Boston because it was
snow in Boston. Flight wasn't going to get here. And
they walked into my little booth that I did the
updates and Max. Max and I are first on air together.
Was actually on Glenn Ordway's show in the late nineties
because Max was one of the rotating co hosts that
we would have come in with Glenn Ordway and I
did my little character, my little anti establishment Generation X character.
(09:52):
So that was the first time I worked with Max.
So I'm in my booth. They came into four o'clock
in the afternoon, they said, get over to the garden.
You're doing the game tonight, and about an hour or later,
the aforementioned Rick Petino. I'm like, Jeff Twist marches me
into the office and there I am face to face
doing a interview with Rick Potino and Seltics played that
night and one and Max and I had a w
was December twenty three, it's Christmas, um and he didn't
(10:15):
know numbers though I didn't have anything. That's what I'm thinking.
He he you know what I see where you're king. No. No,
he can repeat things to me, which to me is amazing.
When he says memory, he'll say two thousand and no,
when that happened two thousand and eight, yeah, or photograph
that happened two thousand and eight and that was And
I was like, oh, yeah, they get in. He always
(10:36):
gets told me for saying the other day. I'll say
the other day in the heartbeat two years ago, could
be yesterday. I don't know the day, so he does, well,
that's not again. Those are numbers. That's a memory. And yeah,
I remember. I have a bizarre thing that has aided
me in my career, and that I know that in
(10:57):
the two thousand and three, two thousand and fourth season,
when the Celtics lost that lead to Brooklyn earlier this year,
I remembered the game against Phoenix and they had lost
with Marbury Insttomar and I remember that we flew couldn't
fly out the next day because of a snowstorm, and
they won back to back games at Utah at Denver
that night, and then we went to Salt Lake the
next night Celtics won again. I remember all that. Where
are my car keys? No idea, But I have you
(11:19):
all this useless information of institutional memory, which I realized
now they call it that because you're gonna end up
in an institution, because you can't forget all of this.
You have a great memory, and numbers just happened to
fall into that, if you say so. All right, So
getting back to those first couple of games that you guys,
it was kind of like a test run. And yeah,
and when I went to Minnesota, I filled in. They
(11:42):
called me when I was doing it, called on the phone,
they called press Row. This is how old school this is.
Can you get down to Sacramento because Howard David couldn't
do a game in Sacramento And I met Max down there.
So we had done a couple of games together. But
I'm doing TV in Minnesota, so funny to me and
people are like, oh, you're doing TV this year. You're
you're You're good at TV. I'm like, I was kind
(12:02):
of doing it twenty five years ago. But when Max
called me, I thought, not just the games we had done,
but his style. I thought this could be a thing
like this could be a long running thing that fits together.
And I remember vividly we had a long preseason road trip.
(12:25):
Max will tell you about the statistician that we had
in the Rock, Arkansas that I picked out another life
lesson I learned, Yeah, you will, that's what is Chris
rockday the most powerful thing in the world. Uh yeah,
that's probably another story for another time. But I remember
there's a long road trip where all of a sudden
they were there was can you get me to these stats.
She likes stats. Who we had, what we sty and
(12:52):
then remember that, hey we got these stats. We got
to have a statistician on the road. In those days,
I gave you money like a you know, you can
give money to a statistician. And I had come from
doing college football on ABC, where they would have these
sort of nonsense jobs that they would pick out, shall
we say, students that went to that university, maybe to
sit in the truck, uh and lightly lightly So this
(13:18):
is the environment I came up with. So they offered
me three different people. These are three different people that
could do stats for you that night, and I made
a choice, probably based not so much on who might
the best statistician be, but maybe some other intangible qualities.
As it turns out, I don't think she could have
spelled cat if he spotted of the C in the eighth.
(13:39):
But and so that was a bit of a struggle
and a bit of a life lesson. I think we
all learned as a younger. But this is what happened.
Remember that he doesn't remember the Mr Stoll. You look,
I can't tell you when it was. I can't day
that just October happened? That was it? What were you thinking.
