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'Voice of the Suns' Al McCoy gives the play-by-play on his career in broadcasting

The Phoenix Suns are off to a slow start in the first couple of weeks of the NBA season, but last year’s run to the NBA Finals following a decade-long postseason drought won’t soon be forgotten.

The loss to the Milwaukee Bucks marked the third time the Suns had made the final since becoming an organization in 1968.

One person who has seen all the highs and lows over the course of his 50 years with the team is play-by-play broadcaster Al McCoy.

The Show spoke with him to learn about his history with the organization.

Full conversation

AL MCCOY: Well, that’s an easy question to discuss, because certainly it is if your team is winning. But, how do I write the lines to that? Well, you know, I really like the NBA and so many great players and so many great games. So even when the Suns were going through that stretch where they were not making the playoffs, where they had losing teams, I still enjoyed the games from the standpoint of being able to describe some of the greatest athletes ever that were playing in the NBA.

And I think that really kept my enthusiasm from the sport very high. Even though the Suns were not winning, I was appreciative of the league and of the great games and of the many outstanding players that I was able to describe in my broadcasts.

STEVE GOLDSTEIN: What is it like to be so identified with an organization? It seems like announcers like yourself — there are obviously many great ones in the NBA and Major League Baseball over the decades, I think of Vin Scully and Harry Carey and folks like that who are really identified with the sport and with the organization. Has that been a plus for you, just really being when people think the Suns, OK, they think the players, but they also think Al McCoy?

MCCOY: Well, you know, that’s what I always wanted in my career because growing up with an interest in broadcasting, some of the names that you mentioned were announcers that were identified with teams. And I thought that would be a great way to have my career.

And it’s kind of ironic because, when I started with the Suns, I also was doing Arizona State University football games on television. And after my first year with the Suns and doing both, Jerry Colangelo, who was the general manager of the Suns at that time, called me and said, “Al, I want you to be our broadcaster.” He said, “I’d like it if you weren’t doing these other things and really confined to being the voice of the Suns.”

And I agreed to that. And it probably was one of the better decisions I’ve ever made in my career.

GOLDSTEIN: Was there ever any pressure to be a homer?

MCCOY: No, there never was. And, my philosophy was always this: You’re there to describe the action. You’re there to maybe be a little entertaining. Quite obviously, I would be happier if the Suns were winning and if the Suns were playing great. But you can’t disguise the fact if they’re not doing well, if they’re not playing good. Fans are so aware of everything in sports these days that you just can’t do that.

And I never really considered myself a homer, although, as I said, I was happier if the Suns won. But I would never try and disguise the opposition if they had great players and they were playing great and they were getting the job done, I was confined to describing that type of action. Certainly that’s the way I wanted to do the games.

GOLDSTEIN: You told so many great stories about — I know we’re getting to be 45 years ago now — but you told so many great stories about that 1976 team. And because I’ve heard some of the tales you’ve told about the little Phoenix team coming in. And I think I remember a phrase you said that Boston was talking about how they thought of Phoenix as people with white socks and brown shoes and just sort of beneath them in some ways. That triple overtime game (Game 5 of the 1976 Finals) seemed like it was uncivilized as opposed to the game in ’93 where it was, “OK, it’s a long game.” This other one, you seemed like it was chaos to some extent.

MCCOY: Well, it really was. That’s why I’ve never been a Boston fan! And of course, the Suns were the surprise. No one expected the Suns to be even in the playoffs that year. And they just barely got over the .500 mark, record wise. But all of a sudden they came alive in the playoffs, and no one imagined they would be there against the same Boston Celtics team.

And of course, Boston was notorious for the way they treated opposing teams. Their locker rooms had only cold showers for the opposition. The fans were all over the place. It was ridiculous. And that was an unbelievable sequence in that series in 1976. And one certainly that’ll never be forgotten.

GOLDSTEIN: And again, to some extent you’ve seen it all. And I know that when the Suns had to play in Orlando because of the COVID pandemic bubble, you were not with them at all. But can I ask you to put that into context, just how strange a pandemic is after 49 to 50 years of calling games? What was that like?

MCCOY: When they did the games in the bubble, I did the games. But I did them from here in Phoenix, in a room with a television monitor and watch that TV monitor and broadcast a radio broadcast of the game. I laughed at the time and said, maybe I had an edge, because years ago I had recreated baseball games. That was almost kind of the same philosophy. But it was entirely different. And it continues today. It is starting to become a little bit back to normal, but not at all what we were used to, as we would say in the good old days when we went in the locker rooms and had one-on-one conversations with players and coaches. Those things right now are just not available due to the pandemic, as you know.

GOLDSTEIN: What would it have been like, or what could it be like this year to actually, with all your amazing experience, to actually call an NBA finals winner? How good would that feel?

MCCOY: It would have been fantastic. And, that certainly was missed that we were not able to do that. But, you know, as many great players have said — including our own Charles Barkley — you don’t have to necessarily get a ring to have had a great career. And my career has been so fantastic. I’ve been able to describe the triple-overtime games, three NBA finals. I’ve been able to do two NBA All-Star games. It’s just been a lot of fun.

And the business has changed so much. You mentioned earlier the fact that so many broadcasters through the years were associated with teams. You just don’t see that happen that much anymore because there’s so much coverage, so much television, so many announcers that that era just I think is going to be in the past.

GOLDSTEIN: Legendary broadcaster Al McCoy in his 50th season as lead announcer for the Phoenix Suns. Al, thanks so much for talking with me. My pleasure.

MCCOY: All good. Good to talk to you, Steve.

KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.

Steve Goldstein was a host at KJZZ from 1997 to 2022.
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