The Mavs Fan With a Microphone: Inside the World of Dallas Mavericks PA Announcer | Sean Heath

you know I guess everybody has their own reasons you know some people do it
because they get paid some people do it because uh it's kind of what they are yeah
talking about love making well whoa whoa whoa that's an interesting segway he started it
well that's odd coming from you really is yeah it is can we start over
nobody would have thought that I would be the one rider sports talk
baseball baseball baseball baseball baseball oh it's a big mic oh okay all right yeah okay
now I get it we're gonna lightning strike boys what happened over there Grego we had a
little light right outside the window all right all right here's the tip for all
these Americana league teams don't do it you said tip yeah tap here I would keep
jammin to take a colon nothing but a big gen x jerk off say this is a little
night or what I'm back I don't know why start over we're under way already all right I mean
she already gave the count down we're on we're live at five hi everybody hi this is a little
your dark companion once again it's good to have you with us no matter where you are no matter
how you may be receiving this podcast transmission no matter when you may be receiving this podcast
transmission we're just glad you're out there um a mic he's shooting she's actually we got the
whole crew in here today and today our guest is a guy who if you have been to see the Dallas
basketball mavericks anytime over the last few years and you have actually been in-house
an in-house guest or patron of theirs then this man has impacted your evening in one way or the
other and I say that only because anybody who does what he does anybody who does what I do what
I did for those many years you impact people in one way or the other and there's a wide variance
there he is the PA voice the in-house PA voice of the Dallas basketball mavericks his name is Sean
Heath yeah to hear you it's it's like an out-of-body experience to hear you just casually intro and suddenly
I'm sitting in my car listening to you doing the intro to the show on one of your previous incarnations
I'm like it's it's like auditioning for the SMU football gig and then having Brad Lerock sit
down immediately after me in audition for the same gig it is an out-of-body experience I'm having
right now this is so weird look at me if you need to yeah just just look at yourself that's so
distracting could you do an accent or something just like to throw just to mix it up a little
all right well how you doing man it's an absolute honor to get to sit and talk to you Michael it
really is well it's my pleasure to talk to you I've been in house a few times and sing you with
the helm see I've heard you on TV and everything and you're quite good and I got to tell you
I have always I mean ever since I gained sports consciousness and we're going back to the
that glorious year 1959 here when I used to go to Burnett Field in Oak Cliff and see the Dallas
Ford Worth Rangers and they had an in-house PA guy and he would announce each batter each pitching
change maybe you read a liner or something between innings and I'd look around going God man
work I was like I coming from not realizing that he was up there in the press box I didn't know
what that was then but ever since then I've always had a thing for the PA guy and I've never been
to a game or watched a game on TV in which I did not notice the PA guy it's it's it's kind of a
it's almost like a sports fetish that I have I'm happy to oblige
what tell us you know like I say I hardly know you I know your name and that's really about it
that's probably best for everybody involved we just this was nice thank you
if that that about two other guys in here and had me do to tell the truth or something like that you
know I don't know if I could have picked the right guy that's you know what I'm okay with that
actually I'm okay with people not knowing what I look like or and I don't yell as much in
everyday life as I do at this one particular job that I do so you know it's it's funny because
ever since I started working for the Mavericks I watch NBA basketball differently
than I did before I'm still a fan but I have that extra layer now that I have to observe
and comment and handle the the minutiae all of the the the administrative duties that I have
during a game and it's it's something that I notice now I notice things about the game much like
you notice the PA announcers when you go to these various sporting events it's just a thing that
I'm totally fine if people leave any event that I've worked and they just had a good time
and they don't they didn't notice me they may have felt my influence or my energy but they
didn't go boy Sean was really announcing tonight wasn't he I don't I don't want that yeah it's
that's never been my goal I people think I have a massive ego if you go to a maps game and you
don't notice me I'm totally fine with that if you had a good time and you yelled when I wanted
you to yell and you chanted and you clapped and you had fun that's that's it my daughter has said
several times that I'm the head cheerleader for the Dallas Mavericks and I kind of I kind of
like that I kind of like having the mindset of being optimistic yeah you know it's because there's
so many things you could complain about but why that's so fun but you're I mean at these games for
most of the masses you are large and in charge I mean you're the con you're kind of a conduit
between them and what's going on on the floor and whatever else the Mavericks might want to get
across to them you know you're the conduit for that you know I've always felt that I announced
specifically a Mavericks game as if you and I were sitting on the couch and and I you grabbed a
snack from the kitchen you came back and while you were in there I'm like oh he just don't
this or he just did that you're not going to believe this thing that just happened like I'm just
talking to you telling you stuff you've seen it happen like can you believe that just happened
and high five and and just having fun that's one thing that I didn't notice until a few years
in someone told me said there's some the thing that's different about the way you announce
anything is you're not talking at the people in the stands you're talking with them you're talking
to them as if you're sitting right next to them and that tone sort of comes through when everything
that you do so when you hear me you know trying to get the crowd pumped up let's go maves or
defense or whatever thing I'm saying if you'll listen you can hear the tone that I'm saying it
and then you know without even looking at the scoreboard how the game's going yeah and I'm a fan
so when I'm mad and I'm frustrated I try to hide it but sometimes I can't it just comes across
the microphone but on my positive side like I've definitely noticed when you know a really
amazing dunk happens or a crazy shot is made like I can hear the amusement in your voice
oh because I love it crap that was incredible yeah it's you know I'm very fortunate
I believe sincerely I have the best seat in the building for Dallas Mavericks games
I'm at mid court at the scores table I'm never more than whatever the math is 52 feet or whatever
the diagonal is from mid court to the opposite corner I'm never more than 55 feet let's say
from some of the best basketball players on earth and I get to just sit there and watch them
and I've said this if I've said it once I've said it twice this will be the third time
on the Mav's fan with the microphone and if I wasn't sitting there yelling in the microphone
I'd be sitting up in the 300 yelling just as loud as I do except I have a little
amplification helping me get my point and my fandom across yeah well I'd say that that's your
approach and if that's the place you're at in relation to doing this job then then you're doing
it right man I mean you're doing it right for you're doing it for the right reasons
you're doing it the right way and that's a almost a holistic approach you're taking to it
I you know and and so you've had a very distinguished very full career in the DFW area people
know who you are not because you chased the dollar but because you told the story you expressed
the opinion you took information processed it collated it simplified it boiled it down distilled
it to its its base parts and then said here's what I see I filtered this all out and I see this
this and this and this and this makes me think this this makes me feel this this makes me feel that
and that's how I feel about that yeah and you've been able to do that and you know you I never feel
this is one of the things that about you that fascinates me and always has I've never once heard
you talk on a microphone and felt like that guy's getting a paycheck never I've never ever I've
always felt oh Mike's telling the story or oh he has oh that's a fascinating take that he has on
that I didn't think about it that way and that's something that is I feel is exceedingly rare
in these days of clickbait and hot takes and you anybody can say something stupid but not everybody
can say something smart well that's how praise coming from you and I really appreciate it's my
pleasure my pleasure tell us a little bit about your background I mean I didn't know you all right
I didn't know anything about you until you started doing this game nobody did the first
sporting event I ever announced was in my life was a Dallas Mavericks preseason game I had never
announced a sporting event at any level I had been talking on microphones since I was about 16
years old I've worked as a DJ in nightclubs all over the country and the world I went to college
to thought I was going to be an actor or in musical theater so I'm classically trained
opera singer theater I've learned how to speak Spanish before I graduated high school so I've
been fluent in Spanish since I was 16 lived in Barcelona for a few years after graduating high
school just jumped around have had about seven or eight different careers a software engineer
motivational speaker actor translator professional baseball player I played football for the
Barcelona Dragons for a year before they joined NFL Europe I've had a lot of crazy just ridiculous
jobs and it's always been because I've never once said to anyone oh no I don't think I can do that
I always say yeah I can probably do that and this thing I've told the story a few times but
um the short version is homebubbly haze was leaving the Mavericks it was announced on a sports
station in Dallas that they were having open auditions I called in got a slot auditioned blah blah blah
ended up getting the job and that was this is my 17th season doing this that led to
getting to work with the Cowboys getting to work with uh the Texas Rangers and College of
baseball at Globally Field getting to do a video game voice work and voiceovers and it just kind of
one thing led to the other and it's very it's a very close knit the sports
presentation uh network in Dallas is very very close knit and if you know one camera guy you
probably worked at him in four with four different places I've worked with groups hi in let's say
we worked at the stars we've worked at the Rough Riders uh well we worked at the maps we're
good to Rough Riders uh we've worked at Globally Field for College Baseball gosh did we ever work
a wings I haven't worked I think we've worked a wings yeah not opposed to it um so I you know we
used cross paths with the ambassador of fun which was one of his title previous titles um yes that's
well known yeah and that very apt yeah oh man that we had so much fun oh really my early baseball
was awful but man groups made it so much fun if I see one more guy drop a foul ball in my
baseball I will jump out the window but groups always made it fun and that's you know it's nice I
you get to meet people and all of a sudden we've been working together for you know oh we've
worked together for 14 years like is that possible yeah yeah we started working together I guess
it was like 2016 2017 so it's been 10 years yeah been 10 years since I first got to work with uh
groups and it's you know so it's uh I've you know Mark Cuban said I can't remember on what late
night talk show he said that he was the somebody had to be the luckiest guy in the world and he was
glad it was him I mean I'm not in the same tax bracket but I think I've been much luckier than
Mark my job my all of the the opportunities I've gotten I don't personally think have been because
of talent I think I was just dependable or they you know I wasn't missed like they knew what
they were gonna get and I just happened to fit the thing they need like okay sure and as you said
you're not afraid to say no or you don't say no you're just like I'll figure it out yeah yeah
yeah absolutely yeah I'm never I've talked myself out of so many jobs I feel sorry for people
who've had to interview me for corporate jobs over the years because I know I've talked
myself out of several several good jobs but I've never run away from a job opportunity I've
never lost a job because I didn't go for it what was the process of getting the Mavericks PA gig like
Jeff have um were there auditions or something like that it was bizarre so at the time the audition
I think it was like a Tuesday afternoon the ice wasn't down at American Airlines Center yet
because the star season hadn't started so we were on the concrete arena floor six foot folding
table was set up about 20 feet 30 feet from the back wall with a microphone and a script you sat
down and the three decision makers who I'm not going to name because it's not my place to name them
we're sitting back against the wall the scoreboard was about eight feet the jumbo charm was about
eight feet from the arena floor because they were having issues with the panel and mark was
standing over there because he is a nerd talking to one of the technicians about oh it's a modular
it's a panellar you know doing things more things and they just said go so I'm like okay so I read
the welcome to American Airlines Center and the starting lineup and then on my own I did it in
Spanish just because I wanted to and J.J. Baray was on the team so I'm like yeah I want to do it in
Spanish so I didn't in Spanish I think they had 60 people maybe audition total in person I don't
know how many I've the legend is that they got quite a few video submissions or audio submissions
from around the country I don't know if that's true or not they narrowed it down to 10 people we
didn't know they had recorded our auditions they put them up on maps.com people voted they narrowed
it down to six they had three preseason home preseason games left they let they let each of the
six of us do a half of a preseason game my half was the first half of a game against Cleveland
LeBron and Shaq were still on that team but they had played the night before in Houston so they
didn't play so I didn't get to announce them but I got to announce you know it's a preseason game
so not everybody played but I got to announce that it was amazing they narrowed it down to two myself
and another guy named Mike Taylor and Mark decided one each of us to do a regular season game
and I said you're gonna let me announce a regular season maps game yeah sure absolutely
first game that I announced was Utah in November of 2009 we were down 16 or 17 at the end of the
third quarter in Dirk scored 29 points in the fourth quarter the maps won so the first NBA game
I announced they came back from 17 down Dirk set a franchise record for points in a quarter and
they won and you got to do that whole game I got to do that whole game and then Mark couldn't
make up his mind so I said well let's let each of these guys alternate five more games so now
we're into December and I got to do because there needed to be a schedule there was a schedule
conflict or whatever I got to do the seats for soldiers game that year and it was against Charlotte
Larry Brown was the coach of Charlotte and Dirk hit a shot with like 1.8 seconds left in the
fourth quarter hit the front of the rim the backboard and went through tied the game went to
overtime the maps won and after that game is when my boss said you got the job and that's how
I found out that I had the job he just told me at the end of the game I said so I guess I need to
like come inside a contract or something and he said something that will make me smile till my
dying day he said you just keep coming till I tell you to stop yes sir and here we are I've been
told that a few times you normally it's you can stop coming is what I normally hear but you
keep coming until I tell you to stop is one of the favorite things anyone's ever said to me I'll
be eternally grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to announce for my favorite team so
were you nervous that's terrifying terrified but I've never let fear stop me from doing something
that I want to do I wanted that job I decided I told one of my friends I said I'm going down to
get this math job and you said you mean you're going to audition for it I said no I'm going to get
this job I want this job and it just the universe got it the universe gave it to me so how much of
possibility have you considered that before it opened up like did you think about being a PA or
never cross my mind I've never announced any sporting event ever right not high school I've never
announced anything and for somehow I wound up being the maths PA guy it's absolutely one of the
dumbest stories that I've ever heard and I'm in it so who's your boss on the maths flow chart
my current boss is Jonathan Cornbliffe he runs game presentation he has an actual title that I
should say out of respect I don't know what it is he's executive something of something yeah but
he's my boss and he says hey do this thing and he's also the one that calls the game so he's
on the headset while we're going and moves this from this time out to that time out or hey this
person didn't show up so we got to switch this check press he he runs the the show basically
and Jonathan's oh he's such a great story man he's also started out as like a street team
or something I think with the rockets and moved up and was in game press with them and then
had the opportunity to come to them it's just it's just amazing I'm some of the people I work with
actually all the people I work with at the maps on game presentation they're just they're just the
best it's the best in house replay crew the best on court the best game press the bit the best
everything the camera guys everybody stage managers they're just the best they're the best I have
they make it easy for me to do the things that I need to do yeah to be good at what I do they
make it just so easy it's got to be the most fun headset too a lot of it's led by Sean but
well pretty much every other team you know they have essentially point-to-point conversations you
know the director will talk to the DJ and that's the only person the DJ is the only person that
hears it for the most part yeah with the maps crew it's Sean, Carla, Jonathan, everybody
that has a microphone and a headset will talk at some point yeah there's a general talk there's
a general chat and then you know like a group said point-to-point fortunately for me I didn't have
someone someone who auditioned who was a radio like a drive-time radio jock in Dallas
auditioned and he was apparently he was super confident that he was absolutely gonna get that I
don't remember his name and even if I did I wouldn't want I wouldn't want to air somebody's dirty
laundry maybe he was a morning guy I don't know anyways he was super confident as the story was
relayed to me he came in and this poor guy he has the the one-move headset right and in that
headset there are about seven conversations crosstalk happening and none of them are to him
and he's trying to focus on what he's reading and doing announcing files and baskets and everything
and he has all these conversations happening in his ear and he said he'd never been so distracted
and he knew before the end of the first quarter that he was not going to get the job because he
just couldn't filter it all out yeah I am used to having a dozen voices in my head even as we're
talking I'm having a dozen other conversations in my head that I might never have with the person
I'm having them within my head so I'm used to a grand central station a lot of traffic happening
up there so this was just a couple of extra voices in there that didn't have my accent so it's
really I'm very used to it the headset's a fun place I have to refrain being such a massive
homer like I am I have to refrain from complaining on the headset non-stop about the things that fans
complain about when things aren't going their way so I have to try and not do that because I don't
want to be you know Debbie down or a little black green cloud on the headset all the time I'm not
always successful but I will give you an inside baseball if you ever see me on TV and my hand
is over my mouth I'm cursing and I have to do that because the hand it's the hand that triggers
my microphone because it's on it's not always open which is a very good time so glad I have a
trigger that I can open that mic if my hands over my mouth I'm cursing I'm I'm not happy with
something that's good to know yeah I'll keep for them man you know what I had a good run I had a
good run this was a good job I enjoyed it but I was also going to say I can also personally test
that Sean is a master of being able to keep a conversation going up until the very split second
before he announces something on the arena PA like he will it's weird he will weave a conversation
stop it for just a split second to say you know two points for whoever go right back into talking
and he makes every time I've been on headset with him at the rough riders
maves wherever I always think good god Sean quit like you're I know you have to have to announce
this batter I know you have to announce this play and I just always worry that his off air
conversation is going to make it into the PA like it doesn't matter how many gains have worked
with them even though I know he's got that perfect internal clock he knows you know when he's
sitting the button when he's not but just every time that's a real pro I get scared I know that's
what the microphone switches are for the right yeah the the board op in me that would get yelled at
for you guys letting a curse word through the air whatever yeah that instinct is still there and
just fascinates me that Sean is able to ride that line so yeah but the thing I'm saying to you
is so important I have to finish I know now going to line Yannis ontetic room for two shots so
anyways as I'm saying like the back the game is it's kind of important but that thing we were talking
about oh interesting is a like of utmost importance of course so to prep for a game do you go off
into a closet somewhere and sing a little opera or you know how do you shake shake off the pipes
the way to blow the carbon off the pipes is when the intro song is being played before I announce
the map starting lineup just give a little hey and then that's it and then we go that's a pro
it's it's I think his voice is just warmed up all the time people ask me all the time and I
feel bad I don't have a good answer for them I don't have a professional oh this is the way I
tune my I don't tune my instrument I just drink water I'm very fortunate I don't get sore
throats I don't miss games because I'm sick I I just I yell a lot I'm I have some weird genetic
configuration of my skull and the all the space that's in there it it's just it projects volume
and I know how to use my voice properly from the diaphragm but I don't talk that way and I don't
announce that way that's most announcers and you know this radio guys too they'll have a beautiful
baritone there's a nice base to their voice oh I'm so envious of those people I know I'm not one
of those guys I was I'm a tenor I am when I was in high school the the lowest female voice group
the altos we had so few of them that in order to fill out the sound some of the tenors had to sing
with the altos we had to sing their notes I was one of the guys who always got thrown in there like
good sing with them okay sure it's a lot higher but okay and I'm a tenor my voice is gotten down
has dropped a little since puberty hit last year but I'm a tenor I have a high voice which is also
the explanation of why the growl why I growl so much when I'm speaking loudly you're saying player
names with energy I didn't realize I was doing it it was like the second or third game I got to
announce and I was growling someone's name and one of the the the guys that was on the shot
clock leaned over and like why are you growling I didn't realize I was doing it and the guy on the
book I said I'm not growling and the guy sitting on my other side said yeah you're I said well what
do you he goes yeah you're and I didn't realize it but just as a self defense mode and to try and
protect people from how high in piercing my voice can get when I get excited which is always
when I'm yelling into a microphone I grow a lot and it helps buffer and break up the higher
frequency this is getting way nerder than that's okay never has any right do we know that my
crazy around here but that's something that I don't I never did it on purpose and now it feels
weird if I don't do it but you do still get your voice out there when you say for three yeah
you know I'm not even gonna try to it's okay when you only have to do that 20 times in a game
or I wish I had to say we made 23s and a game but when I started doing the the NBA 2K
I had to do about 175 times in one recording session and after about 50 you start to question
your life choices my you're like oh I chose poorly I I should have done this differently there's
an in-game promo that we do for an automobile company and it's the blank noise meter I don't
know if I can I mean they're not sponsoring me so why should I say their name but the first time
I did it I in my mind it made so much sense it's like a car engine revving up so I started down here
and I go all the way up about as high as I can go and hold it and the first time I did that I thought
oh that went really well well here we are several years later and I have to do that every game now
I I on in retrospect if I had known I was going to end up doing that for years I might have
done it differently the first time but I'm locked into it now so I have to do it until I die yep