(14:00):
I know, we just heard what Sean was thinking during
those first couple of games, that like this, this could
work us being next to each other. What were you
thinking we had a good relationship and you know, and
what were what he was doing and his style because
as an analyst on the other side, you are pretty
much you always say you are the accent, You're the
(14:22):
salt and pepper for what the other guys doing. And
what Sean does is he has a way of telling
you a story. And then what I do is I
add the catch up. I had the mustard, I add
the pickles and all those things. He puts the main
meat and potatoes out there, and that's what I do.
I follow up with that and he's and that's that
(14:44):
is what makes us. I don't try to get in
his lane, and nor does he try to try to
get in my lane, and and and trying to tell
stories like that. I have more. I just waited just
because I think, no the faces that I think it's
become one lane, Okay. I I have he has stories.
I have stories, stories which might accent a certain things
(15:06):
that might have happened, and Sean will tell you what
happened and I can tell you a story that might
have been with Tommy, could have been with Robert Parrish,
could have been with could have been with Larry Bird.
And I think that our listeners a lot of times
like to have that connection. If he tells a story,
I might tell you something about Paul Pierce, when Paul
(15:27):
Pierce first got here, and those guys that I knew
at that time, like Jason Tatum. I will always have
my Jason Tatum story. Jason Tatum didn't really know who
I was, but Jason's hatum saw thirty for thirty and
so that day he comes. I remember that he's geting
ready to shoot around, and I'm standing there. He goes
corn bread, corn bread, corn Breason. But what's what's wrong
(15:51):
with you? Man? He said, Man, I saw that thirty
for thirty two times. Damn you were bad and just
a few more choice words. But those stories will stay
with me. But that's been my connection with the players
that we have now and the players that we've had
in the past, and my connection with you know, Kevin
Garnett and Sean and I saw some stuff on the
(16:12):
plane which you just have been just surreal. When you
think we can't talk about No you can't. Actually, well,
you're keeping on the hunted, ain't you. Hell yeah, you're
keeping on the hunt. Talk about it. This is behind
the scenes with the Boston Celtics. That's part of the
name of this podcast. So let's go. If you want
to drop something, you know, part of you're talking about
my memory whatever part of my memory now is that
(16:35):
I have a lot of his memory in my memory.
So I know when there's a time to tell us
kind of time tell us story. Well, listen, let's face it,
this is the longest relationship be the one of us
has ever had. So uh you after years of hearing
the stories and telling the stories, you know what what
fits and that's why we can is I like to say,
you guys, you just you finishes each other's and I'm
(16:55):
like sandwiches. But you get the point that it just
becomes a natural. We don't need to have a four
hour production meeting to go on the air, and good
luck every game. I know, I don't think we've had
four hours worth of production meetings in twenty two years.
If you were to add them all up about four minutes.
I think that it's just there's there's a best broadcaster.
(17:19):
Best broadcast are people who naturally get together and understand
what they're doing, and it's not contrived because you can
tell people who have studied and I and I learned
this from over the years as I was going through broadcasting,
that I could get all the notes I want, But
if those notes don't fit what he's talking about, it's
(17:40):
going to be awkward for me to get those notes
into a certain area. And you can't just can't want to.
You want to use those notes. You studied and you
did this, and oh this guy choos a certain percent,
you might not even be able to use that. So
that's why I, Tommy Hinson said, let the story tell itself, yall,
you don't need them for the other guy. This is
(18:06):
a chase, Tommy that once got Max on the front
page of the Boston Hell. How long did it take
for you each to like understand each other on air?
Did it happen immediately? Did it happen a couple of
years immediately? That's the reason I refer to that for
a world trip and what might have been it sounds like,
(18:27):
but I think it was casting. People say this guy
is a great actor, this woman is a great actor.
And I'm not demeaning the acting profession, but I think
that casting doesn't get into as much credit as it deserves.
