He once called college games at local high schools throughout the city, but he is now the voice for the three-time NBA champion Miami Heat.
Not many people may know Michael Baiamonte and though his name may not ring a bell right at tipoff, his voice resonates all throughout South Florida.
Before becoming the official voice of one of the NBA’s top teams, he roamed FIU, graduating in 1986 with a bachelors degree in business.
Baiamonte loved public speaking too. At Gulliver High School he called basketball games. When he filled out his entrance application to FIU, one question was asked that would lead him to a path he could only have dreamed of.
“One of the questions was, ‘What was an accomplishment of yours in high school that you’re most proud of?'” Baiamonte said. “My response to that was that I had come up with this idea of announcing the boys basketball team in high school. We were a very small private school, no one was announcing games.”
As the basketball program began to take shape in 1981, former sports information director Rich Kelch needed an announcer for future games and came across Baiamonte’s application that same year.
“Rich Kelch called me, at home, and said ‘Someone gave me your college application, it says you were a basketball announcer, we are looking for a basketball announcer, would you be willing to come and audition for the job?'”
Since an arena was still just a dream, jumping from school to school to work games is what was needed for Baiamonte to do what he loved and he knew that sacrifices would have to be made to reach the top.
“We played at local high schools, we played at community colleges, we played almost anywhere we could find a court around town,” Baiamonte said. “I went as far as Miami Beach with this team to play. We were gypsies.”
It wasn’t until 1987, a year after graduating FIU, when word spread that a professional team would be coming to Miami, a blessing for Baiamonte who saw it as the chance to make his dream become a reality.
“So I’m excited, we’re getting pro basketball here, I’m already announcing at the college level, I bet you I have a great shot,” Baiamonte said.
Eager and ready for his time to prove his ability, Baiamonte sent in a letter to the organization stating his interest to being the team’s announcer. Unfortunately, he received a reply informing him that the position had already been filled.
It is understood that knowing the right people can truly help a person on the path to success. For Baiamonte, a friendship with Jose Pineda did it. Meeting earlier in his high school career at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, they would grow a bond that is still strong till this day and Pineda knew the passion Baiamonte had in sports and calling basketball games.
As the years past and nothing new came out of the Heat, Baiamonte would end up speaking to Pineda, now the Spanish voice for the Miami Heat. Pineda had taken a job with the Heat as a tickets salesman and kept a bug in the ears of the right people who would be able to help his longtime friend.
“One day I’m working in Corporate America, my phone rings and the person on the other end identifies himself as the PR Director of the Miami Heat and says to me, ‘Our announcer is sick, can you announce the game tonight?'” Baiamonte said.
With the credibility Baiamonte had built amongst his friends and colleagues, he originally began to think it was a cruel joke but soon realized that suspicion was all in his head.
Baiamonte announced his first ever professional basketball game at the Miami Arena in 1989.
Though it later became under the title of a permanent backup position, having his foot in the proverbial door aided Baiamonte to gain experience until one day all his dreams came true.
“Going into the fourth year of the team’s existence, there’s an article that shows up in the Miami Herald one day that says the Miami Heat announcer is leaving the organization to go take over a family business in San Diego, California,” Baiamonte said.
Already on the phone making calls, Baiamonte went back to the Heat and re-auditioned for his dream job.
Baiamonte has since spent the last 23 years calling endless Miami Heat games, from Tim Hardaway hitting a game-winner against the Orlando Magic in the 1997 playoffs to earn the first ever playoff series win for the Heat, to Ray Allen’s famous three-pointer in game six of the 2013 NBA Finals, that helped revive the Heat to defeat the San Antonio Spurs for their second-straight title.
The NBA world has been introduced to many of Baiamonte’s clever slogans, including his “Dos Minutos” at the two-minute mark of every quarter.
As fans cheer during games at the American Airlines Arena during such calls, some critics don’t seem to agree with his style and energy.
In 2005, a staff member of the Boston Globe included Baiamonte in a playoff prediction article for the Heat and New Jersey Nets and some of the advantages the Heat had, which read, “An undeniable advantage at home with one of the NBA’s truly hideous public address announcers.”
An article that Baiamonte still has at home.
He understands the way the business works, the way fans and critics are and understands that his job is to make the games fun for South Florida fans, not the fans from Boston or New York.
Baiamonte on occasion has continued to call FIU football and basketball games but also plans to continue working with the Miami Heat and doesn’t seem to have any plans of leaving. According to him, Pat Riley would have to get security to drag him out of the building.
“South Florida is my home,” Baiamonte said. “It’s where I’ve lived almost all my life. It’s where my wife and I raise our kids. I’m sitting center court watching Dwyane Wade, Lebron James and Chris Bosh play basketball every night. I plan to be behind that microphone.”
-patrick.chalvire@fiusm.com
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