Right now I’m headed back down to Miami for Game 6 of the NBA Finals and feeling relfective. Just a few hours ago the TD Garden was my stomping grounds for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals as the Bruins blanked the Blackhawks 2-0 and a few hours before that I was grilling Governor Hassan about the budget during Pints and Politics at The Barley House.
This is my life and I love it.
Things have changed over the nine years that I’ve co-hosted Matt’s weekly radio show. When I first started any opportunity that presented itself to travel, interview someone famous, or cover a game was greeted with a “Yes!”
Now, there’s more trepidation.
Matt and I talked about this on the show in Miami. Life changes in unmeasurable ways when children enter into it. Matt was missing E.V. and August after being on the road for five days, I was missing Liam and Brennan.
As cool as it is to cover the NBA Finals, a “Don’t go Daddyo” or a “I’m gonna miss you” tugs at you–big time.
Doing amazing things has been replaced by missing time with family and friends, and I’m cool with that.
Alright, enough with that.
Kevin Gray and I started doing the show with Matt his rookie year in the 2004-05 season and has evolved remarkably since.
For the two years in Toronto, Matt would join us via cell phone while walking to shootaround, practice or the game. Listeners would hear horns honking, buses zooming by and other amusing sounds as Matt recounted his experiences.
We’ve done the show from everywhere over the years. One highlight was the top of Mt Washington inside the weather station. Matt ran up the mountain and I took the auto road. We’ve also taped at pretty much every arena and Four Seasons on the east coast and have tried to make a annual pilgrimmage to San Antonio.
We’ve coped with tragedies like the Boston Marathon bombing in real-time and felt the excitement of the #letbonnershoot campaign sending Matt to the 3-point shooting contest.
We followed the fortunes of NH athletes from baseball stars Chris Carpenter, Sam Fuld and Jeff Locke to Olympians like Hannah Kearney and Scotty Lago.
We talked finger-roll with George Gervin,minterviewed Yogi Berra about Roger Maris, nodded while Reggie Jackson said that he could still hit 20 homers in the big leagues at 60, tryed to coax Shaq into buying a miniature horse, relived baseball’s glory days with Bobby Doerr and Bob Feller, learned the code of hockey fighting with former Monarchs Rich Clune and George Parros, pondered what Wade Boggs has in that large sippy cup, quizzed a freshman Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama about what he would do as President, ran our fingers through Rev. Peyton’s beard, coaxed Steven Tyler and Joe Perry into ripping on the other, interviewed boyhood hoop idols like Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, and Kevin McHale, spilled beer on Manu Ginobili’s shoes, and fought to stop the Northern Pass project, and that’s just what I can remember right now.
It’s been an amazing ride.
So many people to thank for that including Carl Moskey and Concord Orthopaedics who’ve sponsored our shenanigans for years, and Kevin Gray who went along with this idea when approached by a 22-year-old college kid.
But, most importantly I thank Matt. Who does a radio show in their hometown every week for their whole career? He does.
Tonight, the Spurs can win it all and Matt’s finger prints are all over this run, from his defense against Dwight Howard and Zach Randolph to clutch three-point shots in the Lakers and Grizzlies series.
The Finals has gone small and squeezed Matt out of the line-up the last couple of games after he and Manu were first off the bench in Game 3, but he doesn’t whine about his role, just pats his teammates on the back and roots them on.
It’s the Spurs way and his way.
Hopefully the Spurs wrap this thing up tonight.
