By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2024-08-21 09:45:01
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
2021年11月22日，比尔·兰德(Bill Land)在AT&T中心。（摄影：托尼·加西亚/圣安东尼奥马刺队）
噢，妈妈！长期担任马刺队电视直播解说员的比尔·兰德(Bill Land)将告别他的麦克风。
球队于周三宣布，72岁的兰德将在解说了21个赛季的马刺队比赛后退休。
兰德被诊断出患有多发性骨髓瘤，这是一种罕见的血癌，将近一年后，他做出了这个决定。上个赛季，兰德在接受疾病治疗的同时，工作时间有限，但他表示，健康因素只是他退休的一个次要原因。
“我现在感觉真的很好，”兰德说。
二十多年来，兰德的声音为马刺队的许多难忘时刻提供了背景音乐，尤其是在蒂姆·邓肯、托尼·帕克和马努·吉诺比利带领球队打进2013年和2014年NBA总决赛期间。
他的标志性口头禅——“噢，妈妈！”——已经成为一种号角，预示着球场上身穿银黑色球衣的球员们一切顺利。在上个赛季维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)的第一个赛季，这句话的改版也同样适用（“噢，妈妈！是文班(Wemby)！”）。
的确，整整一代球迷无法想象没有他的马刺队比赛是什么样子。
兰德于1974年在威斯康星州拉克罗斯的WXOW电视台开始了他的广播生涯，并于1990年作为家庭体育娱乐公司的替补播音员加入了马刺队的广播团队。他在2003年获得了更重要的广播角色，并于2008年与色彩分析师肖恩·埃利奥特(Sean Elliott)一起被任命为首席解说员。
兰德和埃利奥特一起成为了联盟中最持久的广播二人组之一。
“我感到非常幸运，能够和联盟中最好的制作团队以及NBA最好的分析师肖恩·埃利奥特一起从事这份梦想中的工作，”兰德说。“当我进入人生的第四个阶段时，我要感谢所有人，尤其是马刺队的球迷们，感谢他们多年来，尤其是过去一年在我与癌症作斗争时给予我的巨大支持。”
2021年10月26日，肖恩·埃利奥特和比尔·兰德在AT&T中心。（摄影：托尼·加西亚/圣安东尼奥马刺队）
兰德出生于伊利诺伊州迪卡尔布，2021年入选南伊利诺伊-爱德华兹维尔名人堂。2020年，他因报道马刺队从COVID-19疫情中回归而获得了孤星艾美奖。
兰德说，甚至在去年被诊断出患有癌症之前，他就一直在考虑结束自己长达50年的广播生涯。在得到消息后，他决定再试一个赛季，希望这项工作能让他从健康问题中分心。
当兰德在夏天开始展望治疗计划的下一步时，退休的想法再次浮现在他的脑海中。
“你知道他们怎么说，”兰德说。“当你开始考虑退休的时候，可能就是时候退休了。”
然而，弗罗斯特银行中心并没有最后一次看到兰德的身影。马刺队计划在10月26日对阵休斯顿火箭队的常规赛主场揭幕战上表彰他和他的杰出职业生涯。
兰德的离开肯定会让人感到不舍，无论是在马刺队的转播车里，还是在球迷们的客厅里。马刺队还没有宣布关于谁将接替兰德在下个赛季解说的计划，不过接替者的面试正在进行中。
无论谁得到这份工作，都将任重道远。
“比尔一直是马刺队大家庭的核心成员，不仅对我们来说，对每个赛季都听他解说的球迷来说也是如此，”马刺体育与娱乐公司广播高级总监迈克·基奇里洛(Mike Kickirillo)说。“我们将永远感谢他为我们的球队和球迷奉献了20多年，并将深深怀念他的声音。”
最重要的是，兰德说，他在与多发性骨髓瘤的斗争中情况良好，这是一种被认为无法治愈但可以高度治疗的疾病。
兰德在6月份接受了干细胞移植手术，并表示手术对他日后的康复产生了积极的影响。如果在本周与医生的后续预约中一切顺利，他预计将被批准接受低强度的维持治疗方案。
兰德说，他很感谢他在德克萨斯肿瘤医院的医生团队（梅丽莎·克劳利(Melissa Crawley)医生）和卫理公会医院（杰西·卡洛斯·克鲁兹(Jesse Carlos Cruz)医生）。他还特别感谢了他的妻子盖尔(Gayle)以及儿子泰勒(Taylor)和库珀(Cooper)，因为他们在上个赛季有时可能会很繁重的治疗计划中一直支持着他。
“我无法用言语表达我对他们以及他们所给予的支持的感激之情，”兰德说。
兰德说，他和盖尔将继续留在圣安东尼奥地区，并计划在退休后去旅行、打高尔夫球，以及为心爱的芝加哥小熊队目前的状况感到惋惜（排名不分先后）。
“我很享受能够在任何我想做的时候做任何我想做的事情，”兰德说。
然而，这将是50年来他第一次不用坐在某个地方的记者席后面对着麦克风。对于一个血液里流淌着体育广播的人来说，未来没有比赛可解说的想法是苦乐参半的。
随着职业生涯的结束，兰德最近回顾了这一切的开始。1974年5月，他是威斯康星州一个小镇上的一人体育部门，年仅22岁，周薪120美元。
他觉得自己成功了。
在他新工作的第一个星期，兰德的父母从伊利诺伊州开车来看望他。他们看着他们年轻的儿子不仅播报了当晚的体育节目，还忙着处理其他必要的工作，以确保节目按计划进行。
在一片混乱之后，兰德的父亲埃米特(Emmette)带着一个真诚的问题走近他。
“儿子，”他说，“你觉得你能靠这个谋生吗？”
他的父亲并没有评判儿子的职业选择，只是好奇这一切是如何运作的。
现在回想起来，兰德不禁笑了起来。
“我想我至少会尽可能长时间地做下去，如果我不得不去找一份真正的工作，我就会去，”兰德说。“我很幸运，我从来没有去过一份真正的工作。”
马刺队解说员比尔·兰德（前）和丹·维斯(Dan Weiss)在AT&T中心的移动转播台上工作。
*德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥市 - 11月3日：2012年11月3日，犹他爵士队对阵圣安东尼奥马刺队，比赛在德克萨斯州圣安东尼奥市的AT&T中心举行。强制版权声明：版权所有2012 NBAE（照片由D·克拉克·埃文斯/NBAE通过盖蒂图片社提供）*当地标题 **
