How Grizzlies sideline reporter became PA announcer
The highlight package on the videoboard turned dark, the lights inside Fedexforum turned on and the blue spotlight hovering over the Memphis Grizzlies logo at midcourt turned to yellow.
“And now, stand up, let’s meet your starting lineup for your Memphis Grizzlies,” and that’s when the familiar voice serving as a public address announcer for the first time in almost 30 years decided to ad lib before the first home preseason game of the year.
“At guard, in his second season out of Murray State,” the voice yelled over the music blaring from the speakers, as if he was addressing a sellout crowd instead of one featuring about 500 invited guests, “the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year, Ja Morant!”
That line, the part about Morant being the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year, “I went off script on that one,” Rob Fischer said.
Then the sideline reporter for the Grizzlies television broadcasts on Fox Sports Southeast started laughing.
“They told me you don’t have to be crazy, just be yourself. And I said if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it.”
There was finally an NBA game back at Fedexforum Thursday night. The Grizzlies pounded the Atlanta Hawks, 128-106, and kept their positive momentum with the regular season less than a week away.
But this game, the first NBA game in downtown Memphis since March 10, also illustrated the delicate endeavor this franchise, and every franchise around the league, is attempting to pull off this winter.
This isn’t the Orlando bubble anymore. This is a record-setting stretch of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. This is the beginning stages of an NBA season in which a willingness to adapt on the fly will be imperative to playing as many games as possible. This is what the NFL has done, for better or worse.
This served as the backdrop to Fischer’s unexpected dalliance as a public address announcer again.
He found out Wednesday night from the Grizzlies that the team’s regular public address announcer, Marcus Tucker, would be unavailable for both of the preseason home games against the Hawks Thursday and Saturday. Fischer was asked to fill in instead of doing his normal on air duties.
“The depth chart got to the point where there was desperation,” he said.
So at 10 p.m. Wednesday, Fischer drove to Fedexforum to take and pass a COVID-19 test. He had to test negative a second time Thursday morning due to the NBA’S stringent protocols. Anyone within 30 feet of the court, including fans seated courtside, must pass a coronavirus test to attend games this season.
Fischer, for instance, isn’t currently part of the essential personnel permitted on the floor for games in his role as sideline reporter on the Grizzlies’ broadcast alongside Pete Pranica and Brevin Knight.
But there he was Thursday, wearing the tailored suit and flashy shoes that have become his signature on screen, but seated behind the scorer’s table right next to the Atlanta Hawks bench. All of a sudden, he was working as a public address announcer for the first time since the 1991-92 St. Louis Ambush indoor soccer season.
“I loved doing it but I hadn’t done it in 30 years and this is an NBA game,” Fischer said. “I was freaking out a little bit.”
It was hard to tell. His pipes translated well from the airwaves to the arena. He had a steady cadence while making in-house announcements. He was properly animated when a Grizzlies’ player scored and rightfully subdued whenever the Hawks got a basket. It never sounded like he was wearing a mask the entire time.
The limited crowd at Fedexforum for this first Grizzlies preseason game, which included most of the Memphis football team, was harder to stomach than the three Tigers basketball games the arena hosted prior to Thursday night. It got easier to imagine the memories thousands of Memphis sports fans who can’t attend games this year will miss each time a pony-tailed Morant touched the ball.
The role of public address announcer is even more important than usual right now. Fischer, or Tucker, or whoever else works the public address system at a venue, has the power to cut through the silence that makes these pandemic-altered games so awkward to watch in-person at times.
So when Fisher said Dillon Brooks hit a shot “for three” and let
the last vowels linger in the air an extra half-second, it added a little flair to an otherwise routine preseason blowout. When he announced Morant’s name with an appropriately guttural noise after his forays into the lane for 3-point plays, it prompted the crowd to jolt to life.
“I thought I’d try new material as I went along,” Fischer quipped.
The entire last-minute switch, the unexpected phone call and the impromptu COVID-19 tests and the almost 30-year layoff between gigs, felt seamless by the end of Thursday night.
“And that’s the game,” Fischer said when the final buzzer sounded. “Thank you for coming. I’m Rob Fischer.”
Then, almost as soon that familiar voice finally revealed itself, Fischer walked out of Fedexforum, 282 days after the last NBA game hosted by Memphis.
This one was nothing like that one. For the Grizzlies. For the fans. And especially for him.
“It’s a lot of talking,” Fischer said on his way back home. “I need a lozenge and a drink, not necessarily in that order.”
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto