scoring the second-most points in a game in NBA history<\/a>. \u201cSome careers, you may never see something like that.\u201d<\/p>\nIf you\u2019ve watched Heat basketball, you know Baiamonte\u2019s voice. His well-known \u201cTwooo minutes \u2026 Dos!\u201d is called as each quarter reaches its two-minute mark. Road opponents cringe when he drags out \u201cToooo many steps!\u201d when referees signal traveling. Down the stretch of games like Adebayo\u2019s big night, Baiamonte instructs Heat fans to, \u201cStaaaand up! And make some noise!\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all part of something Baiamonte learned early in his career: He can be \u201cpart of the show.\u201d And as Adebayo climbed toward history, he played his part.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to give it the proper respect. At the same time, I don\u2019t want to say I give encouragement, but I want to show my appreciation, which I think the fans hear,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that allows them to kind of spark that momentum to give \u2014 in that case, that night \u2014 Bam even more enthusiasm to show their appreciation and say, \u2018Keep going, big fella.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
So, if that was the send-off, it was a special one. It remains unclear if Sunday\u2019s home tilt against the Atlanta Hawks will be Baiamonte\u2019s last game. The Heat are locked into a Play-In Tournament spot, but it\u2019s single elimination, and they seem likely to start on the road. Should they find a way to book more home games, Baiamonte\u2019s retirement will be temporarily stalled.<\/p>\n
That certainly wouldn\u2019t be unwelcome for Heat players and coaches.<\/p>\n
Tyler Herro, Miami\u2019s second-leading scorer since being drafted 13th overall in 2019, said Baiamonte\u2019s voice is a trademark of the franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got that signature voice,\u201d Herro told The Athletic. \u201cSince I\u2019ve been a rookie, you know, me, my family, my kids, everyone goes, \u2018Tyyy-ler Herro for threeee!\u2019 That\u2019s his thing he kind of made. I remember, going back to high school, that\u2019s like the first time I\u2019ve had someone announcing my name and sh\u2013 like that. I would always hate when the backup would come in and announce my name. And I feel the same way about Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heat assistant coach Caron Butler, who spent the first two seasons of his NBA playing career in Miami, places Baiamonte among the most distinguishable voices in league history because of his distinct baritone and attention to detail.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did a remarkable job at the pronunciation of your name,\u201d Butler told The Athletic. \u201cI never heard it like that \u2014 using the syllables and everything. Him and the guy from Detroit yelling out \u2018Detroit basketball\u2019 was just always iconic. To hear those individuals say your name in the (home) arena, it just felt super elite and special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the connection is crazy because it\u2019s almost like a synergy. It\u2019s a wave and vibe that only that player and that announcer know. When you see a bucket go in or a momentum swing, it\u2019s like a cue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen God made him, he threw away the mold. He\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sixth Man of the Year candidate Jaime Jaquez Jr. says Baiamonte\u2019s replacement \u201cis going to have some pretty big shoes to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Adebayo, Miami\u2019s captain, partially credits his hottest shooting stretches to Baiamonte.<\/p>\n
\u201cNine years of hearing \u2018Dos minutos,’\u201d Adebayo said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be different. When I get a momentum bucket, and the other team calls a timeout, and they hear my name (from Baiamonte), it\u2019s definitely an energy booster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Louisville, Ky., in 1962, Baiamonte\u2019s family moved to Springfield, Ill., then New Orleans before settling in Miami by the time he was 10. He played high school basketball at Gulliver Preparatory in Coral Gables, Fla., about a half-hour drive from Kaseya Center, but a torn ACL pivoted his basketball career from the court to the mic.<\/p>\n
Before he earned his stripes in hoops, however, he was a rookie elsewhere: in a pro wrestling ring.<\/p>\n
In the early stages of Baiamonte\u2019s professional career, he spent two years as a ring announcer for the World Wrestling Federation for matches in the Miami-Dade and Fort Lauderdale areas.<\/p>\n
In 1982, six years before the Heat\u2019s first game and toward the end of Day 1 as a WWF ring announcer, the 7-foot-4, 520-pound Andre the Giant shouted down toward a 20-year-old, 6-foot-2 Baiamonte as part of a planned routine for when the heavyweight lost matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was scared to death,\u201d Baiamonte said. \u201cI\u2019ve got this giant man in my face. My first night on the job. He\u2019s yelling and screaming at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the night ends, and I make my way backstage. And I\u2019m stopped by the promoter at that time, a former wrestler by the name of Pat Patterson. And Pat Patterson stops me and says, \u2018Can I talk to you for a minute?\u2019 And I figured, \u2018Oh, boy. I really messed up. I\u2019m getting fired, for sure.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Patterson explained the wrestler\u2019s intended bit: When Andre The Giant wouldn\u2019t get his way, he\u2019d grab the ring announcer by their suit\u2019s lapels and lift them \u2014 kicking feet and all \u2014 over his head. Patterson told Andre The Giant to avoid the gimmick because it was the budding announcer\u2019s first night with the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndre the Giant comes up to me backstage, shakes my hand, and his hand devours mine,\u201d Baiamonte said. \u201cIn his French accent, he said, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry if I scared you. I hope you\u2019ll come back and be our ring announcer at our next event.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Baiamonte learned his \u201cpart of the show\u201d lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s better that I don\u2019t know what they want to do, so that my reaction is genuine, and just be ready for whatever may happen in that ring with wrestlers,\u201d he said. \u201cJust be ready because these guys may come and interact with you, and if they do, you need to show a genuine reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baiamonte learned to take those lessons from the wrestling ring to the basketball court.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 21, 1990, during Miami\u2019s second season, Baiamonte abruptly stepped in for a Heat-SuperSonics game because the full-time announcer was unavailable. The next day, he was offered the permanent backup job. By the 1991-92 season, he was Miami\u2019s full-time announcer. His career in corporate America with American Bankers Group ended in 1999 as his Heat tenure kept leveling up.<\/p>\n