2021年10月26日，比尔·兰德在AT&T中心。（摄影：托尼·加西亚/圣安东尼奥马刺队）
2023年1月13日星期五，圣安东尼奥马刺队在阿拉莫穹顶球馆迎来了68,323名观众，创造了NBA单场观众人数纪录，这是自2002年以来，该队首次在穹顶球馆举办“重返穹顶”50周年纪念派对，并迎战金州勇士队。前马刺队后卫埃弗里·约翰逊(Avery Johnson)、肖恩·埃利奥特和比尔·兰德担任现场解说。（摄影：托尼·加西亚/圣安东尼奥马刺队）
马刺队解说员比尔·兰德在AT&T中心的移动转播车内工作。马刺队与俄克拉荷马城雷霆队进行了一场客场比赛，由于圣安东尼奥竞技表演占据了转播团队在AT&T中心的常规位置，因此球队在竞技表演观众中，从外部的电视转播车中制作了这场比赛。
马刺队解说员比尔·兰德在AT&T中心的移动转播车外做最后的笔记。马刺队与俄克拉荷马城雷霆队进行了一场客场比赛，由于圣安东尼奥竞技表演占据了转播团队在AT&T中心的常规位置，因此球队在竞技表演观众中，从外部的电视转播车中制作了这场比赛。
点击查看原文：Spurs' broadcaster Bill Land announces retirement
Spurs’ broadcaster Bill Land announces retirement
San Antonio Spurs Bill Land at the AT&T Center on November 22, 2021 (Photo by Tony Garcia/San Antonio Spurs)
Oh Mama! Longtime Spurs television play-by-play voice Bill Land is hanging up his microphone.
Land, 72, is set to retire after 21 seasons of broadcasting Spurs games, the team announced Wednesday.
The decision comes nearly a year after Land was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer. Land worked a limited schedule last season while undergoing treatment for the disease, but says health played only a minor role in his retirement.
“I am actually feeling really well right now,” Land said.
For more than two decades, Land’s voice provided the soundtrack for so many memorable Spurs moments, particularly during the Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili-led runs to the NBA Finals in 2013 and 2014.
His signature catchphrase – “Oh Mama!” – became a clarion call heralding something gone right for the silver-and-black clad players on the floor. A modified version of that exhortation translated well to the first year of the Victor Wembanyama era last season (“Oh Mama, Wembanyama!”).
Indeed, there is an entire generation of fans who cannot imagine a season of Spurs games without him.
Having began his broadcasting career in 1974 with WXOW-TV in La Crosse, Wisc., Land joined the Spurs broadcast team as a fill-in announcer with Home Sports Entertainment in 1990. He gained a more prominent role on the broadcast in 2003 before being named lead play-by-play announcer alongside color analyst Sean Elliott in 2008.
Together, Land and Elliott emerged as one of the league’s most enduring broadcast duos.
“I feel truly blessed to have had a dream job with the best production crew in the league and the best analyst in the NBA, Sean Elliott,” Land said. “As I move into the fourth quarter of my life, I want to thank everyone, especially Spurs fans, for their incredible support over the years and especially this past year as I have battled cancer.”