do it once it catches on you gotta you have to be careful not to be inventive and creative sometimes
sometimes it's not your best interest you know sometimes you get trapped by right yeah you do
let's see I lost my place okay as far as as far okay we'll get to that in a minute sit tight
should be you know what Bill's gotta get paid it's right we do gotta get paid and we'll pay him
momentarily here as far as you know what you're doing what you're there to do during a game
what are you how do you arrange your priorities you mean it's like in-game sort of yeah what's the
maybe even a larger picture than that you know like what you mean to the organization what you're
you know all that stuff I could not characterize that it's no I maybe that's a poor choice no it's
an excellent it's an excellent question but it's gonna take me a moment to try and quantify or
qualify that so from my mindset I have two jobs I have two main pillars of my job one is the
administrative communicating the foul who was on how many free throws if if they're doing a replay
to test to see if it reaches the criteria for flagrant made baskets substitution starting line-ups
and then reading the the PA reads doing all of that administrative work the other part which I feel
is equally important is the cheerleading my job is to make sure that that building in my mind and
this is very much ego-driven but I feel that my job is to make that room as uncomfortable a place
to play basketball as I can for the opponent that's my job my job is to get the crowd excited when
there's no reason for them to be excited and pace them when there's a lot of reason to be excited
but it's only the third quarter and I'm gonna need you in the fourth quarter when this game gets
close so don't burn yourselves out now so I feel like I have to you know someone Jonathan told me this
he said that I am the narrator of a Dallas Mavericks basketball game and I like that yeah and I think
that's probably the most apt description that I I didn't think of it that way at all but that's
I think that's a fairly accurate description I have to give you the exposition I have to give you
the administrative information and then I have to give you the emotion and my emotion is always
going to be the emotion of a fan of the Dallas Mavericks when things aren't going well I want them
to go well when things are going well I want them to keep going well and so that I hope that energy
comes through in the fan specific things that I do on the microphone at least I hope
this is Sean Heath he is the PA guy for the Dallas basketball Mavericks you go to a game
at the American Airlines Center you will feel his impact and you will enjoy it
yeah what he said we'll have a bit more with Sean coming up here directly but right now
you can just sit there and relax for a second if you want because it's time for us
to stop down for that dreaded and feared mid show read
all right see what I have here
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2026 doors open at 630 Showtime 730 and this will all come down at the legendary Longhorn Ballroom
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not have it I agree oh let's see that's for later yeah but that is coming up here okay we're
very organized here okay all right well cool could I guess we're all out I guess we got where
we need to go back to Sean back to the great Sean Heath here um let's see I can't believe my
grand you just called me great yes that's right and I wish somebody liked me enough to matter for
them to hear him say that you know I'm gonna you know I'll work on that later can I interrupt and ask
you a question I've been dying to know the answer to this question for years so as I
mentioned I met you several years ago at one of your gigs yeah the Barley House can you I'm sure
you've told this story but can you tell me what your special connection or your special sort of
mindset is and fondness of the one and only Mr. Tom Petty well his music cut across to me like
like or cut across all the junk up there in my mind like very few things have it's it's hard to
put my finger on an exact reason why maybe it's because we're of the same demographic
um maybe it's because as I would later on find out while I was a kid over here in Dallas playing in
bands and stuff and trying to gain a little traction in that he was over there in Florida doing
the same thing and we both grew up listening to the same music we were both influenced by the same
music the music I was playing here he was over there playing and I just always felt kind of a
of a demographic almost demographical connection to him you know same influences same same same
everything I mean I don't know if I had a he had a pretty hard scrabble youth and I didn't
necessarily have that but still musically I just always felt like there was a connection between
him and me I could hear something in his music that spoke to me and said yeah you've heard this
before and that's that's pretty much the uh the sole brother connection I'm sure you've told
that story a hundred times I apologize thank you for no no not at all um that and I will just
if I could just say over 200 episodes and I've never heard that story so good job oh okay yeah
there you go you're welcome um the the the other thing I just want to add this in
I've heard a thousand cover band tribute band names it's it's one of the best and smartest
band names I think I've ever heard oh thank you that's just so it's just brilliant yeah there are
a few others out there that use it in fact we um we are friends with another petty theft in
California and when we're we both started using the name without knowing about the other
and we kind of connected you know in a friendly way there's never any animosity there anything
like that and we said what are you going to do about this and we just came the conclusion that
we'll stay off their turf they stay off ours and there's a lot of bars like there's plenty of
bars there are there's a lot of gigs now there will be they're a good bit bigger out there than we
are here but that's okay I don't mind that at all I I like where we are and I like our place in
this world about the art man yeah yeah man oh let's see let me ask you this are there other guys
who do what you do in the NBA um or maybe some of the other sports that influenced you
the way you go about it or maybe you take a cue or two from them um I this is going to sound maybe
sound like a horrible person I don't really hang out with a lot of PA guys I don't talk to a lot
of PA guys for a couple of reasons after I had the job for a year or two I became very popular
