Johnny Most

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John M. Most (June 15, 1923 – January 3, 1993) was an American sports announcer known primarily as the raspy radio voice of the Boston Celtics basketball team from 1953 to 1990.

He is most remembered for his excited call of “Havlicek stole the ball!” during the final moments of Game 7 of the 1965 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, sealing the victory for the Boston Celtics. The complete call for that play was “Greer is putting the ball in play. He gets it out deep and Havlicek steals it! Over to Sam Jones…Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over… It's all over!”

He was a legend to Boston Celtics fans during the Celtics' 30 year reign from the 1950s through the 1980s as basketball's most dominant team. As identifiable a figure in Boston as Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Larry Bird; Boston Celtics fans learned at an early age when watching the team play on television to turn the sound down on their television and pick up Most's radio broadcast of the game instead.

Born to Jewish parents in New York City, New York (the grandson of the German-American anarchist Johann Most), Most began his career in the 1940s as a protégé of Marty Glickman. Before being hired by Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown and coach Red Auerbach to replace Curt Gowdy as the team's radio play-by-play man (on WBZ 1030), Most called road games for baseball's New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, and football's New York Giants and Army.

Most always referred to his perch or radio booth at the Boston Garden (the Celtics' arena) as "high above court-side." Critics often accused Most of being a "homer" for the Celtics. Unlike his long-time contemporary Chick Hearn, who criticized his Los Angeles Lakers when he felt warranted, Most rarely criticized the Celtics. But he was not shy about criticizing other team's players. One time Most went as far as to describe the Los Angeles Lakers' Kurt Rambis as "something that had crawled out of a sewer." He also nicknamed Washington Bullets players Rick Mahorn and Jeff Ruland as "McFilthy" and "McNasty", interchanging the two at his whim. One such occasion though when Most praised the opposition was during a playoff game against the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan scored 63 points against the Celtics. Occasionally, one of Most's favorite targets would switch teams and join the Celtics: the most notable example was Xavier McDaniel.

On October 10, 1990, Johnny Most, who was a lifelong smoker announced his retirement due to health concerns. On December 3 of that year, Most was honored with the permanent installation at Boston Garden of his microphone, silver-plated and encased in a Celtic-green frame. The microphone was attached to the façade of the vantage point that Most always described as "high above courtside." On January 3, 1993, Most died at the age of 69 of a heart attack in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Shortly after his death, Johnny Most was awarded the prestigious Curt Gowdy Media Award by the Trustees of the Basketball Hall of Fame for his contribution to basketball. It was very ironic, considering that Most replaced Gowdy as the Celtics' play-by-play announcer. On October 4, 2002 (almost ten years after his death), Most was inducted into the media category of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame at the University of Rhode Island.

[edit] Other well-known calls

"The shot off the glass is good!! Boston leads 91-89"

But Philadelphia had one more chance to put the game into overtime when...

"Bobby Jones is gonna put the ball into play and the pass hits the top of the backboard and it's over! They won 3 in a row, they came from 3-1 down and they have won the series!!! It's all over!!!"

  • Game 5 of the 1987 playoff series against the Detroit Pistons, the series tied at 2-2. Detroit had a one-point lead late in the game and needed to inbound the ball to secure the victory and take a 3-2 Series lead with Game 6 on their court. (Game 5 was played in the Boston Garden; the conference playoffs followed a 2-2-1-1-1 format.) Isiah Thomas was inbounding the ball to Bill Laimbeer, who was in the backcourt. But...

"Now there's a steal by Bird! Underneath to DJ! He lays it up and in!! ... What a play by Bird! Bird stole the inbounding pass, laid it up to DJ, and DJ laid it up and in, and Boston has a one-point lead with one second left! OH, MY, THIS PLACE IS GOING CRAZY!!!"

Perhaps Johnny's most memorable on-air moment was when he dropped his trademark cigarette, lighting his pants on fire.

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