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The legendary Voice of the Miami Heat - PA announcer Michael Baiamonte - joins the show to reminisce about becoming the voice of the Heat, his favorite calls and life after retirement.
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00:00There's our guy, Michael Biamonte. I've done a video with him before. I can tell you an
00:07interesting story about the sound waves behind him. That's a good piece of art. But Mike Biamonte
00:12is with us, and he's on the Toyota of Hollywood Hotline. Just to take you behind the scenes here
00:17for a second, we have a private chat for guests and hosts who are entering the program,
00:25and Solana put on the chat when Mike B had signed in, hey, Mike B, we'll be back in about
00:32three
00:32minutes, which is just a whiff of epic proportions on the chat. So Mike B writes back,
00:41Dos Minutos would have been better. And it's so easy. It was sitting there for you, Solana,
00:47and you completely whiffed on that. You literally told him three minutes. Why wouldn't you drop a
00:51Dos Minutos on him? Because you can imagine, I don't want to use too many jokes before the
00:57interview starts. So Michael Biamonte is joining us here on the Toyota of Hollywood Hotline. He's
01:07been the public address announcer for the Miami Heat for 35 years. He is hanging up his microphone
01:14after this season, which is rapidly coming to a conclusion. And the Heat honored Mike B
01:19at the game this weekend. And we wanted to make sure that we brought you on to thank you for
01:26your
01:26three and a half decades of being the soundtrack to Miami Heat games at the arena. So first,
01:34before we do anything, allow us to give you your flowers, Mike, because you've really been a part
01:41of this Heat experience for 35 seasons. Hard to believe, huh?
01:46It is really hard to believe, Hawk. It's been an incredible journey. One that when I first got the
01:54gig, if you ever said to me, hey, you know, this thing's going to last 35 years and you're going
01:58to
01:58have announced over 1,600 games and six NBA finals. You're out of your mind. But when you find a
02:08great
02:08job with a great organization and you get along as well as we did in the South Florida community
02:13accepted me, it has just been amazing. It's been fantastic. How did you get the job? How did you
02:22end up as the public address announcer for the Miami Heat? So I was announcing college ball at FIU
02:29and I was working in corporate America. And so I'm in the insurance business by day. I'm announcing
02:34college basketball at night. And one day I'm sitting at my desk at work, my day job and the
02:40phone rings and it's Mark Prey from the Miami Heat. And he says to me, oh, he used to be
02:47the UMSID,
02:48I think, right? He had been, well, right before he was with the Heat, he was with the Washington at
02:53the time, the Washington Bullets. Then he came to Miami. I believe he did spend some time with,
02:58with UM as well. He says, Mike, our announcer is sick. Can you fill in and announce the Heat game
03:05tonight? So I'm like, well, yeah, of course, absolutely I can. So I went down to the, this is
03:11back in the day, the Miami arena, 1990. And I announced the Heat against the Seattle Supersonics.
03:19The Seattle Supersonics don't exist anymore. I think they may pretty soon again, but they went on to
03:25become now what people would know as the Oklahoma City Thunder. So I announced the Heat and the
03:30Supersonics. I get through the game. I think I did a pretty good job. Don't remember any kind of big
03:36mess ups or anything. And the next day I get a phone call from Mark who says, we'd like you
03:44to be
03:45our permanent backup. Great. I'll take it. I'll take the gig. So a year later, the guy who had the
03:54primary job leaves to take over a family business, they opened up the auditions again. I re-auditioned
04:00or I auditioned really for the first time. All I had done was that, that one fill-in game. And
04:06about,
04:06I would say about a month after my audition, I get a phone call from a name everyone knows at
04:13the time.
04:14He was an intern, I believe still, Andy Ellisberg. And Andy Ellisberg calls me up and says, we'd like
04:24to offer you the job as our primary PA announcer, if you'll have it. And I took the job right
04:30there
04:30on the phone with Andy. And that was 35 seasons ago. And Mike, I've actually looked at the back of
04:39your head a number of times. I've walked out the Great Goose Lounge and stared at the back of your
04:43head. I've walked out of Hyde Lounge and looked at you in the face. You didn't know I was staring
04:48at you, but I was staring at you. But the hardest part of this job is dealing with Hawk. What's
04:54the
04:54hardest part of being the PA announcer for the Heat? One of those times, I was back with Wade and
05:00Shaq.
