TOM's Talks | Marc Zumoff

NBA Championship in nineteen eighty three. We talk about, among other topics, broadcasting games offsite, his award winning career, and the Sixers chances in the restart to the NBA season. Here's Mark Zoomof. Welcome once again, everybody to an edition of Tom's Talks. And today we're joined by award winning television broadcaster Mark zoom Off from NBC Sports Philadelphia. So it's Tom's Talks meets Zoos News. Hello, zus already are making me laugh as you normally do. All right, so

you guys are doing remote broadcasting. You did the three scrimmages with the Sixers in the bubble in Orlando, and now the games start. How's the remote broadcasting been working? And I'm sure you kind of in terms of those scrimmages, like the dry run, if you even though you were on the air, how's that been going with the remote broadcasts. So even as I answer, I'm curious as to what you think because I know you've been doing the same thing.

But you're right, the scrimmages were good to sort of grease the wheels and get us used to the facility, the protocols. Entering the building, you have to go through security or temperature checked, you go unto the elevator, you go all the way up to the top to the hockey press boxes, and then literally we are all situated

individually in an individual hockey press box. So there's a work area, there are a couple of thirty two inch screens, there's lights that are already there, there's a camera that's already there. So the reason they're doing is because the infrastructure is already in place. In terms of the mechanics, I'd really be curious as to what you have to say because you're calling the game a lot differently because

you're not there. You're waiting a beat to either identify a player, to make a call, who's the foul, on what's the violation that kind of thing. So, but I think once you get used to that, and I think it's easier for me Tom that it is for you, because I have the pictures to tell the story. So if I can follow up with a comment that's maybe delayed a little bit because I'm not quite sure what's going on, it's a little more permissible. With you. There's

always that immediacy and that pressure. Do you feel that a little bit? And it's been Honestly, I didn't know how it was going to go. And I know you've done remote broadcasting because we actually did the same tournament all the way back in two thousand and two. I believe that Feeble World Championships from Indianapolis. But anyway, I didn't know how it was going to be. Until we actually started doing it. I felt like we could do it. We've all seen a million games on TV and basically

that's what we're describing. One thing that strikes me is I always want to say and the crowd quiets, so it's very quiet, and I have to stop because you know, obviously it's been very quiet. But it's been really it's been solid. I mean, the NBA has done a tremendous jobs, and again for radio to have the audio come in, which has been good. And there's been times like they have a PA announcer, which I love because it you know, it brings like authenticity, and then it also pays off

of the call because information. As I'm saying Tobias Harris, he's saying Tobias Herds too. You know. Then like by way of example, the second game, the six Ers play the Spurs, and that's a Sixers home game, so it's going to be their imaging and I think they're gonna have Matt Cord with a public address announcement for the starting lineups. That part is great, and I think it's

been great for our fans. Have you found that. I'll tell you what, Speaking of fans, that's the one thing that I do miss because you're playing off the fans. I know, for us, it's an important element. Somebody makes a big hoop and our director goes wild with our crowd and they're very colorful and very much into it. And of course from an audio standpoint, it just kind of supports the whole thing. I mean, that's why they

call it spectator sports. I think the NBA has done a really good job with their virtual fans, and I know the sixer is going to have some sort of a contest where whereby fans can become one of those virtual fans. So listen. It is what it is, whether we're doing games off a monitor like we used too when we were fourteen years old and we were aspiring play by play announcers, or the fact that we have no fans and we have to have virtual fans instead.

It's just really good to have NBA basketball and I'm really looking forward to Saturday. One last thing about the fans, but I want to get back to that fourteen year old in a moment. Is I find that fascinating about how you began to achieve your dream. But you know, and you love being in the arena and the fans and where we sit in the center, you know, and you used to sit on the court and you do a lot on the road. You feel that pulsate through you.

