Ross Bernstein
("Raising Lombardi")
Donald Hubbard
("100 Things Patriots Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die")
Robert Schnakenberg
("The Underground Football Encyclopedia")
Sean Grande
(Radio Voice of the Boston Celtics
@SeanGrandePBP)
Now in his fourteenth season in the NBA and eleventh as the voice of the Boston Celtics, Sean Grande’s epic account of the two-month run to the 2008 World Championship, and the classic Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals cemented his status as one of the nation’s elite play-callers. Sean, who now trails only the legendary Johnny Most as the longest-tenured radio voice of the Celtics, will be joined again by analyst Cedric Maxwell for all Boston Celtics games. For over a decade, “Grande and Max” have been one of Boston’s most popular and iconic on-air combinations. On February 3, 2012, they will call their 1,000th game together.
On December 3rd, 2009 in San Antonio, he called his 1000th NBA Game, joining NBA icon Marv Albert and Ian Eagle as the only three to reach that plateau before the age of 40.
Voted by the readers of Boston Sports Media Watch as the best play-by-play announcer in Boston, Sean was recruited back to New England in 2001 after serving three years as the television voice of the Minnesota Timberwolves. When he signed in 1998, he was the youngest announcer in the NBA, a distinction he would hold for three years. The versatile Grande’s play-byplay credits also include two seasons as part of ABC Sports College Football broadcast team, joining the likes of Keith Jackson and Brent Musburger. He returned to the national scene last September, calling the FIBA Americas tournament on ESPN.
Grande’s first stint in Boston began at Boston University where he spent seven seasons calling Terrier hockey, football and basketball on both television and radio. In 1996, he moved up Commonwealth Avenue to Boston College, as the voice of the Eagles football and hockey radio networks for three seasons until the NBA came calling. On the television side, Grande was the original voice of the Hockey East Game of the Week on Fox Sports Net. His renowned college hockey work for Fox and as the six-year television voice of the NCAA East Regional garnered him three New England Emmy nominations including the 1999 Emmy for best Play-by-Play. Now in his fourth decade of college hockey, Grande will call his eleventh NCAA Championship Game in April, 2011 as the “Voice of the Frozen Four” on CBS Radio.
A frequent guest on ESPN’s First Take and the B.S. Report, Grande’s broadcast career includes a sevenyear stint at WEEI (1991-1998), the final three as Sports Director. His wide-ranging play-by-play career has seen him call WNBA basketball for the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun, MFS Pro Tennis, Providence Bruins hockey, Harvard basketball and even Major League Soccer. He served three years as host of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on NHL radio and co-hosted the NCAA Hockey Selection show on ESPN2. In 2005, Grande became a recurring guest host of Comcast Sports Net’s “Sports Tonight”, and a regular contributor to WEEI. Sean made his major motion picture debut with a cameo, as himself, in the 2001 release “Joe Somebody” starring Tim Allen and his call of Ricky Davis’ buzzer-beater in November of 2005, was used as a soundtrack in a scene of the final season premiere of HBO’s “The Sopranos” in 2006. A regular contributor to Celtics.com, Grande’s made his debut on ESPN’s Grantland in November, 2011.
Grande lives in Cambridge, Mass. His first child, Jackson, was born in October.