Sean Elliott and Bill Land at the AT&T Center on October 26, 2021. (Photo by Tony Garcia/San Antonio Spurs)
A DeKalb, Ill., native, Land was inducted into the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2020, he won a Lone Star Emmy for his work broadcasting the Spurs’ return from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Land says he was considering calling an end to a five-decade career in broadcasting even before his cancer diagnosis last year. After receiving the news, he decided to try to complete one more season, hoping the work would provide a distraction from his health issues.
The idea of retiring entered Land’s mind again his summer as he began to look ahead to the next steps in his treatment plan.
“You know what they say,” Land said. “When you’re thinking about retirement, it’s probably time to retire.”
The Frost Bank Center has not seen the last of Land, however. The Spurs plan to honor him and his distinguished career at the regular-season home opener Oct. 26 against the Houston Rockets.
Land’s departure is sure to be felt, both in the Spurs’ broadcast truck and in fans’ living rooms. The Spurs have not announced plans regarding who might take over for Land during the upcoming season, though interviews for a replacement are underway.
Whoever gets the job will have significant shoes to fill.
“Bill has been a core member of the Spurs family, not only for us but for fans who listen to him each season,” said Mike Kickirillo, Senior Director of Broadcasting for Spurs Sports & Entertainment. “We’ll be forever grateful to him for bringing over 20 years of dedication to our team and fans, and will miss his voice dearly.”
On the most important note of all, Land says he is doing well in his fight against multiple myeloma, a disease that is considered incurable but highly treatable.
Land underwent a stem cell transplant in June and says the procedure has positively affected his prognosis. If all goes well in a follow-up appointment with his doctors this week, he expects to be cleared for a lower-intensity maintenance therapy program.
Land says he is grateful to his team of doctors at Texas Oncology (Dr. Melissa Crawley) and Methodist Hospital (Dr. Jesse Carlos Cruz). He saved a helping of appreciation for his wife, Gayle, and sons Taylor and Cooper as they supported him throughout what could at times be a taxing treatment plan throughout last season.
“I don’t have the words to express my gratitude for them and their support,” Land said.
Land says he and Gayle will remain in the San Antonio area, and plans to spend his retirement traveling, golfing and bemoaning the state of his beloved Chicago Cubs (in some order).
“I am enjoying being able to do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it,” Land said.
For the first time in 50 years, however, that will not involve sitting behind a microphone on press row somewhere. For a man with sports broadcasting in his blood, the idea of a future without the next game to call is bittersweet.
With the end of his career in sight, Land recently reflected back to when it began. In May of 1974, he was a one-man sports department in small-town Wisconsin, 22 years old and making $120 a week.
He thought he had it made.
On one of his first weeks at his new job, Land’s parents drove up from Illinois to check in on him. They watched their fresh-faced son not only deliver that night’s sports broadcast, but also scramble with the other tasks required to ensure the show went off as planned.
After the bedlam was over, Land’s father Emmette approached him with a sincere question.
“Son,” he said, “do you think you can make a living doing this?”
His father wasn’t judging his son’s career choice, only curious about how it all worked.
Land chuckles at the memory now.
“I thought I’d at least do it for as long as I could, and then if I had to go get a real job I would,” Land said. “Lucky for me, I never had to go get a real job.”
Spurs Announcers Bill Land, front, and Dan Weiss work from the broadcast team’s the mobile broadcast set-up at the AT&T Center.
*SAN ANTONIO, TX - NOVEMBER 3: Utah Jazz v San Antonio Spurs on November 3, 2012 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2012 NBAE (Photos by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images) *** Local Caption ****
Bill Land at the AT&T Center on October 26, 2021. (Photo by Tony Garcia/San Antonio Spurs)
The San Antonio Spurs set a single-game N.B.A. attendance record by welcoming a crowd of 68,323 on Friday, January 13, 2023 at the Alamodome for a Record-Breaking 50th Anniversary Party “Back Home in the Dome” for the first time since 2002 as they hosted the Golden State Warriors. Former Spurs guard Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott and Bill Land play-by-play broadcasters. (Photo by Tony Garcia/San Antonio Spurs)
Spurs Announcer Bill Land works on from inside the mobile broadcast set-up at the AT&T Center. The Spurs played an away game against Oklahoma City Thunder and while the San Antonio Rodeo occupied the broadcast team’s regular spots in the AT&T Center, the team produced the game from outside in TV trucks amid rodeo-goers.
Spurs Announcer Bill Land works on last minute notes outside the mobile broadcast set-up at the AT&T Center. The Spurs played an away game against Oklahoma City Thunder and while the San Antonio Rodeo occupied the broadcast team’s regular spots in the AT&T Center, the team produced the game from outside in TV trucks amid rodeo-goers.
By Jeff McDonald, Staff Writer, via San Antonio Express-News