Some of the best moments that have happened in sports have been brought to us by some of the best local and national voices, especially in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Over the past few months, we have said goodbye to four voices that became staples for not just certain sports teams, particularly local ones but voices that gave us some of amazing commentary on some of the biggest national moments in professional athletics.
Back on Mar. 26, Dick Stockton, who
55-year play-by-play sports commentary career included stints with FOX Sports,
CBS Sports, and NBC Sports announced his retirement.
The 78-year-old Stockton, who crowning
moment as a television commentator was calling the famed game-winning homer by
Carlton Fisk in the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series
that won the Boston Red Sox the title 7-6 over the Cincinnati Reds had cut back
on work in recent years only doing NFL games for FOX.
He said in a telephone interview in late
March that he had been contemplating this decision for more than a year.
“It’s an instinctive feeling that you have
that you’ve done what you’ve accomplished,” Mr. Stockton said. “I didn’t think
that I wanted to continue to do it and defy age and say, ‘Look, I want to keep
going, I want to show that could do it.’ That’s not the point. I decided now
was the time to do it.”
During an interview with two-time reigning
Kia MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks before his team’s May 11
tilt versus the Brooklyn Nets, Jim Paschke, the Bucks television play-by-play
commentator for the last 35 years announced his decision to retire.
Antetokounmpo during the interview said
that he heard of Mr. Paschke’s plans to retire via a tweet from ESPN’s Adrian
Wojnarowski, which he referred to as a “Woj bomb.”
Paschke, who has called more than 2,000
Bucks games in his 35-year career said to Antetokounmpo that “yes” it is true
that the longtime Bucks play-by-play analyst, who has been in broadcasting for
nearly five decades will retire at the end of the Bucks season.
“I never attended to work my whole life,”
Paschke said to Antetokounmpo, and followed up by asking, “I hope you
understand.”
Antetokounmpo said with a smile that he
did understand but did say that he and the entire Bucks family is going to miss
him.
Paschke during the interview explained why
he decided it was time to retire now is that his son who was two years old when
his father began his amazing career as the Bucks play-by-play man that every
year if he would ask his son would he want him to be home more.
Mr. Paschke’s son would that “no, no” that
he loved being around the game of basketball and that he loved the Bucks team.
That changed the summer of 2020 three
weeks before he got married, Mr. Paschke’s son called him and asked his father
to retire, which Mr. Paschke said really “hit home” with me.
“That hit home with me, and I said, ‘Yes,
I will,” Paschke said in answering his son’s request. “So, I’ve known for about
a year that this was going to be the time that I would get on to the next phase
of my life Gianny.”
In response, Antetokounmpo, who became a
father for the first time just a year ago said that if his son Liam had asked
him when he was going to retire from playing basketball, he said he would have
retired at that moment.
Back on May 11, Bill Worrell announced his
retirement after 40 years as the play-by-play announcer with the Houston Rockets
following the Rockets final home game of the season, which was a 122-115 win
versus the eventual Western Conference runner-up Los Angeles Clippers.
“I have decided that after four decades of
broadcasting Rockets games, it’s time to step away from the day-to-day grind of
the booth,” Worrell, 77 said back on May 11. “To have worked for my hometown
team and to have been a part of bringing so many memorable moments into your
homes over the years, including the back-to-back championships, has been the
greatest joy of my life.”
The 77-year-old Worrell, a native
Houstonian born in 1947 graduated from Lamar High School will remain a special
contributor to Rockets broadcast for the 2021-22 season, which will the team’s
40th.
Postgame after the Rockets win versus the
Clippers, head coach Steven Silas presented the game ball to Mr. Worrell.
“This is for you, man. Forty-year and we’re
going to miss you but you’re such a big part of Houston basketball and Rockets’
basketball. And it’s not going to be the same without you. But this is just a
token of, a small token of our appreciation for you and everything you’ve done
for this organization,” Coach Silas said to Mr. Worrell. “…This game balls for
you, man. We’re going to miss you a lot.”