05:01I go way back then. That's when I got down here in 05 and 06 season. But what's the hardest
05:06part of
05:07doing what you've done for three decades? You know, Crowder, that answer's probably
05:11changed over time. Like with anything, you do it long enough, things change. I would say
05:17it's something that probably fans don't really recognize. But this transition from back when I
05:26first started, when players would come in off the bench to want to check in the game while they're
05:31waiting until a stoppage in play, they would sit down on the floor. And they don't do that anymore.
05:40Now everybody stands up and the coaches encroach closer and closer to half court. And if I've got
05:48two Heat guys checking in and two guys from the other team and I've got two coaches and I've got
06:01Mike, when you're preparing for a new player and how you're going to pronounce his name,
06:10what was the biggest challenge with that? Did you just kind of go with something, say it out loud
06:15and say, I like this? Because I've asked you this before. Did you ever get tired of saying Dwayne
06:21Wade's name? But when he's drafted, even though he's the fifth overall pick, you can't imagine the
06:25impact he's going to have. You're going to say Dwayne Wade's name 20,000 times over the next 20
06:31years. And had you not had that iconic call, maybe you wouldn't have had that same punch. Maybe you
06:36would have had to have changed it when he reached the level he did. There's just so many different
06:40layers to that. How hard do you have to really practice somebody's name before you say that's how
06:46it's going to work? Yeah, Solana, there is, for me at least, there is an art to how I'm going
06:52to
06:52announce players' names. Now, the example you bring up with Dwayne Wade is extremely interesting
06:59because drafted by the Heat. And when we drafted him, we had no idea Dwayne Wade was going to become
07:07Dwayne Wade. But he did. A lot of the guys that came to the Heat, we kind of already knew
07:17who and
07:17what they were, especially if they came as free agents or they came in trades. But the one thing
07:23that was always important to me, regardless of how they came to the Heat, was that there was some
07:29uniqueness to the way I said each name so that they don't all sound the same. Because if they all
07:35sound
07:35the same, then nothing has anything to it. And so I look at a player's name, I look at the
07:42syllables
07:43in the name. And then I think about what can I do with that player that maybe represents him a
07:49little
07:49bit, or maybe does something a little different to stand out that I didn't do for other players. So
07:55for example, when Shaq came, his nickname, one of the many that he had, was the Diesel. And so I
08:04came up
08:04with this thought in my mind that I would say his name and kind of make it sound almost like
08:10an engine.
08:11So that's where the whole Shaquille O'Neal came in. With Zoe, it was, oh, it just had to be
08:23powerful. Alonzo morning! And then Alonzo morning slam dunk morphed into good morning!
08:35Did you have to get those approved? Because with Shaq, it was diesel power on the assists.
08:41I will tell you this, now that we're coming close to saying sayonara, I'll tell you the
08:46God's honest truth. I lived by the adage that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than it was
08:54to ask for permission.
08:56The best way to go through life.
08:57I, you know, and that may work in everything in life, but I would just, I would drop it. And
09:03then
09:03I would kind of side eye looking over, is anybody coming over? Is anybody mad at me? If nobody said
09:08anything, then guess what? It was good. You know, that's how a Clarence Weatherspoon assist became
09:14spoon fed. You know, the first time I dropped that, I'm like, oh man, somebody's going to come and nail
09:20me for that. But they loved it. And so we got pretty lucky.
09:24What about a guy, Mike? It's so cool to talk to you. Like a guy like UD.
09:29Journey, you know, I don't say journeyman, but didn't think he was going to be what he is for the
09:32organization.
09:33And you always have to go for like, he's just, he's just another guy on the 15 to, he is
09:39a staple in South Florida
09:40sports. Do you change your approach to UD as you see his, his, his career mature?
