Longtime Boston Celtics announcer Mike Gorman will call his final game this week as the Celtics wrap their first-round series against the Miami Heat. As he looks back on his career, he carries resentment for the state of NBA broadcasts.
In an interview with Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated released ahead of Game 5 in Boston, Gorman recalled his anger when the league “sold its soul” to ESPN and other cable networks, robbing fans of the local connection later in the playoffs.
“I’ve never really gotten over that, and I’ll never forgive the NBA for that,” Gorman said. “And I understand owners won’t need the money, I guess. But to do 82 games and then maybe do three or four in that first round, and then see you later.
“Let the network pick up the game, that’s fine. But I think the local broadcasters should at least be allowed to work. It’s a very sophisticated world we live in, and they could provide a feed of me and (the late color analyst) Tommy (Heinsohn), for instance, that just went out there. If you didn’t like it, you could take Mike Breen and whoever else he’s working with that particular week.”
Gorman’s diatribe began after a question from Mannix about his favorite postseason memory. Gorman’s answer was the famous “Bird stole the ball” moment from Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals.
That was a situation in which the NBC Sports Boston (then SportsChannel New England) play-by-play man was able to speak directly to as many Celtics fans as possible during the height of the team’s dynasty.
“The Garden from dead silence right before that moment to blowing the roof off,” Gorman remembered. “And we had those games. That was before the NBA sold its soul to ESPN and all the other television networks out there and left us, as the locals, out of the picture as soon as the first round of the playoffs were done.”
Local networks simulcast the NBA playoffs in the first round. After that, Disney and TNT Sports take over.
That is why Gorman will wrap his storied career this week, and why he goes into the sunset as a broadcaster with some simmering tensions toward the league he loves.