That's something As a broadcaster, I know you're gonna be able to meet the moment, but that's what gives you. You the electricity, and you the energy that's really special, and for now that's not the case. But do you know what I mean, like over the years, I mean, you feel you can cut it with an ife, almost

the energy in the building. Well, and think of the players as well, how they feed off the fans Joel and Beat in particular Alan Iverson has used to back in the day or two thousand and one when they went to the finals. It's a it's an imperative, important component. Not only do the fans have to be there, but their supportive advertisers paying the ticket prices, doing whatever it is that they do. So listen for fans watching now you are sorely missed and we can't wait for the

day we can get your back in the building. So you're part of a broadcast crew and have been for years, and I know your partners have changed a little bit, but now with Allah and Serena all of you on the air, but JR. Quill and now Mike Kerman and Josh Schrager and Sean Alexiac overseas. I mean, and you guys have won so many awards. Your shelves are probably

full of mid Atlantic Emmys. But it's television like tapestry, Like I get to see your monitor, I watch the games because oftentimes, like Jr. Will the producer will give me a monitor to be able to watch the games even on the road, And I'm just amazed, Like it's almost like a film. Whereas, let's say it's Martin Luther King day and I try to bring I open. It's just my voice oftentimes and sometimes a sound bite, but I get the importance and the import of the day.

Whereas your opening and they've showed at the NBA broadcast meetings where it's best practices, it's unbelievable. Speak to that a little bit. Well, first, you're very kind to say all of that. And basically, Thomas, I look at you. You have to be everything. You have to convey the mood, if it's happy, if it's sad, if it's exciting, it's not exciting. Is the coach angry? Are you angry? Whereas

with us, I'm just a cog in a wheel. I guess, an important cog to that standpoint, but a cog in the wheel nonetheless, So I'm kind of the ringmaster or the host, if you will, And then it's my job to facilitate everyone. So bring I'll add an Abbey in for a comment, Bring Serena Winters into for a comment, go to our replay, go to a special effect, do whatever it is that the producer needs to be done.

There's a constant give and take with the director. I might be telling a story and he's got to show the pictures, or he shows a picture and I have to tell the story. I mean, you know you've done your share of TV to get all that, and I appreciate your opportunity to bring my insight to the fans. But I think the thing that is good with our group is we all leave our egos outside and we

try to bring a real team spirit to it. So while I might have a very high profile position and I'm no more important than a guy like Josh Schreger you mentioned him, our associate producer, who when Joel Embiid does something great and post numbers that are unprecedented, he's there with the research and brings it out and that's his time to shine. So it's just a team effort. I appreciate everything you have to say, but you know, I'm blessed to be able to work with the people

that I work with. Speaking of numbers and preparation and research, you do as much as anybody, and you've really like Grett Brown talks about his pregame routine and for home gaming, gets to the center and he works in the building all the way up until game time, from give or take nine or ten am, and you really put him

the time and you get to the building early. Talk about that preparation and as you say, you might only use ten or fifteen percent of it, but it's voluminous and it makes you comfortable, it makes you prepared, and it brings you to your television broadcast with the best preparation possible. Well, I'm going to bout some insight to

the fans and say this. You are encyclopedic. So when we're in the bus, or we're at the arena or just out the dinner or something like that, your recall of stories and facts and all of these things is just unbelievable. I don't have that luxury, so I literally have to bone up before every game and get all that stuff and marry it to my frontal lobe and hope that it stays there. But listen, it's all about preparation.

If you go on the air and you're not prepared, if you don't understand the stakes or the good players or the xs and o's or the personalities. Then you're not only doing a disservice to the fan, but it's like performing out of costume. You just don't fit with the show. So that's something that I was always taught by mentors the late grade. Gen Hard it was the

voice of the Flyers. He would carry around back in the day like a three inch thick notebook with past games and things that he could look up and that sort of thing. And when I listened to him and his ability to recall that stuff and the texture it added to the broadcast, it just, you know, became my thing as well. Let's go back. I believe it's say the spring of nineteen ninety four, the Sixers have just signed Scott Williams, who had been with the Chicago Bulls

