Mavs fan with a mic: Meet the in-house voice of the Dallas Mavericks for 15 seasons
DALLAS — You may not know his name, but if you've been to a Dallas Mavericks game, you know his voice.
Sean Heath has been the in-house voice of the Mavs for 15 seasons. Win or lose Wednesday, he hopes fans will be rowdy, proud and loud.
Luck is not lost on Sean Heath. He knows his gig is what many would consider to be a dream job.
"I have the best seat in the building," Heath, the Public Address Announcer for the Mavs, said. "I get to sit right here and watch my team, my guys, do the thing that I love the most, which is NBA basketball."
He does more than watch. He's the man behind the microphone, charged with setting the tone in the arena.
"I always feel that my responsibility is to try and help change the energy, change the vibe a little bit, if I can, to either calm everybody down or crank everybody up," he said.
Heath considers himself a regular fan and said his chants and cheers would be the same regardless of where he's sitting.
"I just happen to be the Mavs fan who has the microphone."
He knows that Wednesday night will bring a special responsibility: hyping up and keeping control of an NBA Finals crowd with their team down 2-0.
"I'm not going to panic, because number one, that doesn't help anybody," he said. "But, number two, if you can hear panic or fear in my voice and it's coming through this building, everybody's going to feel that. And that's going to change the vibe in this building."
He said he has faith the Mavs will pull off the final victory. And, until then, he plans to make the Celtics' path as challenging as possible.
"It's our house. It's our building. Let's make some noise. Let's make it difficult in whatever small part that we can for the opposing team. Let's not make it easy for them," he said. "I don't generally wish for time to pass quickly, because I'm not in a hurry for time to pass, but man, I wish it was Wednesday already."