09:46Sure. I, you know, Crowder, I really didn't. I looked at, I looked at the syllables in his name
09:52and, and how it would work. And, and the interesting thing about his name is the U in his first
09:58name,
09:58at least to me, that's where I really thought I could get a good ignition whenever I said his name.
10:05So that's when we started UDennis. And then once I did that, I said, well, if we're going to do
10:12that,
10:12then we got to bring it back down. So it was UDennis. Hey, Islam. We're going to have that
10:21temperature thing going. Heard that a hundred times. You want to play piano bar for us? Someone
10:26wants to hear Luol Deng on the chat. You know, it's funny. I joke with people all the time. I'm
10:32like the human jukebox, right? Like they're pressing, you know, uh, heat 33, do it on his own morning,
10:38but it depends which Luol Deng do they want? Do they want the heat Luol Deng or do they want
10:42the
10:42visiting Luol Deng? No, we want the visiting Luol Deng. Luol Deng. I absolutely love that.
10:52Luol Deng. Give us your Mount Rushmore of Mike Biamonte calls. So four of them, because you could
11:01make a case for so many of them. Solana, your favorite is what? Too many steps? Cause you drop that
11:07all the time. I have my top five Mike B calls in the Solana household. If, if, if we have
11:13time for
11:13them, I don't know. Can you knock it down to four and give us your Mount Rushmore? What you got
11:17to
11:17take one off. Okay. Mike, um, when Hawk says you're the soundtrack of, of the heat, I'm not kidding.
11:24Like this is multiple generations in the Solana household going to every heat game. And you're,
11:30you are the soundtrack. Like my brother is devastated that you're not going to be there.
11:34When you used to introduce Eddie Jones followed by Damon, you wouldn't say Jones. I don't know
11:43why we got a kick out of that. That's our Mount Rushmore. I don't want your Mount Rushmore. I
11:50want like the Mount Rushmore. These are deep cuts, man. These are deep cuts. We're doing the biggest
11:55hits of, uh, the last 35 years. You're giving me, you're giving me B sides. When, when you would
12:01say now arriving to the American airlines arena, which changed for some reason, then you went to
12:08now pulling into the American airlines. A lot of doing a different show, Mike B. I apologize.
12:13Are you listening? What are your, Mike B. What are your. Now arriving at the American airlines arena,
12:20I thought matched with American airlines because flights arrive. So that's why I came up with the
12:25now arriving at American airlines arena, but I don't want to hijack the show. Get to the top
12:33four. Um, I'll give you mine. Um, number four. No basket. That's gotta be on there. Number three,
12:48too many steps. We all, we all hear it in our head. Who fires off that sound that comes up
12:58from
12:58upstairs. Do they ever miss it? Oh, they do. And boy, does that make me mad? I bet, right? You're,
13:04you're waiting for the drum solo and then the drummer's asleep at the wheel. Number two. And now
13:14stand up and make some noise for your Miami.
13:25And we all know what number one has to be, right? Do we all know it? I think we can
13:30all probably do
13:31it together. Two minutes. That's it. That's it. That's it. What did you think of Solana's deep
13:44cuts? What else did you have on your deep cuts list? Solana? I had Lou all bang. That's a great
13:51one. That is a great one. And Mario Chalmers. One, I've got one for Hawk and Crowder. I don't
14:00know that Solana would know this one, but this is going way back. One of my favorites, a cult
14:04favorite. Bimbo Coles. That is a great one. Did you workshop any other Dwayne Wade introductions?
14:15Like, could we have heard something else over the years? Because it's so iconic to us. Dwayne,
14:22you know. Yeah. Was there something else in the holster that maybe could have been the signature
14:29call? I don't, I don't remember there being any kind of alternative Hawk because, you know,
14:35his last name is so short that I almost had nothing else to do, but elongate it. So I said,
14:42you know what, if we're going to elongate the last name, we're already elongating the first name.