That this was a casting decision and it just worked
out to where we on the surface our opposite in
(18:48):
a lot of ways, but that's we We fit together,
you know, we have, as I always the first couple
of years ago together you had the older guy from
North Carolina who listened to James Taylor, and you had
the younger guy, the younger white guy who listened to
Jay Z right, and so we have such opposite, such
different backgrounds, but it fits together immediately. And let's let's
(19:11):
face it, any broadcast team that works, any show that
works inside the NBA, whatever it is, at the end
of the day, you have people who love each other
who may just batter living hell out of each other
while they're on the air, because that's part of the game.
But it's just chemistry. It doesn't think that's it. It's
chemistry that sometimes you just can't pick. I mean, it's
(19:33):
like playing with Larry. There was a chemistry there that
I had when I first played with Larry that nobody
that I was. And I look at Jason Tatum right now,
and not look at Brown and they have a great
chemistry together, but they had to forge it, yea. And
they talked about it enough. It was I came in.
(19:53):
I was a leading scorer for Larry got here and
Larry Burr comes in the first day of practice, I'm like,
come on, just still my show got to be still
my show. After that that day, I remember going to
the first minute. This was not my prejudice. Side walked
to the first black person I could see after that
practice said you know what, that white guy can play that.
(20:17):
And that was But it taught me a lesson about
getting roles. But it gives you an opportunity, and this
was I would say to Tatum more to Brown. I'd
say to Brown more than Tatum. And the fact that
you're going to get your opportunities that you can highlight
your talent. And that would be evident to me being
the finals MVP. When you had Larry Bird on the court,
(20:40):
he had Kevin mckill there, you had Robert Parish, you
had all these uh Nate Archibald, but these were all
Hall of FAMERUS top seventy five of all time. But
still I got an opportunity to be an MVP in
the finals because of the opportunity that was presented itself
to me. We're talking about chemistry, finding roles, all that stuff,
(21:01):
and that you guys have kind of just fallen into
it with one another since the start, which begs the question,
how challenging has it been this season when you don't
have him all the time, when he doesn't have you
all the time, and you guys kind of have to
figure it out with other people On Aaron and Sean,
(21:22):
you're with Brian Scalabrini and Max here with John Wallack, Like,
how much of a challenge has that been with you
guys not having each other for half the games this season?
I'm curious your as I've got a good name now,
I'll go ahead let you I'll let you go for Sean,
I feel that first of all, as we're talking now,
it's twenty twenty three. At the end of this year,
(21:44):
I think this has been the best year. This has
been my personal favorite year of the twenty two years
i've been here, because it's been a new energy. We
brought a different feel to the TV side. My number
one role has been able to spell Mike so that
Mike doesn't have to do seventy freaking games and hopefully
his run and go on and on and on. If
he doesn't have to do seventy games a year, that
would be the perfect scenario. And then I think it
(22:06):
is added. I think Max and I have had as
good a year as we have ever had because now
we're doing sixty games instead of eighty five or ninety.
And as I have tried to explain to my wife,
the lesson is going outside and being with somebody else
for a little while and coming back it can be
even better. Now she hasn't not Dana. Something tells me
(22:27):
Dana doesn't leave well yet. But I figure if I
if I just keep hammering it where I think, well,
the real the lesson to me of twenty twenty three
is that it's what I've really felt all along, which
is that Brandy and Max, Mike, scal Abby, Eddie, we're
all interchangeable exactly. We can all pretty much do everything.
We could all set over like, Okay, this is the
year I've done TV. Max had several years where he
(22:49):
was filling in regularly on TV and I was doing
I was with different people you know that would fill
in on radio side, and the Max can do that.
I loved it when he was over there because it
was it put us light on him. You put a
spotlight on the Grandy and Max Brent. Oh, if you like,
it's the same thing now if you like Grandy, Oh,
he does this every night. You don't understand. People come
up to us and they say they always have an
(23:10):
excuse as some crazy thing happened. That's why they had
to listen. Oh, the power went out in my house.