on LinkedIn or Facebook and a lot of people were very interested in connecting with me
and I realized ultimately that it was because they thought through that they could get somehow
to mark or they thought they could get to Jera and I don't I'm not that guy and then that's half
the people the other half of the requests I got wanted to know who they would talk to if they
wanted to be a PA guy I'm not going to help you take my job my mom didn't raise any stupid children
figured out yourself you did that even this even this many years in I'll give advice but my
advice is always um psychological or emotional I'm never going to give procedural advice well um you
should just email my boss at this address here's your phone number and he really likes when you
say I'm not gonna I'm gonna help somebody take my job but I have said from day one when someone
better comes along I will gladly get up out of the seat and let them have it and that sounds
that sounds super egotistical when I say that I'm not trying to be that guy I think I'm pretty good
at what I do and I think I've worked hard to get better at what I do since I started doing what
I do and just for the record I think you're damn good at what you do that's very kind of you say
I appreciate that um I so I I have there is sort of a brotherhood among PA guys I'm very fortunate
one someone I consider very good friend Jeff Kay um stars PA guy he I know he hates me but you
know what he hides it very well that's okay I hate him he hides it he hides it very well he really
you know I I don't there is one announcer who is just painfully obvious that is similar to me or
that I when I when I auditioned in my head I thought oh it's okay to do the thing the way I want to
do it because in in my head I heard him doing it and that's Ray Clay who is the legendary
bulls announcer during the Jordan years yeah and he was the first time I'd ever heard a professional
sports PA really get into it and and just oh I'm like oh yeah I want to go to a bulls game right
I didn't live in Chicago oh isn't a bulls fam oh man I want to go do that I want to hear I want
to be in that environment you know that you mention it I think he is the first guy I
or her dude do it like that I can't remember because you know we always think about guys like
check her and send all those legendary and then scully all the legendary radio guys but I don't
really know a lot of PA guys before Ray Clay's the first one in my consciousness and that was
91 yeah and that's so he's the first one in my consciousness like oh it's a party you can
yell and and you can be a fan on the microphone and that's okay he was the first one and I know
there are some guys in the league now who have taken some of the things I do and some of the ways
I do things and they do them that way and I'm like that's cool yeah I'm not I don't consider it
an homage and I don't consider it theft it's hey that guy does it that way I'm going to take a
piece of that go right ahead it's just yell your artery man yell your head off man do whatever you
want um what I don't want is um you know there are a couple of things that I have heard other
PA announcers pushed into doing I'm like oh man you guys are you're not you need to let that guy
he has this in his voice you need to let him lean into that that's a unique thing and that is a
that's a thing that can be part of your home game presentation I like to think that a Dallas
marriage game sounds different than any other game in the league I like to think that whether or
not that's true I'm not I'm not the person who can make that decision but I or make that sort of
that statement but I know that I have been told by referees or uh ESPN people they have told me
it's like you're one of the only one or two people in the league who seem like you're having fun
yeah everybody else seems like it's a job and and make no mistake I'm very much a mercenary I work
for money much like john tutorial's character in rounders I announce for money uh this is my
career and so I take it very seriously but I'm also not very serious about it like I want to have
fun and be good my grandfather always said it's better to be busy than bored and broke I add in
it's better to be busy and having fun than bored and broke I'm not going to stay at a job I've never
have stayed at a job even if I needed the money if it got to a point where it was just awful
drudgery I'm out I'll go find something else to do I'll figure it out I have any players ever
corrected you on the pronunciation of their name oh man um yes one player specifically Dallas's
own Kenyan Martin and I love Kamer it's the first Denver game I announced he was still with the
nuggets and he announced the first half teams go to the dressing rooms they come back out to get
their warm you know warm up with the second half and Kenyan comes and sits on the table right next
to me he goes hey man I'm like hey Kamer what's up he goes it's Kenyan I'm like yeah I know he goes
you've been calling me Kenyan the whole first half um I'm like that's not possible
without missing a beat my scorebook guy says yep
like you let me do that the whole first half he says it's not my job I'm like what are you
what and I now I did not think that Kenyan Martin was going to visit violence on me because
he's a really good guy but I I felt awful it haunts me to this day there are two or three
mistakes that I have made during maves games that I will never be able to get over emotionally and
that is one of them saying his name wrong for the entire first half where they are and I know him
no and I know it's Kenyan Martin it's never been Kenyan it's not Kenyan it's Kenyan Martin
that's it it's so simple Kenyan Martin and I mispronounced it it's uh uh it's awful
have names gotten harder like um as uh so the fact that um I can speak a few languages other than
English so the any of the Latin based names Spanish French Portuguese those I can get very easily
a lot of the Eastern European names once you kind of understand the naming convention and the
rule of this letter here in front of that letter and this is always makes this sound once you
learn that rule then names like Nicola Yochich become easy it's not Nicola or Nicola it's
Nicola Yochich once you get that or Luca Donchich it's not Don Kick it's never been Don Kick
and so once you get that um but also and I figured this out a few years ago and I don't know if there's
any any weight to it but the fact that I studied music and names are just like language is just
music without tone right but still there's a musical tone universe when you say someone's name
Janis Antedicumbo da da da da da da there's a rhythm to it and what do they want again?
