Only the most beloved icons behind the microphone have been granted their franchises' greatest honor, a place in the rafters amongst the playing legends
1) Dave Zinkoff, 76ers, 1986
On Christmas Day in 1985, the city of Philadelphia lost a sports institution when Zinkoff passed away at age 75. A public address announcer for four decades, he had started his career at Shibe Park introducing the Phillies in the early '40s. In addition to his eventual position with the Philadelphia Warriors, then later the Sixers after the Warriors moved to San Francisco, Zinkoff was also a longtime announcer at the Philadelphia Conventional Hall for boxing and wrestling. He was court side for the 1967 and 1983 Sixers championships, as well as Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game, and a host of other memorable moments. His idiosyncratic delivery and accent was unsurprisingly a huge hit in Philadelphia, a city that famously embraces its own foibles and eccentricities, especially in the world of sports. His famed introduction of Julius Erving (starting with "From! The University of Mazzachushetts!") was so iconic that the Sixers officially released it as an MP3 as part of the ceremonies surrounding the old Spectrum closing in 2009. Three months after Zinkoff's passing, the Sixers chose to do something no other NBA team had done before, honoring a non-player/non-coach/non-owner with a retired jersey. Because he never actually played (even though Red Auerbach once called him "Philly's sixth man"), a jersey wasn't sent up to the rafters. Instead the Sixers retired his microphone by hanging a banner with a silver mic and his name on it.
2) Bob Blackburn, SuperSonics, 1993
Growing up bedridden with tuberculosis in his Los Angeles childhood home, Blackburn honed his announcing skills from a young age, obsessively studying and emulating local announcers calling football games for UCLA and USC. He worked his way up the ranks of play-by-play announcing and up north geographically, first with a minor league baseball team in Portland, then as the radio voice for Oregon State football and basketball. When Seattle was granted an NBA franchise starting in the '67-'68 season, Blackburn took a chance auditioning for the radio play-by-play job and won it. He was the sole voice of Sonics basketball on the radio for 20 years, including the 1979 championship run, before management finally brought in a younger voice, Kevin Calabro, to first join Blackburn, then replace him completely in 1992. Though Blackburn was forced into what he considered early retirement, the franchise immediately honored him, retiring his microphone in 1993, with a banner raised alongside playing legends Lenny Wilkens, Fred Brown, Gus Williams, and Jack Sikma. Blackburn was initially bitter about his departure from the team but still remained lifelong friends with Calabro and an unofficial Sonics franchise ambassador for the rest of his life. When the team began threatening a move to Oklahoma City, Blackburn was amongst the most vocal dissenters attempting to keep them in Seattle. He also continued putting his voice to good use as an auctioneer, up until his death in 2010.
3) Rod Hundley, Jazz, 2010
Nicknamed "Hot Rod" during his star playing days at West Virginia for his showboating antics, Hundley was the #1 pick in the 1957 Draft, but played just six seasons in the NBA due to bad knees. His subsequent broadcasting career was much more eventful and prolific, lasting for over 45 years until his retirement in 2009. He started with radio broadcasting gigs for the Suns and Lakers (partnering with fellow legend Chick Hearn) before landing a national job with CBS for several years. But Hundley's announcing fame is really tied to his years with the Jazz, starting with the team in New Orleans in 1974, moving to Salt Lake City five years later, and serving as the sole radio and TV announcer for the franchise for over three decades (eventually the NBA forced Utah to add a separate TV announcer in 2005, with Hundley retaining his radio announcing gig for four more seasons after). Fans loved Hundley for his fearless opinions, and the same flamboyant style he brought to his playing days (including his trademark exclamation "You gotta love it, baby!"), but he was also a keen student of the game. One year after his retirement, the Jazz honored Hundley, the only member of the organization that lasted from the New Orleans playing days all the way into the 21st century, with a halftime ceremony. They dedicated the team press room in his honor, and hung a banner in the rafters bearing his name, alongside an appropriately purple microphone.
4) Johnny Most, Celtics, 1990
His famous calls were so numerous and beloved by Boston fans that Most's 2004 biography, Voice of the Celtics, had to include a 70-minute CD just to encompass them all. It's a testament to his voice being almost as iconic to that era as Red Auerbach's cigars, Bob Cousy's dribbling, and Bill Russell's defense, especially his most famous call of "Havlicek stole the ball!" from the 1965 Conference Finals. Hired by the Celtics in 1953 to take over for Curt Gowdy, who wanted to concentrate solely on his radio gig with the Red Sox, Most made his calls from either "high above" or "directly at" court side of the Boston Garden until 1990. An absolutely unapologetic homer who considered every Celtics game to be a biblical conflict of good vs. evil, Most would outright antagonize rival players like Rick Barry ("The Brat"), Isiah Thomas ("Little Lord Fauntleroy"), and, of course, Magic "Crybaby" Johnson. A pack-a-day smoker for many years, Most began scaling back his radio duties in the late '80s when his health started to fail him, and he finally retired right before the '90-'91 season. The Celtics honored him in December of that year by retiring his microphone, and three years later Most passed away.