I had to listen to you guys. Stuck in the car,
I had to listen to you guys. I'm like, we
do this every night. We're here every single night for
your entertainment. You don't have what you can join us
at any time. But I think that this year has
just punctuated what I thought, which is that it's one
big team that's interchangeable and listen mask you go on
(23:32):
TV tomorrow. Obviously I can do TV. But it's it's
nice that we've all gotten to share different things. I
think it's been a great year for us because it's
been a little juicier when we're together because we're doing
sixty games now and not nighty Well had to I like, um,
the said the energy of it, and Sean said, sometimes
the excuse, but sometimes people just like radio. Now that's
(23:55):
been a that's been a staple here in Boston for
a long time. U people will still tell me the day,
you know, I will turn the radio. I would turn
the TV to sound down to hear him how the
radio goes. And obviously it's two different mediums that you're in.
Had a guy the other day. Sean talks about excuses,
but this guy didn't have excuse. He says, well, you know,
(24:18):
we're in we're in Walpole, we're in the prison down there,
and uh man, we love you guys every night, I said,
because it's our bedtime and turn the TV off and
we listened to you. So I think it's obviously different audience.
I love them. I love the guy. We had one
time and I was talking about something and I told
(24:38):
Sean and Sean was telling me about the guy who
listened to us all the time in Australia, and so
you think, like he's listening that whatever it is in
the morning to us, and we would talk to him
and that he would text Sean back and I always
Sean was and Sean is also the other thing about
him was. He was on top of all the tweeting, texting,
(25:01):
all that stuff, you know, once it got started. Sean
also informed me about his opinion about when they were
Celtics about to make a trade for Kevin Garnett, which
I did not like and Tommy Heinson did not like.
And we were both like, you're gonna cheer with him,
You're gonna get al Al Jefferson, you're gonna get rid
of him. I was gonna whoa, no, no, whoa. And
(25:21):
Tommy Hinson, I quit quit right now if they get
rid of Al Jefferson. Qu And Sean said to me said,
you don't know, you do not know how good he is.
I'm like, what, the dude's an older guy, man, isn't
It can't be that. And he makes the first first
exhibition game, he makes this wrap around pass throwing it
(25:43):
to Paul Pierced around his back, and I went, well, Al,
it was nice to take your parting gift because you're
out of here and fell in love with, you know,
Kevin Garnett, the big ticket and you know, to bring
a championship and to you know, to talk to him,
and even somewhat mentor mentor did some mentoring to him.
(26:04):
I think that you and I won and I think, uh,
we were doing a podcast and you were talking to
him about you know, Kevin and Paul were on together,
and I remember You're looking at me and I said, hey, Kevin,
when you're gonna bring Ray back? And you went to
me like, WHOA wait a minute. This was this was
(26:26):
a few years ago, years ago. It was before that
time was seemed to be ready, and it was ready.
It was it was being prepped and it was ready.
And then talking to him, it was it was really good.
And then to finally see those guys together that hug
to me when they retired Kevin's number and Ray walked
(26:49):
out on the floor, that might be one of the
most lasting moments I think I have with the Celtics.
Maybe ever it was it Paul Pierce screwed it up
when he went out there and gave the third I
didn't want that, but I could have. I could have
just sat there and watched those two guys embrace. And
I'm not not, you know, hey whatever this thing, but
men embracing. But I was still fascinated about the energy,
(27:13):
the power Kevin Garnett bringing them up on stage, Ray Ray,
come on up here, boy, you next that man. That
was one of the best moments that I felt like
I had a hand in that by telling Kevin, yeah,
you're the godfather, man, you got to bring Ray back
a live nah man. I don't want said no, you
got to do that. And I think in his mind
(27:35):
maybe it wasn't just me, but I'm sure a lot
of people have said the same thing. The hold he
has over people and the magnitude of him as a
player and a person I don't think people appreciate. And
then was pushedback when Kevin Garnett first got here because
you can't say about anything about Larry or any of
the other Celtics. Same thing's happening with Jason Tatum right
now because Jason Tatum every night is breaking some Lowry
(27:55):
Bird record and people are pretty oh, Larry didn't shoot
the threes and he didn't. Then John half a check,
John Hapchick played forty seven minutes a game, so yeah,
he was gonna put it. So everyone just pushes back.