for three championships. He's a six ten center. They signed him as a free agent. At that press conference helped me on if I'm not from wrong here, yeah, I know where you're going. Then owner Harold Katz signs up to next to you and informs you that you are going to be the TV voice of your hometown team, the Philadelphia seventy Sixers. What was that like? So you

just gave me chills recalling that moment. I just want to say to anybody who is watching, if there is any way then you could somehow make a dream come true, no matter how far fetched it is, go for it. And even if it doesn't happen exactly the way you plan, at least you gave it an effort, and you tried. The fact that I was in a nine year old kid, ten year old kid turning this sound down of the TV doing games into the tape recorder, and now doing the games. This whole thing has been an out of

body experience. So when I decide that I'm not doing it anymore and somebody taps you on the shoulder and says, you know, you're just did seventy six ers basketball and TV for the last however many years, I won't believe them. It's It's been that kind of experience for me. So I'm just grateful and really happy when I wake up in the morning that when I look at the ceiling, I say to beside, you know what, you're going to

go do a basketball game. And and that's a privilege and an honor and very special to be able to say that. Appropriate you look at the ceiling, because now you're right by the ceiling at the very top of the of the center. What so you practice, as you say, you probably maybe even on a real to reel. And I think back on it, and I used to take a tape recorder to games where I was. You know, I had like a TV pas because I used to be a television news guy. But I used to simulate

the broadcast, but i'd be in the arena. But you did it at home, off the TV and developed, you know, the early underpinnings, if you will, of your style. Tell me more about that. So now you're leading me into a story that I know you've heard no less than five thousand times, but I'll tell it any way to those who may not have heard it. That's exactly what I did. I would turn the sound down of the

TV and do games into a tape re quarter. And back in the day, it wasn't like it is now where you could turn on any one of a number of sports channels and find an event somewhere, even if it's a replay. So I would come home from say middle school or high school, and I had this desire to broadcast a game. So I would take the TV and put it on Channel eight. And back in the day we didn't have cable. We had over the air channels, and there was no Channel eight in Philadelphia. It was

just static that sounded like a crowd. So I would regulate the crowd, and I would sit next to the speaker and I would literally make up a game in my head. Here he goes Greedo Chamberlain, chamber on hook shot good, and I would crank up the sound and the static would be exactly like a crowd. So, in fact, I've told that story a lot now because various writers have interviewed me and they say, what's it going to

be like to do a game without a crowd? So here's the funny thing, and I say this about players all the time, that when you watch players in the NBA, while they've had formal training and AAU and college and high school and coaches and camps and everything else, a lot of what they do at its very core is stuff that they develop while they are playing in the parks in the playground. So it's kind of it's kind

of the same thing for me. A lot of times, I'll listen to myself and I'll remind myself of that fourteen year old from back in the day. That's cool now that may or may not have been a union violation. You're running your own board back then when you're a fourteen now. But that's true about a person's background because I often think of you know, Aaron McKee was a great finisher right around the basket, and maybe that was as he played in playgrounds in North Philadelphia or whatever,

like Sean Bradley grew up in Castledale, Utah. I don't know that he backed down a lot of people at seven six or whatever, you know, in the early ages and stages of his career, and that maybe shaped him as a pro. I'll give you one more thing while we're at it, World be Free. Always tell us a story about playing with the older kids, and that's why he had such a high arc on his jump shot.

We'll continue our conversation in a moment. In this time of social distancing, Novacare Rehabilitation is offering physical therapy from the comfort and safety of your home. Through their new tell A Rehab program. Novacare will virtually bring their services to you so you may heal, build strength, and get back to the things you love. Tell A rehab let you easily connect with one of Novocare's licensed therapists through web based technology that is Hippo compliant. For more information,

visit novacare dot com. Now back to my chat with Mark Zumov. So, one of the things I think your listeners and the listeners of our podcast here ll get a kick out of is you got when your career was starting and you went to Temple And I'd like to delve into that in a moment, But first, you guys were part of the Prism and Sports Channel crew