Janis Antedicumbo da da da da da da da that's and that's how I learn so here's do it you be
normally I would say Janis Antedicumbo that's very close but instead of teeth it's
tet on tetacumbo on tetacumbo perfect on tetacumbo that's it Janis Antedicumbo that's it
and that's it that's perfect and that's the thing now here's something that I don't tell a lot of
people but why not say it now um I can't read music I can look at a piece of sheet music can go
all cows eat that's a C or that's a F sharp I can figure it out but I can't look at it and sing it
but if you play the melody for me one time I got it that's how I learned every choral piece of
music I ever sang in high school at college you play my part for me one time and I know what I'm
supposed to sing so because I learned through intervals yeah so I learned through musical intervals
but I also learned the rhythm and that kind of helps me with names this coming rookie class is
going to be insane because I just did a session about a month ago for 2k27 and the Portuguese and
Greek names that are coming I feel sorry for a lot of guys in the league there are going to be
some guys that are going to get whiplash there some of those names are super tricky the hardest name
in the league right now sondro mamu keleshvili that's the hardest name in the league right now
I why would you you just call him mamu if he plays for your team you can call him mamu but if he's on
an opposing team I'm not going to use his nickname because he doesn't get that for me he's the bad guy
he's the he's the opponent he doesn't I'm saying his full name and I'm not going to mess it up
because I take pride in my work but that that's the hardest name in the league sondro mamu keleshvili
mamu keleshvili wow that's a tough one it is play for he he was with the spurs and I think is he
with Detroit now I can't remember with a trade deadline having happened I I still haven't
raptors this this season has been just it's been painful it's been painful I love the NBA so much and
this season has just been the last two seasons have just been brutal well that was where I was going
next because you know not to I guess last year something did happen during the season we
kind of yeah yeah you may you may have forgotten about this remember the kind of altered the course
of the club for everybody and you know the drinking helped no I'm just kidding um it didn't help
how was that impacted what you do do you miss maxi I do miss maxi because I I used to be able to say
um oh gosh I used to be able to say so many things with maxi for a while every time I got a block
I could just go nine which amuses me and nobody else got why are you saying number nine no it's
nine it's no in German he's German it's I picked it up right right I I lead a very solitary life
Mike um so uh no uh yeah and with maxi you know like I uh maximum I could do maximum effort when
you had a nice dunk or whatever um max three max three you can call him maxi cleba maxi three
ba this anyways um yeah it's uh the last 20 months have been challenging um uh mark follow
well put it very very eloquently as long as podcast he says I'm a fan but I also have a job
and the challenge is knowing where one stops and the other starts and there's a degree of professional
pride that mark demonstrates and I thought oh that's how you navigate this that's how you are a
heartbroken fan but you're going to continue to do this for all of the other heartbroken fans
because what they need is they need something consistent they need something that is familiar and
however you want to look at it me yelling at a microphone and being excited at maves game is
something that a lot of people had become familiar with so I I would get frustrated as a fan with some
of the things that happened during home games that as a fan I as a fan I would never do um and so
those will be frustrating but I felt like I and I get where they're coming from I understand that
but that's not where I am so I had to process and compartmentalize my feelings about changes
but there's things that I'm not going to let change much like I said I've never been afraid of a job
I think Teddy Roosevelt is quoted as having said if a man asks you if you can do a job tell him
yes and then start learning how to do it yeah and I've always had that approach I've never been
afraid of trying to take something and and I take pride in when I do something right I take pride
in that that I accomplish that thing and I'm not going to let some little thing knock me off
kilter or some big thing knock me off kilter I'm gonna do my thing this other thing is painful
but not as painful as it would be if I was a quitter or if I didn't have pride and maintain the
level of professionalism that I like to think I may have achieved some small degree of and so yes
I'm a fan but I'm also the voice of that team which is such an egotistical thing to say but I'm
I think I'm part of the sound of the Dallas Mavericks game and and there's no question about it
there's a duty yeah I think in a responsibility that comes along with that whether I'm getting
paid to do the job or not I've been given the opportunity to be on the microphone and do
that thing so I'm gonna do that thing now I've also heard you were the guy who started the first
fire neco champ nope not true at all ever I'm joking nope yes especially not during say PJ
Washington's free throws in a game when we were down three in the fourth quarter no I don't support
that I anyways I'm never going to I here's the thing I never get on to fans I've never
rude to fans who are fans of another team because fans gonna fan you're a fan of a team for whatever
reason maybe it was your dad's team maybe it's the first NBA game you ever went to whatever maybe