But then when it comes to Jason Tatum Knight, twenty
years from now, they'll be everybody to be complete. Well,
Duce isn't as good as as JT. You know, he's
as jac was great in the play, and that's sort
of the nature of it. But man Kevin Gren at
(28:17):
night was I'd never seen Ray Allen and Bryan Scalabrini,
two guys that don't get nervous about anything, and they
were both nervous. That was even now, the hold he
has on people, it's something that was more than a dap.
That was like a hug that really meant something. There
was just so much more than you could have imagined.
It shook the building, it did to his foundation. Yeah,
(28:39):
I mean I think the Celtics lost that night, right Dallas, Yeah,
lost that night. We don't do well on retirement. I
don't think that. I don't. Yeah, I don't remember. I
just just remembered the energy once he stepped out on
the floor and you and I was just happy that
they did it. I think Larry did it. Larry's was
a whole another way, when they just had a whole
(29:00):
day for l They just came in, it wasn't even
the game and they came in and they said, everybody
down and we all were here, and this championship team
and that championship team. It was such a cool moment,
and I was happy that they had Kevin Garnett for
at least after the game where everybody could give him
the love. Paul Pierce, same thing, because you know, I
(29:22):
had my mind was like, Okay, here's your jersey going up.
All right, you're right, you know, I was waiting to
get on the courts to start the second half. It
was the first person that came up to me after
my jersey was retired and said, dude, man, they said,
and it was it was so and I felt like
(29:44):
so special that he took his time to do that
because he was startlingest Lee at that time. And to
acknowledge me like that, to acknowledge me like that, man,
it was the coolest thing from a person who was
of the opposition. This conversation, Mark, this is Mike and Tommy,
Grandy and Max. This is institutional memory because if you
(30:08):
haven't been here, the significance of Kevin Garnett being there
at Max's retirement, Kevin Garnett eventually coming here, the bond
with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce watching that break apart
the many years are trying to get everybody back together,
and before you know it, people are coming up to you, going, hey,
I used to listen to you guys when I was
in high school. I used to listen to you guys.
And then you realize, okay, because you're listening. We're all
(30:29):
older than we think we are. But you realize the
body of work it matters to me in sports, I've
done a lot of national stuff and it's great and
it's prestigious, But being the announcer for a team and
telling a team story and then being able to do
it for multiple years, and being able to do it
for one of the most story franchises, there is a
(30:50):
responsibility that comes with that. That, to me is what
is so important that you are. It's a shared experience
that when people turn on a game without turning on
TV or radio or whatever, and they hear one of
us or both of us together, whatever it is, that
that matters. I got. I gotta ask you, though, why
wasn't it ready that Kevin Garnett conversation and ray at
(31:11):
that time? When well, sometimes within the walls of where
you're working, you gotta you gotta follow some direction, and
at that time, it just didn't feel organizationally that we
were there yet. I just jumped out in and you
just jumped out and I was like, oh, dear god,
oh we're never getting KG again. No, but it worked
(31:34):
out and and you know, in hindsight, I'm glad that
you did that because that might have been one of
the first real nudgees. And it was kind of it
wasn't like public, but it was in front of people
who were on the call um. I think it might
have helped it. Did it did? And I say that
only because and I wasn't trying to splat just splash man. Yeah,
but it was just at that time, to me, you
(31:56):
had Kevin in a situation we had to respond on
and had to respond in time. And it wasn't one
of the said he got a chance. Oh man, I didn't.
I'm not sure. I don't want no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. You are that dude, right, you're the
guyfather and you're gonna bring this thing back together. And
when it happened, man, it was like I said, I was,
(32:19):
I was a static, But I remember the look on
your face more than anything else once I ask it.
We never we've never actually talked about this before, but
I was like, oh, oh no, that's funny that you noticed.