at what we call Room ten. It was in this spectrum and there's so many of you that are still friends today, John Slovakia, I mentioned j R. Quilla, Sean Alexei Ac, Larry Rosen was, don't know Paul Jalovich was in that room. But all of that it was a little room. No, I mean the Deck Uron is probably just as big on that event level of the spectrum. And how almost all of you have excelled and are still in the business a special deal that dates all

the way back twenty five thirty years ago. Tell me more about that Room ten is we've often joked that it should be a series on TV. It should be a sitcom. Because there was a small room at the spectrum. We were an adjunct to the events then, so we did between periods, We did halftime, pregame, postgame, that sort of thing. We did features and provided other information for the old Prism TV, the four Runners, NBC Sports Philadelphia, they had a commodation of movies and of course the

hometown sports. And we worked in an environment that while we were covering major market teams and broadcasting to a major market, it was no different Tom than you know, you working in one of the Panhandle cities that you worked in when you were coming from one. Yeah, but my point to you is, I don't know if it was Pensacola, what was it. It was Panama City. It

was Panama City. Okay, all right, but but but my point to you is we had small market conditions where equipment didn't work, and we got paid very little and that sort of thing. But being thrown together in this little room, I think kind of bonded us and gave us a really good work ethic. So John slovakians a vice president of NBC Sports Regional Networks, and Sear Lexiyak, who was also my intern, is now my boss, Jeff Hallickman is the producer for Philly's Baseball, and the list

goes on. So we're really proud of it. It's nice to bring it up, and I'm it dredged up some good memories being able to just talk about it well and the late Tony Irving. You guys did a lot of work together, and you know the speak of those cameras. You might drive up to Boston to interview Larry Bird at Hill Senate College and on the way back go to the garden and go into the locker room of the Lakers. I mean today, certainly there would be some

for planning. You could accomplish some interviews, but not like back then where you're going, you know, interview Larry Bird in the afternoon and the next day see or that nice see Magic Johnson? Those are that those were your salad days. That was a pretty good appetizer. You're absolutely right. The accessibility was a lot different, and I understand why they're not as accessible now because the Internet, because there

are so many different media outlets. There are legitimate ones, there are pretenders, there are people who are clamoring for their time, and because of that, they need people to I don't want to say shield them, but certainly sift through the legitimate requests and the ones that aren't so legitimate. But yeah, back then it was great. And Tony was an African American God Rest his soul from North Philly,

and he taught me the game. And I have to admit that because I was with him interacting with other African Americans, he helped to open that door. So we would settle up to Magic Johnson and he would talk the talk, and then the next thing you know, Magic Johnson is telling us about the Robert Hall suit that he wore from the time he was twelve until the time he was sixteen. So you know, I have a lot of gratitude for Tony for showing me those ropes,

and yeah, they were great times. That taught me the game, and that I think has what enabled me to cover the game as I do now. Tony had a swagger. He wasn't ready to go in there and ask somebody where. Sometimes I might be like two polite or whatever, but I want to get the Temple and you're a proud Owl alum and Temple University and we just lost Luke Lein a year or two ago. But and we've been there.

You got the Luke Clein Award where you got into the Temple Hall of Fame for that, as well as some of the people we've already spoke of Sean and whatnot. And I've gone there, and when you see some of the people that went to school there, I mean, right here in Philadelphia. What an incredible training ground to get experience in a market this size at a school like that, the Luke Clin School of Journalism Communications, What a neat thing that is. I think it's easy to say that.

