Former radio voice for Sonics lands in Utah
David Locke is in his ninth season as the radio voice of the Utah Jazz.
He’s just the second radio voice in Jazz history, having succeeded the legendary Hot Rod Hundley.
Locke also was the radio voice for the 200607 Seattle SuperSonics, the first season after Clay Bennett’s group purchased the franchise, but Locke was fired after that season.
Locke grew up in California, but his father had business connections in Utah, and Locke’s family often came to Utah on ski vacations.
Locke got his professional start in Utah, hosting a radio show and eventually hosting Jazz pregame, halftime and postgame shows.
Locke moved to Seattle in 1998 and spent years as host of “Sonics Talk” before becoming the team’s radio voice. Locke chatted with The
Oklahoman before Game 6 of the Thunder-Jazz series.
What do you remember about your season calling the Sonics?
Locke: “Ray Allen hit a lot of threes, and when he faded left, it was going in every time, and it was kind of awesome. The other memory, they all involve Ray, one of those cool-life NBA experiences. Ray was very intellectual and always wanted to hold debates. He saw I was reading Obama’s book. At the time, Obama was just a senator, so he came back and sat next to me on the plane and for two hours debated whether America was ready for a black president. Little did we know at the time.”
How about from the Oklahoma City ownership standpoint?
“Really shortly after I was hired, I got the phone call from Brian Byrnes, who now is one of the senior VPs of the Thunder, that the team had been sold. I was in this weird position of supporting the organization’s messaging, while trying to support Seattle, a city I had been very connected to. That obviously didn’t last very long.”
What do you remember about Nick Collison, the only Sonic left on the roster?
“I’ll be honest. I thought to myself at halftime, when the Jazz were up by quite a bit in Game 5, that if the Jazz held that lead, I was going to get to call Nick Collison’s first and last minutes of his career. Which since Nick is one of the greatest guys anyone’s ever met or interacted with in this league, and one of the most real people, I was really, obviously excited because the Jazz was up 10, but I thought it would be neat to see Oklahoma City’s fans say goodbye to him. That did cross my mind. And Russell had other plans.”
What was that year like in Seattle, straddling the fence?
“The thing I think was sad about it, is there was so many outside influences going on. Howard Schultz simply quitting as the owner of the franchise. He just simply quit on the city and the franchise after previously sitting on a podium and talking about how it was a public trust. Just so soon afterwards, to blatantly just quit, I thought was pretty distasteful. At the same time, the organization was doing all these incredible things. They were building basketball courts all around town, and naming them after Spencer Haywood and Tom Chambers and great Sonics of the past. It was some of the greatest community involvement I’ve ever seen by an organization. I thought to myself, boy, if we’d only been doing these for the last five or eight years, then maybe we wouldn’t be in this position. It felt as if there was an awful lot of trying to save a franchise. The Seattle fan base was pretty loyal and pretty connected to that team. There’s a David Stern Boulevard in Sacramento and there will never be one in Seattle.”
Did you know your time was short with the new ownership?
“The only thing I can say, the Thunder ownership group let me go, and Danny Barth, who was the CEO, fulfilled my contract and maybe even went a step beyond for me that allowed me to get some money and come here. On a personal note, I don’t know what their reasons were. Maybe it’s intuitively obvious, maybe it’s not, but they treated me personally with 100 percent class.”
Worked out for you?
“My life is incredible here. Nobody in Oklahoma City really cares, but when I came back — I lived here before — I very shortly realized this is where I should be. This is my soul spot, if you want to get really deep about it. Both of my kids are having a wonderful life here. It’s a very easy place to live. I think every city you live in has a teeter-totter of strengths and weaknesses, and our teeter-totter is really heavily weighed down by the strengths.”