I'm sure everyone else did too. Took the light rather
whoa no. No. This is the both the beauty and
the danger of being granted Max, which is that we
(32:41):
you never know where you tend to talk about things
when listen, everything happened at the start of this year
and there was a coaching change. I thought to go
on the air and say, hey, Joe Missoula just called
a time out without acknowledging what had just happened and
what we'd all been through. I think that there's sort
of the advantage of being not in this building twenty
four to seven that you've got to be able to
(33:03):
you're connected to the audience, and we felt we owed
the audience a conversation. So we record a ten minute
thing and we put it online and we said our
piece because we always have no matter what it is
that's affecting the team or affecting the NBA, and we
just went through you know this, the pandemic situation in
black Lives matter, and you just cannot we all have
to share these experiences. Couldn't be together, you couldn't be
(33:25):
blind to that. And I think that we understood where
the organization was. What Emay and what happened. But for
you just to turn the page without acknowledging would not
have been respectful to your listener, to a viewer, I
think that without just saying something about it, and and
(33:47):
I think that we on that radio site get a
little bit more liberty to talk about it than Mike,
for sure, or Scale would because it's a different medium
when we get a chance to talk. Where I was
telling they got a thousand commercials, so very seldom they
get a chance to talk about anything and you and
(34:08):
this and that and the gameplay, and whereas we have
a little bit more to Sean's favorite part, Yeah TV said,
it's like, yeah, this three in the Air is brought
to you by listen. We're running out of time. We
got to rap here. But I'd be remiss not to
ask Sean thirty seconds to describe to all of our
listeners Max's multitasking abilities during a broadcast. It's extraordinary. I've
(34:29):
never seen anyone be able to learn so much more
about the world outside of basketball while a basketball game
was going on than Max. I've I've learned just I've
learned more things about the animal kingdom and just different
he has life outside the NBA outside of basketball, and
I'm lucky enough I get all immersed in all the
(34:52):
numbers right and the preparation so to be able to
look over during Max Er in the second quarter of
a game instead of being able to try to pronounce
the starting center for the San Antone Spurs watching some
yeah YouTube video about what a snake eating a pig
or whatever it is. Um Listen said, you a better
person for absolutely. Did you happen to Sean did you
happen to know over in Africa that you know who
(35:16):
kills the most people over there? I said, hippos, He's
like lions. They're like, no, he was killed more people
than than anything else over in Africa. And here's really
here's where that paid off. One of our first years together.
We're playing the Jazz and at the end of the
Stockton I don't know where I'll tell you why. That's
what I do. The end of the I didn't get
her back, And you know, I think Mike's the only
(35:37):
one going to the Hall of Fame. So Stockton them
alone are still playing for Utah, right, And at the end,
Max is trying to come up with some analogy about that,
and he's got all these wild Kingdom stuff, and he goes,
let's just hope that, you know, let's John Stockton a Carmelone.
Now they're just not the same. They're kind of like
the old lions and they would you say, they send
them out to the hyenies, send them out outcast to
(35:59):
the you know, where they get eaten by the hyaenes.
And I just pause for a second. I said, we
can only hope a similar fate. It's not a wait.
Karl Malone and John Stockton there, it was perfect. I
wish that I was listening that day. That's perfect. No.
Sometimes I'm two or three rows behind you guys, and
I'm just watching what Max is doing, and I'm like,
this is unbelievable. When he's able to accomplish during this game,
(36:20):
he's winning game after game in Solitaire, or he's learning
about the Animal Kingdom, the multitasking ability is top notch.
Along along way, eating every now and then a little
bit of food shows that Sean has asked me before.
That's something I drank a good Did you just burp?
I'm like, yeah, I did. That's a real broadcast. All right, Well,
(36:45):
that's a perfect mic drop for the end of this no,
congratulations to you guys. You gotta we gotta get you
out of here so you can go and call your
two thousand something game to tell me I'll just go
to work. I'll tell you when I get down there.
But no, we appreciate the time. Congrats to the career
that you guys have built together there on the radio,
and we can't wait to hear them any more of them,
so appreciate you coming on. Thank you. H
Host
Marc D'Amico
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