Mr. Worrell reciprocated the respect he had
for coach Silas saying that he not only “grew” up to be a great basketball
coach but a “good young” man.
That respect Mr. Worrell had for the
Rockets head coach came from how his team continued to play hard despite a rash
of injuries. They never quit and in were more often than not overmatched talent
wise but they brought their best to the court and ended their home schedule
with a victory over the eventual Western Conference runner-up.
This past Tuesday, the longtime
play-by-play voice for the Philadelphia 76ers Mark Zumoff called it a career
after calling over 2,100 Sixers games in 27 years.
“Now, after 39 years of covering 76ers
basketball, first as the halftime host and the last 27years as the television
voice, it’s time for me to step away,” Zumoff wrote in a letter on www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia.
“I still love what I do. In fact, I can easily see myself doing this until I
simply can’t do it anymore. But there are several issues at play here.”
“Foremost is my wife of nearly 38 years,
Debbie. I can never repay her for all of the nights and weekends she spent
alone, raising our sons, and holding down her own, high-pressured career.
Simply, she is my best friend, and we want to spend more time together.”
“If life is a basketball game, I’m into
the fourth quarter! I’d like to play a musical instrument, learn to speak a
foreign language, cook, travel, and by all means give back with my time and
strength to the charitable causes that I hope will make for a better world.
There’s a lot out there for me to do, and I want to do it while I’m still
able.”
“Gratitude is one of the qualities I’ve
always worked mindfully to embrace. I’m not the voice of an NBA team without
help of hundreds along the way. As I ease into the next phase of my life, I
will earnestly reach back to those individuals to express my gratitude.”
“But for now, allow me to thank you, 76ers
fans, for the opportunity to be with you on this surreal ride. It’s been a
privilege to be welcomed into your homes. I’ve come to fully understand and
appreciate the responsibility of being the voice of your team and I was truly
honored to do so.”
In the close to 1,545 career games for
network television Mr. Stockton has called, the aforementioned Fisk home run is
his most famous. He was silent for 41 seconds while photos and the sounds of
the fans in the ballpark took over including the play of Fenway Park organist
John Kyle who played Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”
Stockton’s call on Fisk’s moonshot to win
the series was, “There it goes, a long drive, if it stays fair…home run!”
Stockton’s call in that moment had to be
quick because the ball was a line drive that was curving foul on its way to
left field. If the shot had towered, it would have given Stockton a couple of
seconds to make a decision, which he did not have at that moment.
“If I had said the wrong thing, I would
have been in deep trouble,” he said. “And as I’ve said to people, if I said the
ball is foul, and it’s a home run, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. And
if I said the ball was a home run and it was foul, the same thing would be the
case.”
Stockton, who called Red Sox games from
1975-78, was on the call because NBC had team announcers as part of the booth,
with that practice ending in 1976. He called the first 4 ½ innings before
turning things over to Joe Garagiola. When the game went to extra innings,
Garagiola and Stockton alternated with Stockton calling the 10th and
12th innings.
That moment and having the calm to make
the right call at the right time is how the broadcasting story of Dick Stockton
came into being.
That moment led Mr. Stockton to call
virtually every sport during his career, including the 1992 and 1994 Winter
Olympics for CBS. Before that he was the network’s lead voice of their NBA
television coverage from 1981-90 working alongside Hall of Famers in the late
Tom Heinsohn and current color analyst for ESPN Hubie Brown.
Mr. Stockton had a front-row seat for the
league’s rise to prominence, being with those storied tilts of the NBA
playoffs, especially in NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics versus Los
Angeles Lakers, Lakers versus 76ers, Celtics versus Rockets, Lakers versus
Detroit Pistons, and Pistons versus Portland Trail Blazers.
When Stockton was doing NBA games for CBS
then, they were still shown on tape delay after the late local news.
It was not until Hall of Famers Julius
“Dr. J.” Erving, Larry Bird, Earvin “Magic” Johnson arrived in the NBA that the
league’s popularity bloomed, with all Finals games being aired on live
television beginning in 1983.