14:45You know, this is what it's going to be. It's going to be so long that he's going to score
14:51a
14:51basket. By the time I finished saying Wade, the other team's already scored and coming back the
14:55other way, you know, but listen, he's the only player ever in my 35 year career that no matter
15:01when I said his name or how I said his name, checking in the game, checking out the game,
15:07scoring a basket, committing a foul at the foul line. Anytime the name Dwayne Wade came out of my mouth
15:14into the microphone, the crowd went bananas, no matter what. And I never had a player like that
15:20before him or since never will. Mike, you have to have announcers fatigue with a guy like Wade or
15:26some of those guys. You say his name 7,000 times or bam on an 83.9. Oh yeah. That,
15:32although, you know,
15:33he did, he did score a lot of free throws that helped me out a little bit that night, but
15:36you know,
15:37to tell you, Crowder, a funny story about that, Wade comes back as a member of either Chicago
15:43or Cleveland. The first time he's with a team other than the Heat, I've said Dwayne Wade all my life.
15:52That game, that first game when he came back as a visitor, I'll never forget every time he would make
15:58a shot. I would, I really took in my head a quick beat to say, doesn't play for the Heat
16:05anymore.
16:05Doesn't play for the Heat anymore. So all of a sudden Dwayne Wade became Dwayne Wade. It was just
16:14so strange. Strange. So strange. Did you ever go into the lab thinking, all right, I got to make this
16:21one work. This one, this guy's going to be a star here. And I've got to really come up with
16:27something
16:27with a flourish. And so you spend six hours working on an intro for Mike Bibby. And then all
16:33of a sudden you find out, Hey, this guy ain't going to play. This guy's going to be out. Why
16:36did I spend all this time coming up with a big intro for Mike Bibby? You know, they're certainly
16:42over the, over the course of my career and all the games, there's been players that, you know,
16:47you were, you expected to be something that they eventually did not become. The good news for me is
16:54no matter how I said their name, if they didn't perform on the court, I was, I didn't have to
16:59say their name. So, I mean, you know, you didn't, you didn't hear it very much if they either were
17:03on the bench or they, you know, they weren't playing the game too well. So that really was
17:08never, never much of a problem. And I don't know that I would ever have disrespected a player
17:14by changing the way I say his name, because my interpretation of how he was playing the game
17:19was a man, this guy's terrible. I'm not going to say his name. Quick, quick. I know, I know,
17:26I know we're running short on time. Yeah. Has a player ever addressed the way you say it? Or has
17:31anybody ever addressed you as a player standpoint to you? Like, Hey, you're putting the emphasis on
17:36a place. I don't want the emphasis. So I have one heat player and one visiting player. If we have
17:42time
17:42for, for these, the, the heat player is a guy by the name of John Sally, another old school player,
17:49John Sally, John Sally got traded, signed with the heat. And before he ever played a second for the
17:55team, he came up to me and he said, my name is spider Sally. You never call me John. You
18:02always
18:02announced me as spider Sally. So he was spider Sally for his entire heat career with me on the flip
18:08side. The Orlando magic had a player that everybody commonly knew as Bo outlaw and Bo outlaw was just
18:18a brute of a guy. I mean, just a big guy. Well, I came to find out that his given
18:22name was Charles.
18:25So the first time he came to Miami, he's in the starting lineup. I introduced him as Charles outlaw,
18:33not Bo outlaw. Well, he didn't like that much at all. So he came over to me at the scorer's
18:38table and
18:38he says, Hey, my name's not Charles. My name's Bo. Only my mom calls me Charles. Well, you know,
18:45I've got, I've got some, uh, yeah, I think, I think I got a little something, something for him.
18:49Plus I've got the scorer's table between he and I. So that gives you a little bit, a little bit
18:54more.
