30 Years With Mike and Tommy

THEY WERE A CLASSIC TONIGHT....CONGRADS GUYS!!!!!! 30 MORE!!!!!!

In honor of their 30th anniversary, here’s a fun fact about the broadcast team of Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn:

Every once in a while, Tommy gets mad at the refs.

What happens is that at some point there will be a call that goes against the Celtics. Let’s say Paul Pierce is guarding LeBron James out on the perimeter, and James takes Pierce to the hole (obviously a regular-season game). LeBron goes up, the whistle blows and it’s a foul on Pierce.

Tommy gets angry.

Maybe he’ll let out a loud “Awwww!” or take a deep breath and dramatically sigh into the microphone. Maybe he’ll get real animated, say something an official and excitably ask for the replay.

But whatever he does, it’s not an act.

Even though Tommy’s on TV, when it comes to plays like this, it’s not about the camera. He’s just a guy who really loves the Celtics. He loves them more than you do. It’s been 55 years since he made his debut with the franchise, and over that time he’s played, coached, covered, lived and died with the Green. He’s had a hand in all 17 championships.

Imagine how insane it would be if Paul Pierce was still affiliated with the Celtics in the year 2050 . . .

In 2050, he still wouldn’t have as many years in green as Tommy does now.

Heinsohn might be the Celtics color commentator, but he’s also their living history. So when the Celtics are screwed by a bad call, Tommy’s offended.

At which point, Mike Gorman steps in.

Gorman teamed up with Tommy in 1981, the same year Danny Ainge joined the Celtics, and three years into the career of Larry Bird. And while building his relationship with Heinsohn, Gorman — a lifelong Celtics fan — had the good fortune of broadcasting one of the most memorable stretches in NBA history. The Big 3, Celtics vs. Lakers, Bird vs. Magic, 1986!

I was born in 1980, so I don’t remember too much about Gorman’s early years with Tommy and the Celtics. But I’ve been able to relive a lot of them through Bird.

Gorman’s voice is the soundtrack to so many great Bird highlights. The crazy shots and buzzer beater that we’ll continue to watch over and over until the aliens invade.

Like that game against the Blazers in January of 1985.

The C’s are down one with two seconds left. Bird runs to get the inbound pass on the baseline, but by the time he catches it he’s already stuck; double-teamed in the corner by Jerome Kersey and Clyde Drexler. Bird fakes once, which doesn’t do much, and then takes one dribble, fades back and throws up an off balance heave from behind the back board (one step in front of the three-point-line). SWISH, and the Celtics win.

Larry’s momentum sends him into the front row, and as he emerges from the crowd, fans draped all over him, Gorman adds the kicker:

“ALLLLL-RIIIGHT!!”

It was during moments like that when his genuine love for the team really showed. Short, quick but 100 percent natural phrases like “Got it!” or “Yeah-EH!” that never overshadowed the action, but always captured the emotion. Gorman wasn’t reciting zingers he’d written in his hotel room the night before; he and Tommy were sitting next to you on the couch. He reacted the same way you did. And over time, that caught on.

In fact, as the face of the Celtics changed with the retirement of the Big Three and the death of Reggie Lewis, Mike and Tommy were the two constants. (Later, there was a brief scare when that guy with the gray goatee stepped in for Mike, but it was just a false alarm.)

The Celtics had eight straight losing seasons after Reggie died. There were a couple real bad ones in there, too — Acie Earl and Eric Montross can do that to you. Mike and Tommy were the two voices assigned to guide you through that awful mess, and for eight straight seasons, they somehow did it. I never thought jinxing free throws would be that much fun, but I laughed every time.

That was most of the ’90s.

The surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals ‘02, gave the team a little momentum, and the new and improved Mike and Tommy, now 20 years fine-tuning their connection with the city and understanding of each other, were ready to take it to another level.

Both these ideas existed before the 2002 playoff run, but it was that stretch that took “I love Walter” from cult following to borderline epidemic, and turned Tommy Points into an actual, sponsored award.

