Longtime Heat PA announcer Michael Baiamonte nearing retirement: ‘The reality is hitting home’
.JPG "Michael Baiamonte, voice of the Miami Heat, and second-longest serving NBA In-Arena Announcer is set to retire after 35 Years with the team. Baiamonte is seen at courtside during the NBA basketball game between the against the Miami Heat and the New York Knicks at Kaseya Center in Miami on October 26, 2025.")
When longtime Miami Heat public address announcer Michael Baiamonte informed the organization in August of his plans to retire at the close of this season, the end still seemed far away.
But with only a few regular-season home games left and a playoff berth not yet guaranteed for the Heat, the end is near for Baiamonte.
“The reality is hitting home that after 35 amazing seasons, we’re coming to the very end of what I’m super proud of as just an amazing career,” Baiamonte said.
Baiamonte will soon enter retirement after an iconic 35-season run as the Heat’s PA announcer. The Heat will celebrate Baiamonte and his booming voice by holding “Mike B Celebration Night,” which will include tributes throughout the game and a halftime gift presentation ceremony during Saturday’s matchup against the Washington Wizards at Kaseya Center (3 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun and WPLG Local 10).
Baiamonte has announced more than 1,500 professional basketball games, including six NBA Finals. He has also been the Heat’s in-arena voice for all three of its NBA championships in 2006, 2012 and 2013.
“He has been more than just the voice of the Heat,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And I kid him all the time, I’m still trying to convince him to stay. I hope it becomes a movement. He’s too young to retire and move on. But he’s also earned that right. Just an amazing guy and an iconic voice that I think everybody around the league recognizes his calls, all of that stuff. There are only a handful of organizations where you have that iconic voice.”
Making the decision to step away from the role he has become known for around South Florida and the NBA wasn’t an easy one, but it’s a decision Baiamonte contemplated for a year before settling on retirement.
“At the start of last season, I really gave it some serious thought,” said Baiamonte, who will turn 63 in July and is the second-longest tenured PA announcer in the NBA. “And I said, let me take all of last season, my 34th, and let me look at that and kind of confirm or deny my thoughts that, yeah, I was ready to retire. And so, as I went through last year, I’m asking myself these questions. ‘Are you sure? What do you think? Are you still feeling the same way?’ And everything came back supporting my decision.”
The fact that Baiamonte’s three daughters don’t live in South Florida and he just became a grandfather only added to his list of reasons to retire at the end of this season.
“My wife and I recently became grandparents for the first time,” Baiamonte said. “Our kids live all around the country. They’ve established great careers now. And so, South Florida is not in the cards for them. And I never really get a chance to see them as much as I want. And as I like to tell people, I’m ready after 35 seasons to do what I want, when I want, not when the schedule says I can or I can’t.”
While Baiamonte said he hasn’t “seriously reconsidered” his decision to retire at the end of the season, he has been reminded of the joys of the job this season.
The NBA honored Baiamonte’s long career by inviting him to serve as the PA announcer for All-Star Saturday Night at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles in mid-February. The league also had Baiamonte announce his well-known “Dos Minutos” call at the two-minute mark of every contest during the NBA All-Star Game’s tournament.
Baiamonte was also on the Kaseya Center microphone for one of the most memorable performances in NBA history this season, when Heat center Bam Adebayo turned in the second-highest scoring performance in league history by totaling 83 points in a March 10 home win over the Wizards.
“Never in a million years did I have on my bingo card that I was going to announce a game where a guy scored the second-most points in the history of the NBA — Bam Adebayo’s 83 points,” Baiamonte said. “I’m saying to myself, ‘Wow, this is just icing on the cake.’
“It was phenomenal. I joked, boy, the team really pulled out everything they could to try to change my mind.”
Baiamonte pointed to Adebayo’s 83-point night as “the biggest regular season game in my 35 years.”
