The pregame show for the 1987 NBA Finals Game 5 between“serious rivals” Los Angeles Lakers verses the Boston Garden took place on June 11, 1987 at Boston Gardens before 14,890 fans….with the hosts of the“build-up to the game” being CBS Sports lead NBA broadcast team of Brent Musburger, Dick Stockton and Tom Heinsohn….so, we decided to dedicate this story for the guys behind the mike for play by play action, Dick Stockton and Tom Heinsohn.
Tom Heinsohn (born August 26, 1934) is an American retired professional basketball player….who has been associated with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) for six decades as a player, coach and broadcaster….as he played for the Celtics from 1956 to 1965….then coached the team from 1969 to 1978….and has been
Tom Heinsohn has been granted Hall of Fame status for his contributions as a player….and for his success as a head coach. He also helped form the NBA Players Association….and is the only person to have the distinction of being involved in an official team capacity in each of the Celtics’ 17 championships….as well as each of their 21 NBA Finals appearances. He is currently in 2019, the color commentator on the Celtics’ television broadcasts on NBC Sports Boston.
Dick Stockton (born on November 22, 1942) is an American sportscaster….who like his “comrade of the mike” Heinsohn, is currently in 2019, employed by Fox Sports as a football play-by-play announcer.
Stockton started freelancing for CBS Sports in the late 1960’s….and is still doing local television at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. In 1978, following a two-year stint calling NFL games for NBC….he joined CBS full-time….while covering a variety of sports for that network from then until 1994….including the NFL, NBA, for which Stockton was the lead play-by-play man from 1981 to 1990 along with Heinsohn….Major League Baseball, with Jim Kaat from 1990 to 1992,while being the # 2 play-by-play man behind Jack Buck and Sean McDonough in 1992….college basketball including ten years as a play-by-play broadcaster of the NCAA Regional Finals, when Stockton also was the host at the famous upset of Villanova over Georgetown in 1985.
In addition, he was the host of the Pan American Games in San Juan in 1979….while covering swimming and diving at the Pan American Games in Edmonton and Caracas. Stockton also broadcast the World Swimming and Diving Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador….the World Basketball Championships in Cali, Colombia….and the World Figure Skating Championships in Helsinki in the first year that CBS acquired the rights. When CBS began covering the Winter Olympics, Stockton was assigned to cover speed skating in France in 1992…..and two years later, he called the speed skating events in the 1994 Norway Games….. including Dan Jansen’s record-breaking triumph of the 1000 meter gold medal…..as well as the gold medal victories of Bonnie Blair.