I would say this when you look at some of the other schools as well, Syracuse, Ball State, Indiana University, those other schools that have supplied a lot of people in our business. It's probably a combination of great faculty, great facilities, great curriculum, and if you have one or two notable graduates, like you look back at Syracuse and you have Marv Albert, or you have Marty Glickman I believe was at Fordham, and then you know Mike Breen went there. So I think that what happens is it

kind of feeds upon itself. I'm not sure what comes first, the chicken or the egg, but the fact that you have one or two notable graduates, I think is an attraction, along with the fact that Temple just does a great job training and graduating prospective broadcasters. And speaking of prospective broadcasters, college students, young people in the business. You've taken to mentoring and actually helped evolve that into a business. You've

helped dozens and dozens of young broadcasters. Mark tell us more about that. Yes, I don't do it anymore as a business. I stopped it a couple of years ago, but it's something that I really enjoy. I often refer to the late physicist Richard Feynman who had a saying that I've allowed to become one of my credos, and

that is when one teaches to learn. So when I can take an aspiring broadcaster under my wing, it helps me to either learn new things because they can teach me, or it reinforces things that I may have taken for granted. So it's very gratifying. I enjoy it. My door is always open and anybody who can find me and find my website and find my address is welcome to get in touch with me. The Sixers staff has grown so much over the years as has many of the staffs

around the NBA with basketball operations and player development. But when you first started, John Lucas was the coach, and this happened when I was there too. But so your first year, five six Ers go out west and oftentimes you would go right to the practice facility and if this is how it unfolded or if it isn't, helped me out. But you guys are like in Portland, and John Lucas has yourself out there. Your director at the time on the TV side was franked even sent this.

He had called point boots and big buckle and you were rebounding for the Sixers. That doesn't happen anymore. So, Luke, I guess in that respect was family and was bent on innovating. But I'll give you a couple of other quick stories. One in particular that I remember, and this was highly unusual and today it would be totally forbidden, was that I would go to shootarounds the morning of

a game. You know, for those who are uninitiated, a formal or an informal practice last about forty five minutes, and this would be at the spectrum and before they would go out and go through the other team's plays. They would gather inside the locker room to review video of that night's opponent. So one night I was in the locker room and I was or oneing. I was in the locker room talking to some players, and Luke

came in getting ready to start this film session. And I started to leave, and Luke pointed to me and said, zoom off, you stay. And I proceeded to sit there with the players viewing video, and you know, I didn't know what to do. I felt like just kind of crawling out of my skin or faking my own death because I'm looking at the players and they're looking at me, and it's like I was such an interloper and it felt so inappropriate. But you know, this is kind of

what Luke was about. He was about family and having no secrets if you were in the inner circle, that kind of thing. So listen were those were interesting times? And Mac, I know you had the second of Luke's two years in Philly, and I think if you and I put our heads together and wrote a book, we'd have to change the names, and then we would need the witness Protection program. All right, So the season's about

the resume. There are eight what they're calling seating games, the first of which Saturday this coming weekend against Indiana. What do you think are the Sixers chances? Do you think they'll move up? You'll think they'll play Miami, Like, what do you deal? What do you think is going to happen in the next couple of weeks. So one thing the Sixers have in their favor is the fact that they have the second easiest schedule behind New Orleans,

so that would help. I think that the next eight games are more about Brett Brown making sure he gets guys in playoff type shape, flush out this new starting lineup with shake Milton, ensure his rotations, see what he has going on at the wing position, because right now that's rather crowded, and make sure that his team is ready for that next level of basketball. Yes, they will certainly try to win, They're hardwired to do that. But is there any prize at the end of that rainbow?

Is their home court advantage? I think the one thing they may want to try to avoid is the fact that if you do move up, let's say you're five or four. Now you're in the Milwaukee bracket, and assuming they beat the eight team, which is a fad, a complete You're facing them in the second round as opposed

to the conference finals. So you know, is there a situation, say, where you know you're down eight with two minutes to go, do you arrest Joel Embiid for those two minutes or do you send them in there trying to trying to win the game. You know, you might be faced with those kinds of decisions, but I really think that that's the mandate for this team and the coaches and the players look ahead to the playoffs and be the best you can be by the time they roll around. Well,

you're the best Zo will be. Thank you so much, enjoying the broadcast and the rest of the season, and thank you for your time today. Mac, You're the best of what you do. Thank you thanks for listening to Tom's talks with me Tom McGinnis on the seventy six ers podcast network. Check for new episodes every weekend.