One of Stockton’s famed calls as an NBA play-by-play
man came in Game 5 of the opening-round when Hall of Famer and eventual
six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan hit a jumper from
the foul line at the buzzer lifted the Bulls to victory at the Cleveland
Cavaliers.
“It was just a perfect storm. I thought it
was a great era of basketball and then Michael Jordan and the Bulls come in,”
Stockton said.
Stockton came to FOX Sports in 1994 when
it won the rights to broadcast the NFL. He called 714 games, with only NBC
Sports NFL commentator for Sunday Night Football Al Michaels calling more.
Stockton has also called six Super Bowls for NFL Network’s International
broadcasts. Stockton also was part of FOX Sports coverage of NHL and MLB.
During his career with FOX, Stockton is
credited with helping to mentor analyst such like Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame
signal caller and three-time Super Bowl champion Troy Aikman, the now lead NFL
color analyst for FOX alongside Joe Buck, former Cowboys’ fullback Daryl
Johnston, now CBS NFL color analyst Charles Davis, Matt Millen, San Francisco
49ers General Manager John Lynch, and sideline reporter Pam Oliver.
For nearly two decades (1995-2013),
Stockton called NBA games for Turner Sports, working alongside the late Hall of
Famer and two-time NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons in head coach Chuck
Daly, while also working alongside current 76ers head coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers,
fellow Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, and Hall of Famer to be Chris Webber. In
2001, Stockton was given the Curt Gowdy Electronic Media Award by the Naismith
Basketball Hall of Fame
In his nearly three decades calling 76ers
games, Mr. Zumoff was the voice behind the careers of several 76ers stars that
included current 76ers’ General Manager Elton Brand and Hall of Famer Allen Iverson.
The list of stars players also includes current All-Stars Ben Simmons and Joel
Embiid, Tobias Harris, and current Miami Heat swingman and 2015 Finals MVP and
three-time NBA champion with Golden State Warriors Andre Iguodala.
A native of the “City of Brotherly Love”
and alum of Temple University, Zumoff joined the broadcast network for 76ers
PRISM in 1982, where he served as the in-studio host for the pregame, halftime,
and postgame shows. He became the play-by-play commentator for 76ers on Aug. 17,
1994, winning 19 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards for the best sports play-by-play
broadcaster. Three years ago, Zumoff received the 2018 Bill Campbell Award from
the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association and in named the Pennsylvania Sportscaster of the
Year by the National Sports Media Association.
Mr. Worrell began his sports broadcasting
career after graduating from the University of Houston in 1970 first as sports
director for KPRC from 1974-80 and was one of first employees at Houston’s
first cable channel, Home Sports Entertainment when it launched in 1983.
He not only was the longtime play-by-play
man for the Rockets, Mr. Worrell, where he covered Hall of Famers Hakeem
Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler, Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and the late Moses Malone, NBA
on TNT studio analyst Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, 76ers assistant coach Sam
Cassell, former Wizards head coach Scott Brooks, Otis Thorpe, Robert Horry, and
All-Stars John Wall, 2018 Kia MVP James Harden and many others, also was an
analyst for MLB’s Houston Astros from 1985-2005; did play-by-play for the then
Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans).
Mr. Worrell also covered and reported for
a number of national sports events like the Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby,
Indianapolis 500, the MLB Playoffs, and the NCAA Tournament.
“Throughout sports, several broadcasters
have become synonymous with their team because of how they welcomed and engaged
generations of fans and Bill Worrell has done that for the Houston Rockets,”
Tillman Fertitta, Rockets owner said of Worrell, and also called him a ‘Rocket
for Life.’
In 2016, Mr. Worrell began to transition
out as the Rockets full-time play-by-play commentator calling only Rockets home
games, with radio play-by-play man Craig Ackerman taking over the television
play-by-play duties for road games alongside former Rocket and now analyst Matt
Bullard, with home public address announcer Matt Thomas taking over the radio
play-by-play commentary.
