The Boston Celtics rolled past the Miami Heat last night 118-84 and wrapped up their Eastern Conference playoff series four games to one. The Celtics will move on, awaiting the winner of the series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic. However, the first round is the last which the local television broadcasters will work and that means longtime voice of the Boston Celtics, Mike Gorman, has signed off for the final time. Gorman had announced his plan to retire at the end of the season this summer.
Gorman has been calling Celtics games since 1981 and was paired with former Celtics coach Tommy Heinsohn until 2020 when Heinsohn passed away. Former Celtics player Brian Scalabrine has been his fulltime partner ever since. During Gorman’s time with the team, they won championships in 1984, 1986 and 2008.
As Gorman signed off from the broadcast he said, “For the past 45 years it has been an honor and my distinct pleasure to have been the voice of the Boston Celtics. I’ll be forever grateful to this ownership for treating my family as they would treat their own. A special thanks to all who welcomed Tommy (Heinsohn), (Brian) Scalabrine and me into your homes all winter long when it was a cold night going on outside, you turned us on and it just couldn’t have been better. There’s no place I would have rather been, so, Boston, thank you. Good night.”
The crowd gave Gorman a standing ovation for over four minutes and after the game he was asked how that felt. “It’s incredible because you want them to stop but you don’t want them to stop. Extremely touching…this is what I’ll remember. I won’t remember games, I won’t remember players, I will remember this crowd though and remember this building.”