18:54So I said, you know what? You're playing in Miami. I'm the PA guy. Your name is Charles and I'm
19:00going
19:00to introduce you as Charles. And so he kind of stares at me and gives me that sneer. Every time
19:07he came to
19:07Miami, he was introduced as Charles outlaw and he would look over and we would block eyes and laugh
19:14with each other. And it became a great joke, a fun thing, but that's really the two stories when
19:19players want a great story and all the guys in the league to step to your step to Bo. Well,
19:24again,
19:24like I said, when I got the scores table between he and I, it's so, you know, I got an
19:28easy out
19:28backwards. He's got to go over the top of the table. What are great stories, man? Well, Mike
19:33Piemonte, we just have always, I think I speak for all of Heat Nation, been fans of yours. The
19:40waveform behind you, by the way, on that piece of art, what is that waveform? So that is my voice
19:47waves saying the iconic and now stand up and make some noise for your Miami Heat. That was a gift
19:52from my wife and daughters for my birthday. They grabbed the track, they sent it off to voiceart.com
19:59and that is hanging up in my home. It's very cool. Super cool. I've seen that before when I've done
20:03video with him. That's a super cool backdrop. I love that. What are your plans? So it's the next
20:10chapter of life, Hawk. My wife and I recently became grandparents for the first time. Our kids live all
20:17around the country. They're very successful. South Florida is not in the cards. So we're going to go and
20:23visit them a lot more, see our grandson a lot more. And as I like to tell people after 35
20:28years,
20:28I'm ready to do what I want to do when I want to do it. Not when the schedule says
20:34I can or can't do
20:36it. So when, when, uh, when you're going somewhere with your wife, do you ever drop a dos minutos when
20:41it's like two minutes till you have to leave? I'll be, I'll be very honest about that. Do I know
20:48does she? Yes. She is a huge fan and she will drop a dos minutos anywhere at any time for
20:55any reason.
20:56How many like bar mitzvahs and weddings and, and stuff have you announced over the 35 years?
21:01Hundreds. Uh, there have been so many, Hawk and that, that little cottage industry started,
21:07you know, once I had gained some reputation with the heat, all of a sudden people want me to
21:12introduce the bridal party. Like I introduced the starting five for the heat or the, the bar mitzvah
21:17boy or the parents of the bar mitzvah boy. So, uh, hundreds of them, it has been something I never
21:24imagined in my wildest dreams, but boy, is it fun when you walk out in that reception
21:30and the first time they hear it, this is Michael Biamatti, the voice of your Miami heat and
21:35everybody's turn around. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. It's, it's, it's been, it's, it's
21:39got one more. You got one more in you might be cause I'm getting married next year. We got
21:43one more in you. Uh, Solana let's talk. Did you ever think about this, Mike? I got it.
21:52Did you ever think about you doing this? Like what athletes, high school, college, you know,
21:59professional, did you ever think you were going to be what you've been? This is so cool
22:04to talk to you. Um, I crowd, I never thought it was going to be at this level. I mean,
22:09I, I
22:10starting at a pretty young age, teenager or whatever. I knew I really wanted to be a basketball
22:16announcer. And so I started doing it in high school. So it is something I knew I wanted
22:21to do, but did I ever think it would be to this level and to achieve some of the things
22:26I have? I mean, the NBA invited me to go to the all-star game this year, just so I
22:31could
22:31drop those minutos in every quarter. I mean, that's, that's just never in a million years
22:36when I've thought that, uh, and again, growing up as a young kid, even in high school, there
22:41was no Miami heat. So the NBA was a pipe dream. Cause there was no team. We had no, I
22:46had no
22:46shot. How could I become an NBA announcer? Did I want to be? Yeah. Did I think I could
22:51be? No. And now look, man, Michael Biamonte, what fans we are of yours. And we wish you well
22:59in your retirement. And we thank you on behalf of all of heat nation, Mike. Oh guys. Thank you
23:04so much. Hawk. You and I go back almost the entire 35 years and I appreciate the friendship
23:09and, and everybody been so nice. Uh, you guys are awesome. Thanks. Thanks for having me
23:13on and, and to the heat fans everywhere. Thank you for everything. We applaud you. You earned
23:18that one. 35 years. I try to daft you up. You never turned around. You know what? You and
23:28I, you and I will meet in the hide lounge or we'll meet in the Bacardi lounge or whatever
23:32because I don't have to worry about that anymore. So I'll meet you there. We'll toast
23:35up. We'll toast it up the right way. How's that? I got you, brother. He would have introduced
23:39you as Randolph Crowder and he would have dared you to say anything about it. Oh, that little
23:44table is not going to stop me from getting to him. We'll see you, Mike. Thank you guys.
23:51It's been a pleasure.
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