“I’ve had the wonderful privilege of working with and alongside Houston icon Bill Worrell for the last five years,” Ackerman tweeted @ca_rockets back on May 11. “I have the utmost respect & admiration for him personally and for his incredible career. The Rockets fan in me will miss him greatly. All the best to Bill in retirement.
Thomas, a fellow graduate of the
University of Houston echoed those same sentiments about Mr. Worrell tweeting
@SportsMT, “My dream since I was a kid was to do play-by-play. I’ve been lucky
to learn the craft from people like Milo Hamilton, Bill Brown, and Bill
Worrell. Bill is a fellow Cougar and I wish him nothing but birdies on his
future golf trips. Congratulations on a great career!”
As of May, AT&T SportsNet Southwest
has yet to announce their plans about the permanent television or radio
play-by-play commentators. If Ackerman gets the nod as the full-time lead
television commentator, which many expect to happen, the Rockets presumably
will hire or promote someone to handle some or all the radio play-by-play
duties or to perhaps take over the public address spot for Rocket’s home games
at Toyota Center if Thomas is promoted to the full-time radio commentator.
Along with calling Bucks games over a
48-year career as a sports broadcaster, Mr. Paschke, a native or Bloomington,
MN has also called college football and college basketball games for the
University of Wisconsin, as well as college basketball games for Marquette
University. He has also done play-by-play for MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers,
Milwaukee Admirals hockey, and auto races at Wisconsin State Fair Park.
Paschke attended the University of
Minnesota and Brown College in Minneapolis, MN. He began his incredible sports
broadcasting journey in radio. He was the sports director at WMTV in Madison,
WI and at WITI in Milwaukee, WI.
Together with longtime co-pilot in the broadcast
booth for Bucks’ television broadcast Jon McGlocklin and fellow former Buck
Marques Johnson, Mr. Paschke won five regional Emmys for his work on Bucks’
broadcast.
What allowed Mr. Paschke to work well with
McGlocklin on Bucks broadcast as well as with Johnson is that they each were
themselves on camera.
Paschke said, “There are only originals in
the Hall of Fame. You don’t emulate anyone. You have to learn how to be
yourself.”
When the lights were on an it was time to
do a telecast, Paschke said McGlocklin was ready each and every single night
for over three decades.
Paschke said of Johnson that he had
exceptional knowledge and could present during a game very fluidly.
Johnson is a trained actor and implements
that into his ability to commentate what he sees on the court. Paschke also
said that the other great aspect of Johnson is that he is “sneaky funny,” which
he finds enjoyable.
“He works so hard at this. It’s
fantastic,” Paschke said of Johnson. “I have been so lucky to work with John
McGlocklin, Marques Johnson, Steve Novak, also, young broadcaster whose current
with the league and has a great understanding of what the game is today and has
a very polished way presenting that as well.”
Paschke has also worked Bucks broadcast
with former Bucks like Sidney Moncrief, Joe Wolf, Jim Jones and one of the
greatest players in Bucks history along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in fellow Hall
of Famer Oscar Robertson. Paschke broadcast games with current color analyst
for the Indiana Pacers for Bally Sports Indiana Quinn Buckner.
Each person that Mr. Paschke worked with
for Bucks’ television broadcast he called “a gift” because of who they were, what they brought
to viewers homes, and the kind of people they were. He added that there was not
one person that Paschke worked with doing a Bucks’ game on television that he
did not like.
Aside from the first head coach in Bucks
franchise history Larry Costello, Mr. Paschke has worked with every Bucks head
coach since from current leader on the team’s sidelines in Mike Budenholzer, to
Hall of Famer Don Nelson, Frank Hamblen, Mike Dunleavy, Sr., Chris Ford, George
Karl, Terry Porter, Terry Stotts, Larry Krystkowiak, Scott Skiles, Jim Boylan,
Larry Drew, Dallas Mavericks new head coach Jason Kidd, and Joe Prunty.
Mr. Paschke said he learned something from
all of them. Nelson was the first head coach Paschke said he observed and saw
his work up close in practice.