By then, Gorman had mastered the art of playing Tommy’s straight man. He knew how to play off Tommy's passion while steering the ship back on course. He learned the questions to best draw out Tommy’s years of basketball knowledge, and Tommy still had that all fresh in the holster. Both of them were well-versed in Celtics history, but now they had a whole bunch of history that they’d experienced together. Which we’d experienced with them. You didn’t just watch the Celtics on TV. You also watched Mike and Tommy. It was a show within a show, and they both nailed the parts.

When the Celtics bottomed out in 2006-2007, they sent Heinsohn to the lottery to pick up Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. He was the face of the franchise. Meanwhile, as they announced the picks, Gorman wasn’t at home on the couch or stuffed into the media room. He was with Doc. He was on the inside. Mike Gorman was a Celtic, and continues to be.

Obviously, that was an awful night for the team, but a few months later everything changed. In August, after the deals for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett had been made, Gorman was on his way to an event at the State House, and ran into some traffic:

"I was running a little late and there were about six cars in front of me who were all going to take a right," he said that fall. "I wanted to go straight. So I swung out into the passing line to go by the cars and about three cars into it, out stepped a state trooper from the sidewalk. He put his hand up to stop me. I was putting down my window thinking, 'What am I going to say?' and he got about 10 feet away and said, 'What do you need, Mike?'

I wanted to pick up the phone and call Wyc and say, 'We're back!' "

And they have been ever since.

Through another title run, two trips to the Finals and another playoff push ahead, the latest era of Celtics dominance is still going strong, and for the 30th year, Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn are the guys talking us all through it, putting on a show and having a hell of a time doing it.

The faces and voices of the team they love, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Unless maybe you're an NBA ref.

112288

What I like about these guys is that they are truly good friends. Great to see!

Pete

We've been blessed. Thank you Mike and Tommy!

112288,

Our treasured announcers have really given us something special. Thanks for a great read on the duo. I am sad I am out of the country and didn't get to see them honored. But I will add my favorites from that crew. Tommy - "The young official Kenny Mauer........" Pierce got mauled!!!!! Oh Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember in the nineties during the Sherman Douglas years I was living in the mountains and got a satellite feed in the days when you had to scan the sky to get a game. The Cous was on color analysis and he didn't know the player on the other team and asked Tommy who he was. Tommy said he thought he was out of the Mexican league. Mike Gorman picked right up as smooth as silk and said they don't pay those players enough to play defense (Matador reference) in Mexico. I can't remember the player but it didn't matter because you could just feel the love for the C's and know what was going on just listening. Listening to Tommy just take a deep breath is comforting to me as I have probably just done the same thing.

BTW Tommy did a nice job with Dick Stockton on the national broadcasts. I guess that is if you are a Celtics fan like us.

Hoop

Hoop,

That's a great story!

112288

It almost doesn't seem like a Celtic game without Mike & Tommy. It's like you're watching the game with them like old friends who are chillin' with you in your man cave. THose 2 add so much tradition and class to a Celtic broadcast that it puts any of the national broadcasters from any of the networks to shame. It was a nice gesture to have a night to honor the C's broadcast tandem.-MD!

What i like about Tommy is you actually learn how the game of basketball is played and what players do or should be doing.

112288

Celtics Basketball is very much about eras. I will some day go to my grave happy and grateful in the knowledge that I'll have borne witness to all of them.

It could be argued that, in terms of basketball operations, there have been five eras. The early fifties unquestionably bore the imprint of Bob Cousy, and I'd maintain that they were highlighted by his 50 points, 30 or 32 free throws, and general all-around heroics in the 1953 four overtime playoff win against Syracuse.

The Cooz Era obviously overlapped considerably with the Russell Era from the mid-fifties through the sixties. No need to embellish that one, although I'll always identify most with (1) the very last game of the era, involving the bursting of a lot of balloons and (2) the 1962-63 season—a one-year Basketball Camelot combining the majesty of Cousy, Russell and Havlicek.

