Steve Buckhantz

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Steve Buckhantz
Born Steven Buckhantz
January 1, 1955 (1955-01-01) (age 53)
Arlington, Virginia
Occupation Sportscaster
Spouse ??
Children ??

Steve Buckhantz (born January 1, 1955) is a television play-by-play announcer for the Washington Wizards.

His announcing career began as Sports Director at WTTG, a Fox affiliate in Washington, D.C. A District native, Buckhantz grew up in Arlington, Virginia where his father owned a construction company. He attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. One of his earlier jobs in sports was with WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia, where he covered the Braves and the Hawks and eventually became the night-time sports anchor.

He is currently in his 9th year as the Wizards play by play announcer, and has garnered a reputation for his emphatic expressions, such as "Dagger","Blocked by Haywood!", "Backbreaker", "How good is he, Phil?", "How do you like that?" (the answer for Wizards fans whenever that question is posed -- "Not very much"), "Tooough shot!", "It's good if it goes!", "Score the field goal, and he'll go to the line!", "For the win!", "The refs have swallowed/put away their whistles!", "That's gotta be five seconds!", "That's hard to believe","And Eddie Jordan is Livid!/Incensed", "Oh My!""Follows it up Twice!!", and "NOOO, not possible".

Buckhantz's catchphrases have seeped into the lexicon of Washington, D.C. area sports fans, who revel in using them to describe a myriad of non-sports related events (ex. males observing a friend attempting to ask a woman for her phone number exclaim "Dagger!" or "Backbreaker!" when she can be seen rejecting the friend's advances) as well as debating the subtle and compelling distinction between a "Dagger" (a made basket at a critical juncture in a game that stabs like a dagger at the opposing team's chance of victory) and a "Backbreaker" (a made basket at a critical juncture in a game that breaks any chance that the opposing team will win).

He works alongside analyst Phil Chenier, a former member of the Washington Bullets. He currently resides in Vienna, Virginia.