5) Al McCoy, Suns, 2017
His time with Phoenix started in 1972, just the fifth season of the franchise, and 37 years later McCoy is the longest-tenured announcer in NBA history, truly earning his nickname "Voice of the Suns." It's telling that some of the most endearing announcers on this list spent their entire careers with franchises that always seemed to come up short, and it's no coincidence that one of McCoy's most endearing catchphrases was a disheartened "oooh, brother!" Born in Iowa, where he was raised listening devotedly to Cubs radio broadcasts and occasionally attending the short-lived early NBA franchise Waterloo Hawks, McCoy moved to Phoenix on a hunch and got the Suns job after stints as a rock deejay, talk show host, and AAA baseball announcer. He called the NBA Finals losses in 1976 and 1993, as well as the entire exciting but unfulfilling Steve Nash era. In 2016 he officially passed Chick Hearn as the longest-running NBA announcer of all-time, though McCoy missed a 2005 game due to illness so he did not pass Hearn for the record for consecutive games called. Later that season he became the first non-player inducted into the Suns Hall of Honor, in a ceremony that included a microphone retirement.
6) Joe Tait, Cavaliers, 2011
As with any Cleveland sportscaster from 1964 to 2016, Tait's career didn't include any exultant championship calls, but in a way he managed to make even the most mundane moments memorable. He came to the new Cleveland basketball franchise in 1970 and remained its radio voice for 41 years, synonymous with the franchise perhaps in a way no other NBA broadcaster has ever been. Though his team's lack of success prevented Tait from ever gaining the national prominence of fellow announcers like Chick Hearn, he was certainly just as recognized by his peers, winning the prestigious Curt Gowdy Media Award in 2010 as a culmination of his respected career. He announced his retirement due to flagging health before the '10-'11 season began, almost as if the LeBron James "Decision" was the final straw for a no-nonsense man who had endured four decades of on-court shenanigans and heartbreak (he has reportedly watched just one Cavs game since retiring, the fateful game seven of the 2016 NBA Finals). Late in his final broadcasting season, he was honored by the Cavs with a commemorative banner raised into the rafters on "Joe Tait Appreciation Night."
7) Bill Schonely, Trail Blazers, 2003
From being a young child growing up in rural Pennsylvania suffering from a stutter, Schonely's voice would somehow eventually embody the very spirit of basketball for the city of Portland. Like a fellow Blazers legend, Bill Walton, Schonely worked past that stutter through sheer will, and while a Marine stationed in Guam, he got his first real radio gig, broadcasting sports and music for the Armed Forces Network. Though his military stint was brief, his fighting spirit never faded, as he amassed a Ripken-esque streak of consecutive NBA games announced and was famous for once fist fighting a fan early in his career while announcing a minor league hockey game. After moving to Seattle in the mid '50s, he filled a quirky announcing resume, calling everything from MLB and college football to pro wrestling, minor league hockey, and horse racing. He was the first radio voice chosen for the newly franchised Sonics in 1967, but sponsors forced him out for the bigger name Bob Blackburn instead. Schonely eventually wound up in Portland, and was one of the initial hires when the Blazers began prepping for their inaugural '70-'71 season. He would eventually call radio play-by-play for the first 28 seasons of Portland basketball, taking only one brief sojourn in 1982 after suffering a heart attack. "Rip city" is Schonely's most famous catchphrase, one that's become a self-identifying rallying cry for Blazers faithful, but those same fans known him best for colorful descriptive aphorisms like "Bingo, bango, bongo" and "Lickey brindle up the middle." Though he stepped down in 1998, Schonely was brought back by Portland management in 2003 as they attempted to revive the franchise's flagging "Jail Blazers" reputation. To honor his legend, they renamed a Rose Garden restaurant after him, retired his microphone, and presented him with business cards emblazoned with the simple and appropriate job title of "Ambassador."
8) Chick Hearn, Lakers, 2002
The Hall of Fame has chosen to induct just one local broadcaster in its history, and of course that one man is Chick. He was the voice of the Lakers for 51 years, there for the primes of Baylor, West, Chamberlain, Wilkes, Kareem, Magic, Worthy, Shaq, and Kobe. And in many ways he was the voice of basketball itself, for several generations. Hearn's general broadcasting talent is rightly celebrated, but his ultimate legacy will always be his turns of phrase. He's the man who first uttered still ubiquitous phrases like slam dunk, air ball, finger roll, triple-double, brick, garbage time, charity stripe, and dribble-drive. But Lakers fans will always especially cherish the deep tracks, like "motorcycle in a motordrome" (referring to a ball spinning around the rim), "Marge could guard him right now" (referring to his wife), and betting fellow announcer Keith Erickson an ice cream cone on the outcome of a free throw attempt. Almost as legendary as his catchphrases and renowned announcing style was Hearn's work ethic, as he announced 3,338 consecutive games from 1965 to 2001. Finally forced to miss work due to coronary bypass surgery early in the '01-'02 season, he still managed to return to the booth a few months later, making his final broadcast in June of 2002 as the Lakers clinched a third straight title. Beyond his Lakers related fame, Hearn also made his name announcing the Rose Bowl, Olympics, U.S. Open of golf, USC basketball, and Ali-Frazier I. He eventually passed away in the summer of 2002, after suffering a head injury in a fall at his home. Early in the '02-'03 season the Lakers retired his microphone, and placed his name up in the rafters, amongst all the legends he once endearingly described on the court. The Lakers also commissioned a statue of Hearn's likeness that now stands outside Staples Center, the city named a street and a subway stop after him, and, befitting of any L.A. legend, his name is etched with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.