The Russell Era morphed into the Havlicek/Cowens Era, spanning the seventies and symbolized by the three-overtime triumph over Phoenix in 1976.

Then came the Bird Era of the eighties, reviving a much cherished coast-to-coast rivalry and almost certainly epitomized by the the magic (irony intended) season of 1985-86 that all-too-briefly fused the talents of Larry and Bill.

The nineties were the Era that Might Have Been—the Lenny/Reggie Era that tragically died along with them.

And into a new century and the Pierce Era, when one player and a struggling team stuck with one another through a little thick and a lot of thin until reinforcements arrived to renew the Championship Tradition.

And paralleling all those operational eras, there have really been only three broadcasting eras. The first, which few of us are old enough to remember, was a very short-lived period of the early fifties, in which the late Don Gillis survived the primitive beginnings of the team long enough to be a radio voice in the early years of The Cooz and a television voice well into the sixties (memorably including the so-called "Selvy Game" of 1962.

Johnny would have loved the description of the longest broadcasting era (to date) as the "The Most" Era. His raspy machine-gun delivery brought us 18 championships on radio, and let's not forget that he didn't have the benefit of a color commentary sidekick for much of that time. Most of the fifties and all of the sixties and seventies unquestionably belonged solely to Johnny.

Johnny on radio and the team of Mike and Tommy on television shared the Bird Era of the eighties. And Mike and Tommy have been with us ever since. Just like players new to a team have to go through an orientation period, Mike and Tommy have had to adapt to working seamlessly together; and they've done a magnificent job. And another challenge they've had to meet (unlike most of their predecessors) has been that of achieving a balance between their verbal communication and the visual communication of the television medium. Mike and Tommy are most deserving of all the accolades coming their way. And, of course, Mike has displayed unending grace in the role of Lion Tamer to Tommy's Leo the Lion.

As impressive as all these operational and broadcasting eras have been, it's important to recognize that one person has spanned virtually all of them. Tommy Heinsohn has assumed the mantle of Celtics Ambassador without Portfolio. Tommy has been to the Celtics as Johnny Pesky has been to the Red Sox. Player, coach/manager, broadcaster, a constant presence at every important team event. Mike may now be the Voice of the Celtics, but Tommy will forever be the Spirit of the Celtics.

We are so blessed! All the best to Mike and Tommy.

Sam

My own expereince with Mike and Tommy is quite limited to having been born and raised in the wrong state, however limited, my opprtunities tolisten to them has become one of my favorite aspects of being a Celtics fan. Congrads to both and hope for another 30+ and more championship winning games called.

Cut my teeth on the raspy voice of WBZ103, Johnny's voice cut thru any static. Of course sometimes it was hard to tell the difference especially when he went to the dog whistle voice that only dogs could hear, and that was usually when their was a very exciting play.

As for Tommy and Mike living in the rural country of northern NY did not allow us to have cable, but in the early 80's my parent bought a satellite dish (one of the big ones that would move facing the southern sky) back then their were no scrabled signals and it was just a matter of searching for the games.

Lots of great memories of the two thru the years and hopefully for years to come. Congrants to both of them!

beat

PS on a somber note when I saw the Celtic Jersey #30 given to them.............couldn't help but think of BIAS as that was to have been his number.

When I hear people speak on Tommy being a "homer" - I have to wonder, is there really any other way?

Who wants to hear someone like Donnie Marshall - tell me that the clean block I just watched, is actually a foul because "superstars get those calls". I want Tommy - with his outrage and boisterous retorts of "this is ludicrous" and "Official X should go home"

Love Mike and Tommy - love the way they call the games - they have brought to life the act of watching our beloved Celtics over the past 30 years - and like a good friend, are always there for you. God bless them both - thanks for being a part of our lives here in Boston. We are all better for knowing you both.

Ed Agwit reports that he has videos of Celtics games broadcast by Mike and Tommy for those who haven't been able to see them in action.

EdAgwit@aol.com

Sam