Michael Baiamonte

Michael Baiamonte is an American professional basketball announcer. He is the current public address voice of the NBAs Miami Heat, a position he has held since 1990.

In addition to being the Miami Heat's public address announcer, Michael has made his mark hosting a variety of events for various organizations and corporations as an emcee. Such organizations he has emceed for include Top Rank Boxing, Ritz-Carlton, Hilton Hotels, Nike, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Nevertheless, Baiamonte is best known for being the arena voice for the Heat. He has seen his team make 5 appearances in the NBA Finals, winning the NBA Championship in 2006, 2012, and 2013. The Miami media has praised his unique style and creativity, referring to him as "One of the Most Recognizable Voices in the South Florida Sports Market." Michael has also received recognition from national media outlets, such as USA Today, who referred to his "Good Mourning!" call for an Alonzo Mourning dunk as "The best call by a Public Address Announcer."

His style includes stretching long vowels for trademark phrases. An example is the game introduction of "And Now Stand Up and make some Noise...For your Miami Heat!"^[1] Some of Baiamonte's other signature calls include, "Too Many Steps!," "Three!," and at two minutes left in a quarter, "Two minutes... Dos! Minutos!"^[2]

On May 10, 2012 the Miami Heat publicly apologized for a call that Baiamonte made during a playoff game against the New York Knicks. In Game 2 of the series Knick forward Amare Stoudemire injured his left hand when he punched a fire-extinguisher case. In Game 5, Baiamonte announced Stoudemire had been "extinguished" when he was disqualified with his sixth foul.

Last night at our game, our PA Announcer had a momentary lapse of judgment and used a poor choice of words in describing Amare Stoudemire's fouling out of the game. This is not who we are as an organization or who he is as an announcer. Both the Miami Heat and Michael Baiamonte apologize to Amare and the New York Knicks for the inappropriate choice of words.^[3]

Personal Life

Michael and his wife, Natalie, have 3 daughters and live in Palmetto Bay, Florida.

References

External links

Baiamonte profile

Miami Heat

Founded in 1988 Based in Miami, Florida

Franchise	Franchise Team history Expansion Draft All-time roster Draft history Seasons Records Broadcasters Head coaches Current season

Arenas	Miami Arena American Airlines Arena

D-League affiliates	Florida Flame Arkansas RimRockers Albuquerque Thunderbirds Sioux Falls Skyforce

General managers	Schaffel Wohl Pfund Riley

NBA Championships (3)	2006 2012 2013

Eastern Conference Championships (5)	2006 2011 2012 2013 2014

Culture and lore	Micky Arison Pat Riley Michael Baiamonte Burnie "The Heat Is On" (Glenn Frey song) Shaq The Decision The Big Three 27 in a row

Retired numbers	10 23 32 (to be retired during the 2016–17 season) 33

Rivals	Chicago Bulls New York Knicks

Media	TV Fox Sports Sun Radio 790 The Ticket Announcers Eric Reid Tony Fiorentino Jason Jackson Mike Inglis

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