Titanic figures loom throughout the storied history of the Boston Celtics. Many an era-defining personality has suited up on the Garden parquet, from Bill Russell to Larry Bird to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. For basketball fans, this is how the franchise is remembered.
For Boston fans, one man stands among these legends of yore: Mike Gorman, the team’s local play-by-play broadcaster for the last 43 years. On Sunday afternoon, he called his final regular season game. Before long, his name will be up in the rafters amongst the many whose careers he narrated. The organization is littered with basketball royalty and Gorman, rightfully, will be remembered as one of the Celtics’ greatest and most beloved individuals.
You’ve read time and time again what makes a great local broadcaster. You’ve heard the tropes about such figures becoming members of the family for how often their voices echoed throughout the living room. How the sound of their voices became a balm for bad days, weeks, months, or years. The comfort induced by a catchphrase heard thousands of times. Gorman was all that and more, because how could anybody feel otherwise after he spent 43 years in the same seat?
I grew up in Boston listening to Gorman and he’ll always be that for me. As a fan, you couldn’t want anything more from a play-by-play guy. As a professional, I became impressed with Gorman’s nuance as a broadcaster.
It was a necessary trait for most his career, being that he spent decades alongside Tommy Heinsohn. For those who don’t know, Heinsohn was an NBA lifer who was Gorman’s color partner for many, many years, and was…. not subtle. At all. He knew basketball inside and out but would rather hit viewers over the head with a blunt object of a statement rather than get into the detail of it all. Especially when it came to officiating, a favorite target of Heinsohn’s rants.