Rockets play-by-play man lifts off again
It’s all Matt Thomas ever wanted to be — a play-by-play announcer for an NBA team. Or a TV weatherman. Or a game-show host. When he was growing up in west Houston, he would practice announcing not with a wooden baking spoon at the kitchen table like most kids — but an antenna off an old TV.
“I used an antenna because it looked like Gene Rayburn’s long microphone on ‘Match Game.’ I thought it made me look more professional,” Thomas said.
More professional? Thomas was 3 years old, pretending to ask Charles Nelson Reilly, “Dumb Dora told her husband, ‘You can’t wear that suit because it makes you look too (fill in the blank).’ Hurry, up, Betty White, this is only a half-hour show!”
Four decades later, Thomas is getting the job he really wanted most. The Houston Rockets announced that Thomas will be the public address announcer for home games in Toyota Center and radio play-by-play announcer for road games on SportsTalk 790 (KBME-AM) this season.
And he will continue to cohost the KBME morning talk show “The Proper Gentlemen of Sports,” with Lance Zierlein.
Thomas is used to working around the clock. Consider his daily routine back in 1994.
“That was an amazing time for me,” he said. “Les Alexander had just bought the Rockets, and they decided they wanted a dramatic introduction of players like the Chicago Bulls were doing. I auditioned for the job. I didn’t get it at first, but in the middle of the season, they called and asked if I still was interested in doing it. Uh, yeah, I was.
“I was 22 years old. In the morning, I was producing Dan Patrick’s morning show on 700 AM. In the afternoon, I was still a student at the University of Houston. And at night, I was announcing my heroes, the Houston Rockets, in front of 16,000 fans, during the team’s first championship season. Of course, I was nervous, but I didn’t feel like I was in over my head because I had been practicing for this my whole life.”
While big booming team introductions were springing up around the NBA, Thomas quickly developed his own style. He announced forward Robert Horry as “Rrrrrrobert Horry.”
“Kenny Smith was a hard one for me to introduce because there’s nothing exciting about his name. Otis Thorpe was ‘O-T.’ My favorite player to announce was Hakeem Olajuwon. I always did his name last, and I would linger on the ‘O’ in his last name until I ran out of breath. ‘Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-lajuwon.’ I would try things out in the shower to see what worked and what didn’t. My goal was always to make the games fun for the fans and keep them informed.”
Thomas’ second year with the Rockets — and the Rockets’ second championship — was “500 times better than the first.” That’s when he developed his signature line.
Right before introducing the Rockets’ starting lineup:
“All right, Houston, on your feet! And prepare for Rockets liftoff!”
How’s this for a heady two years in the life of someone barely old enough to order a beer?
After the Rockets won the NBA title in 1994, they went to London to play in the World Championship Tournament. Thomas went along to do the arena announcements during Rockets games. Tournament officials liked his work so much, they asked him to announce all the games.
“That was an amazing experience. I was announcing games between Israel and China,” Thomas said.
That led to Thomas working many of the basketball games in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He was a guest on “Late Night With David Letterman,” and all the local TV stations did features on him.
Thomas left the Rockets after the 1996 season to accept the radio play-by-play job with the University of Houston. “People in the industry understood my move. My dream has always been play-by-play.”
Radio being radio, often a gypsy lifestyle, Thomas explored opportunities in Salt Lake City and Minneapolis. He always planned to come back to Houston, though.
In 2009, there was some movement on the Houston radio scene, and Thomas returned to SportsTalk 790 to host the midday talk show and do Astros warm-up and post-game call-in shows.
“I got the call a couple of months ago. This will be the 50th anniversary of the Rockets in Houston, and they want to put a fresh coat of paint on their game presentation,” Thomas said. “I will do the public address announcing in Toyota Center and radio play-by-play on road games. Craig Ackerman, who did the radio road games last year, will be moving to TV. Bill Worrell, who did all the TV games, is dialing back his schedule and will work only the home games.”
How does Thomas plan to juggle a schedule that includes morning radio in Houston and late-night road games on the West Coast?
“Plenty of naps.”