Kidd Paschke said treated him really well
and let him into how he coached than any of the 16 head coaches Mr. Paschke
worked with his career. Paschke and Kidd in their conversations were about
motivation, what it takes to win an NBA championship, and the toughness and
mental aspect required to reach that ultimate goal.
“When I speak to kids, I tell them to do
the math. You have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Use the mouth as it is
proportioned less than the other two. Listen and watch far more than you
speak,” Paschke said on what it takes to be successful. “In doing that, I often
learned more about basketball. And when you do that, people respond to you.
People who know what their doing and are at the top of the food chain in any
given field. If they see you watching and not talking and acting like you know things
all of sudden, they start to tell you things. They bring you along with them.”
Before the Bucks regular season home
finale, a 122-108 win versus the Miami Heat, who they defeated in the
First-Round of the 2021 Playoffs 4-0, Mr. Paschke announced the starting lineup
in his final home broadcast for Bally Sports Wisconsin.
As the players arrived for the game at
around 3:30 p.m. local time, the likes of starting center Brook Lopez and
reserved swingman Pat Connaughton arrived at Fiserv short sleeve T-Shirts that
had the I with a heart and Paschke’s face with a head set on with the words,
“Celebrating 35 Years of Paschketball.”
Connaughton took a liking to the shirt
saying heading to the locker room, “I like it. It fits great. For my guy, Jim!”
In the second quarter, the Bucks brought back McGlocklin to do color commentary alongside Paschke which they did for 35 years.
“So many stories a quarter won’t do it.
But on air, off air Jim and I kind of grew up and grew older together,”
McGlocklin, who played for the Bucks and has his jersey in the rafters of
Fiserv Forum said during the pregame show “Bucks Live” on Bally Sports
Wisconsin of his 30-plus years calling Bucks games on television with Mr.
Paschke. “When you travel, you spend a lot of time going to movies and dinner
and what have you, and we enjoyed a lot of it for sure.”
When asked by Antetokounmpo about what his
favorite moment was of his broadcasting career, Paschke brought up several
moments, with the 2000-01 Bucks squad led by Hall of Famer Ray Allen, Sam
Cassell, Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson reached the Eastern Conference Finals but
lost in seven games to the eventual NBA runner-up Philadelphia 76ers led by
Hall of Famers Allen Iverson and head coach Larry Brown, which Paschke called
his first big moment of his broadcasting career. The franchise single-game
scoring record of 57 points by Michael Redd against the Utah Jazz. The Bucks
2018-19 squad reaching the East Finals against the eventual NBA champion
Toronto Raptors, who the Bucks lost to in six games.
“I’ve got into this because I enjoyed the
spectacle of sport, and the Bucks have certainly given me a lot of spectacles
over the 35 seasons,” Paschke said of why he became a broadcaster.
As much as he will miss the games and the
big crowds that pack the basketball arenas, Mr. Paschke said when asked by
Antetokounmpo what he will miss the most is “the people.”
By living in the culture of professional
hoops specifically Mr. Paschke said has “been so enlightening” to him. That
being consistently around diverse culture and learning about people, and
learning that despite how different we are, in a lot of ways we are “all alike”
and we are all the same, which Mr. Paschke called “the greatest blessing” of
his life and his broadcasting career.
During a break in the action, Paschke in a
video message in thanks the Bucks organization for allowing him to be their
television voice for 35 years said, “I’m not from Milwaukee, but I will always
be Milwaukee. This is my home.”
During the broadcast, Mr. Paschke in
reminiscing with his co-pilot on the broadcast in former Bucks player Steve
Novak that his first Bucks broadcast back in 1986 against the Detroit Pistons
was the first NBA career game for Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman.
“I was nervous and apparently he was too
apparently,” Paschke said of that first NBA broadcast and Rodman’s first NBA
game.