you got a maybe you got I don't know a Fran Tarkington Minnesota Vikings jersey for Christmas one
year when you were in Memphis 10c and Fran Tarkington became one of your favorite players no reason
for that to be true and yet it kind of happened no reason and so I was a fan of I'm a fan of
Fran Tarkington I always like Fran Tarkington for no reason I didn't know anything about the NFL I
was like seven years old you got that jersey though I got the jersey I'm like hey I like this
so I never I never fought a fan for feeling the way they feel ever yeah because I'm a fan and I
feel the way I feel so I get it tell us a little bit about what you're doing on with the NBA video
games about six years ago the company that makes NBA 2k 2k games decided that they really wanted
to bring a new level of realism into the games and the way they did that is they mapped out
every arena in the NBA and animated the mascots and brought in at one point they were bringing
in actual drops from the DJs from each team's home arena to play as sound effects when you were
playing a game in that arena whether you're as the visitor or the home team and then they decided
that they wanted to add in the extra layer of realism of having the PA announcers do all of the
background announcements but also announce the starting lineup of your team so each year we go
in and we record the names of all the players the new players on our teams roster in my case the
Dallas Mavericks as if I was announcing them in a starting lineup as a Dallas Maverick so I
have announced a few players who have never been Dallas Mavericks and I don't anticipate we'll
ever be Dallas Mavericks LeBron James Dwayne Wade that one hurt it's very difficult to say Dwayne
Wade's name with enthusiasm and as if he were a Dallas Maverick it's but I'm a professional
so I did it so they decided to add that in and now I'm just finished the work for 2k 27 that comes
out next September and it's it's fun it's it's a lot of work it's not as much work the first year
we had to record everything every one of us I think it was like 35,000 lines it was five days out
in Burbank in the studios they had out there and it was it was a long days it was six or seven
hour days five days in a row a lot of it was yelling it was it was rough it was rough that was where
I learned the miracle of a tea called throat coat oh yes I had no idea that existed oh yes it's
one of the single greatest discoveries of my life in the last 15 years from a from a food or drink
level that and a crab covered pretzel that I found in Hershey Pennsylvania I'll tell you about
that another day anyways that throat card I had no idea and I was just oh it was great I'm
like this is magic yes I and as someone who does not get a sore throat on day three in the 17th hour
I was getting a little wispy so it was a it was a life saver it was absolutely magnificent and
then that led into you know some other things that I've gotten to do it's uh and and uh apparently
2k games is going to put out the now that they've gotten the NIL and all of the rights I
think they're going to put out an NCAA version of the game but they won't use home announcers there
there will be one announcer I would love I would love to have that I would love to have that gig
there are several other gigs that I would like to have um that I don't have but I there's one
gig in particular that I've been chasing for 10 years I don't have it yet that I can you tell us
cannot cannot I'll tell you offline so it's it's it's a big one and I have won it for 10 years I
thought I thought that I might get the men's final four spot because the final four has one
announcer and he travels to each side and does the men's final four games yeah and I got to audition
for that about two uh was it last year or year before because the guy that had been doing it stopped
and I oh I thought I was gonna get that one but if I don't get I mean I'm always putting lines
in the water Mike you got an agent I do I'm with uh Campbell agency um just for V just for Vio
he had great soup um and uh really it's a good Vio he's hungry it's late yeah yeah it is
so yeah I uh I've been very lucky and it just can't it just I don't know it's uh it's a weird
it's a weird wonderful sort of bizarre path that I'm on and I'm fine with it good thing it's a
good thing that I don't scare easy well I would recommend to you that you keep doing what you do
and play boy chase that money chase that money keep it in one hundo hey you know what
bills got to get paid I I tried to tell um I tried to pay my phone bill um last month with a few
of nice comments that people had left on my Instagram and they did not uh think that was currency
so they would not take it so hummus still chase still chase the fiat currency as it were
well I thank you for doing this man it's been great having you in here absolutely a pleasure I
still can't believe I got to sit and and hang out with my grinder it's man and shoot me too
uh he's used to hang out with him I would think that would mean when he gets paid I could text
him whenever I want I can't get away I've got you blocked yeah do you know no all right he is
the great Sean hey do we have anything we need to get into here oh we got another thing on here
or Sean can read it oh let's see don't try and take my job away from him okay I'm gonna find
out first I will do something for free there you go I got to find it here first so here we go
here we go here we go here we go it's coming up now oh oh stolen water media that's us we are
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thank you very much for all this thank you shooty thank you Ashley Sean a pleasure man enjoy
it pleasure's all mine thanks Mike all right till next time bye
all right i don't do pants go off
you're dark companion is a stolen water media presentation