Heat general manager Andy Elisburg, who, during his time as Miami\u2019s assistant director of public relations, offered Baiamonte that full-time job, noticed Baiamonte\u2019s attributes and how much energy he brought.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know how much he cared,\u201d Elisburg told The Athletic. \u201cIt always felt, when you were listening to it, like you were listening to someone who cared the way you did and brought that passion to it. And every call brought that enthusiasm, like he totally surrendered to the moment. \u2026 It was genuine. You can\u2019t fake that. You can fake it for a period of time, but you can\u2019t fake it for 35 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baiamonte\u2019s \u201cDos minutos!\u201d call is one example of a nod to the multicultural community he learned to speak hoops with and to over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we started doing \u2018Dos Minutos\u2019 20 years ago,\u201d Baiamonte said. \u201cIt came out of a production meeting where the point came up, \u201cHey, half our season-ticket member base is Hispanic. Can we do something?<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we started just talking about ideas, and I said I think we want to do something easy and simple that everybody would understand, whether you know a lick of Spanish or not \u2014 everybody knows uno, dos, tres. You learn that in pre-K. So, as I thought about that, I said, you know, the game of basketball is made up of a lot of numbers \u2026 I didn\u2019t want to drop something in Spanish every time we scored. That\u2019s a lot of baskets. What if I\u2019m required, every quarter \u2014 four times a game \u2014 to let everyone know we\u2019re in the last two minutes? Because the rules change a bit. So, while the call is mostly for referees and teams, what if we included the fans in it by repeating it?\u201d<\/p>\n
As Baiamonte tossed the idea into the think tank, his game producer had a better idea: What if he yelled, \u201cTwo minutes!\u201d and then, the fans scream, \u201cMinutos!\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea took off.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s echoed during some of the biggest games in basketball history. He\u2019s used it at NBA All-Star Weekend in Charlotte and Los Angeles. Parents have even explained to him how the call doubles as a bedtime signal for their kids.<\/p>\n
Now headed toward retirement, who knows, maybe Baiamonte can someday use it with his newborn grandson.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to this next chapter for the two of us and with our family,\u201d Baiamonte\u2019s wife, Natalie, told The Athletic. \u201cA lot of people have commented \u2014 even the coaches \u2014 \u2018Well, the Baiamontes get him back.\u2019 Even D-Wade and UD (Udonis Haslem) said the same thing. In a way, we are getting him back, but it\u2019s been wonderful to share him. \u2026 I have really seen the impact he\u2019s had on so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
NBA games taking place mostly at night has meant Baiamonte maneuvering to balance home life and work, shuffling birthdays, Christmas celebrations and vacations around Miami\u2019s schedule. Natalie remembers times when her husband couldn\u2019t speak to the family much, if at all, in an effort to rest or heal his voice for work. For an announcer to miss less than 2 percent of 1,600-plus games, there were plenty of days when Baiamonte didn\u2019t have his best voice, but it would be hard to notice for fans who are well-accustomed to the excitement he provided.<\/p>\n
She also recalls telling Baiamonte he was \u201ccrazy\u201d for pushing through to announce a game with a 104-degree fever. But he\u2019d gargle all the salt water and drink all the tea with honey he could to safely ensure he could bring his best voice to Heat basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been an incredible run. There\u2019s a price for doing these things. Mike was willing to pay the price, and his family was willing to pay the price,\u201d Elisburg said. \u201cSorry to see him go, but I\u2019m also happy he\u2019s beginning the next chapter and doing what he wants to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout Baiamonte\u2019s final season, the Heat recognized him with an initiative called \u201cMike Drop,\u201d which saw him honored with video tributes by former Heat players and a daylong April 4 celebration, capped by a 152-136 win over the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n
As Miami begins its search for its next basketball voice, Baiamonte encourages Heat fans to keep an open mind and ear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing, and I look forward to the Heat fans enjoying the future of the organization. It may sound a little different, but remember, it did 35 years ago, and look at what we did,\u201d Baiamonte said. \u201cI encourage you: Let\u2019s try to build on that as we go to the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Consider that one last shot in the arm from the Heat\u2019s ultimate hype man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 For 35 years, Miami Heat public address announcer Michael Baiamonte has had a front-row seat for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1209,123,125,2490,124,2295],"class_list":{"0":"post-228338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-miami","10":"tag-miami-headlines","11":"tag-miami-heat","12":"tag-miami-news","13":"tag-nba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}