In 2007, Mr. Paschke became a member of
the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame as a “Friend of Basketball” and
six years later was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and
Sciences’ prestigious Silver Circle, an honor given to outstanding individuals
who have devoted a quarter century (25 years) or more to the local television
industry. In 2014, Paschke was inducted into the Milwaukee Press Club’s
Milwaukee Media Hall of Fame.
When Antetokounmpo asked Mr. Paschke what
his favorite moment was with him, Paschke said the first time he called him
“Mr. Jim,” which Paschke said made him smile, and does so each time Antetokounmpo
referred to Paschke as “Mr. Jim.”
The other moment Mr. Paschke thought of
was the night in 2016 when the Bucks organization hung a banner in honor of, he
and McGlocklin for 30 years at mic broadcasting Bucks games (1986-2016), and
Antetokounmpo came over to shake Mr. Paschke’s hand, and was able to be
introduced to the longtime Bucks commentator’s mother.
Paschke says his mom talks to anyone she
meets about Antetokounmpo just from that one little gesture of shaking her
son’s hand on a special night honoring a special moment in his career.
Antetokounmpo shared those same feelings
to Mr. Paschke when he said that he loved being interviewed by Mr. Paschke
because he was comfortable with him and that the content from those interviews
is “authentic.”
It was fitting that the final postgame
on-air interview that Mr. Paschke did as the voice of the Bucks was with the
Antetokounmpo, where the two have grown to have a special relationship of
respect for how they go about their work each day for eight seasons.
“I’m going to miss you Mr. Jim,”
Antetokounmpo said at the start of the postgame interview between him and Mr.
Paschke. “We’re all going to miss you. We love you.”
“This is my honor. It’s my honor to have
the last interview with you. Please be around as much as possible. We always
want to see your face, your smile, and it’s an honor to have the last interview
with you.”
Mr. Paschke replied by saying about his
final broadcast a “special end to a special night. I’m taken back by this.” He
also called Antetokounmpo a “special human being.”
For close to four decades, Bill Worrell,
Mark Zumoff, Jim Paschke, and Dick Stockton have provided commentary on some of
the best, worst, toughest, brightest, and exceptional moments in sports,
whether it was for local teams or on the national broadcast. They put in the
work to make sure that when they came on the air, they could commentate the
spectacle of sport that comes in front of our eyes in a way that can bring all
of us right to that timeframe like we are there in the stands of the arena or
stadium, track, ballpark, or field.
All four of these gentlemen took time away
from the people that they love like their better halves and their kids to
provide commentary for on the teams and sports that we enjoy tuning in for each
season.
Mr. Stockton said that he plans on
continuing to play golf in retirement as well as tennis, and to travel this
fall for the first time in nearly five decades.
“People have asked me since it came out if
it is a bittersweet thing? Absolutely not, I knew what I wanted to do, and
nothing would change that,” Stockton said.
Mr. Worrell said about ending his broadcasting
career, most of it in his native Houston, TX, “The wonderful experiences and
the amazing people I’ve met along the way has made this journey more than I
could have ever imagined. Although I’ll miss connecting with Rockets fans on game
nights, my goal now is to play as many top 100 golf courses as I can before my
next permanent retirement. I have played 38 so far, so I have plenty of golf to
play. I’d like to thank the Houston Rockets organization, AT&T SportsNet,
and most importantly, the fans that have allowed me to be a small part of their
lives. It has been an incredible ride!”
Mr. Zumoff’s final words to 76ers’ nation
were, “You will continue to see me on social media, on the beach, the golf
course, at a game or just on the street around town. If we do happen to cross
paths, please call out so we can talk 76ers basketball, relive the moments and
carry on the memories. Meantime, I will pass the baton on to the next
television voice of the Philadelphia 76ers, doing so with peace of mind and
heart that couldn’t be more full.”
In his final words to Bucks nation in his
final home broadcast as the television play-by-play man for the team, Mr. Paschke
said, “I’ve been very touched tonight by all of you. I’ve been touched by fans
for 35 years. And all I can say is ‘Thank you very much for a special career.’
Thank you so much. I won’t ever be able to repay the debt. All I can do is say,
‘Thank you.’”
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