But Baiamonte singled out Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 2006 NBA Finals that led to the Heat’s first championship “when Dwyane Wade became the greatest player on planet earth” as the most memorable games of his time as the team’s PA announcer. He also labeled Ray Allen’s clutch corner three-pointer in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals that the Heat went on to win for its third title as the “biggest single shot that I’ve ever announced in my career.”
What makes Baiamonte’s connection with South Florida especially special is that he grew up in the area after moving to Miami as a 9-year-old. He attended Gulliver Prep, developing an interest in basketball and announcing at a young age.
“I went to high school here in Miami. I went to college here in Miami,” Baiamonte said. “I’ve been in this town since I moved here as a 9-year-old kid. So it’s my life. It’s what I know. It’s who I am. It’s what has formed and shaped me. And for what this community in South Florida, Heat fans, just the community in general, how they have accepted me as either their team’s voice or a voice in the community has been incredible.”
Baiamonte’s first season as the Heat’s full-time PA announcer came in 1991-92 after serving as the team’s fill-in PA announcer for a game on Feb. 21, 1990.
But even after becoming the Heat’s full-time PA announcer in 1991, Baiamonte also worked for an insurance company until making PA announcing his only job in 1999.
“It just got to the point where there was so much being asked of me by the Heat organization,” Baiamonte said of leaving insurance to focus on his job with the Heat. “And I was starting to get freelance work because of my relationship with the Heat organization that I sat down with my wife and said, ‘Hey, you think maybe I can make a run at this voice thing full-time and step away from corporate world and see how it goes?’ And she was awesome. She said, ‘I know if you don’t at least try it, you’ll regret it the rest of your life. So give it a shot.’ I left corporate America in 1999, and I’ve never looked back.”
At some point in the coming days, Baiamonte will make his signature calls of “Dos minutos” and “Stand up and make some noise!” for the final time.
And at some point next season, Baiamonte will attend a Heat home game as a fan for the first time in three decades while another PA announcer serves as the voice at Kaseya Center.
“I’m sure it’s going to be strange sitting at home for home games next year, listening to the new voice of the Miami Heat doing their work for the team,” Baiamonte admitted. “Because for 35 years, it’s been me doing that. Now what will be even more unusual is when I’m in the Kaseya Center, which we’re going to go to some games. I mean, we’re going to be there.
“And sitting there while I’m not announcing, I’m sure it will be a very strange thing for me because my world is watching a game unlike a fan. And so what’s it going to be like to sit there and just watch everything and not have to worry about, OK, who scored, who assisted, who’s the foul on, what’s coming up during this timeout. It’s just going to be an unusual, unusual experience.”
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The Heat will pick Baiamonte’s replacement ahead of next season. Auditions to become the Heat’s new PA announcer have already begun, and the opening continues to draw plenty of interest locally and nationally.
What is Baiamonte’s advice for the Heat’s next PA announcer?
“The biggest thing would be, be yourself,” he said. “I don’t think that the team is looking for anybody to come in and try to copy anything that we’ve done or, or try to sound like anything that we’ve done. Just be yourself. Let those expressions happen naturally.
“Heat games started to sound different 35 seasons ago when I started. They sounded different than they did for the first three years, and the fans accepted it. And it’s been a great run, and so they will accept it. They will. It’s going to sound different. There is going to be a transition, but I think we’ll be able to get through it. And whoever our next voice is, I think they’re going to get shown the same love that I did.”
Baiamonte will be among those to show his replacement love. But from afar, as he enjoys retirement.
“I really feel like this is the right time for me to be doing it,” Baiamonte said of stepping away from his role with the Heat. “I’m still young, but still able to enjoy life. That’s what my wife and I have been talking about. Hey, if we do this, we want to be able to enjoy it. And so that’s one of the reasons why, even though we are still relatively what I like to call in the youth of our senior years, we still are able to go and do things and we’ll be able to see the kids and travel a lot more.”
