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Remember Longtime NBA Announcer Jim Durham With His Calls Of Two Of Michael Jordan’s Greatest Moments

by Glenn Davis | 4:33 pm, November 5th, 2012

Jim Durham, who spent years as a play-by-play announcer for the Bulls and later doing NBA games on ESPN Radio, died over the weekend at 65. No cause of death was announced. Durham served as Bulls play-by-play man from 1973 to 1991, served the Dallas Mavericks in the same capacity after that, and called games for ESPN Radio for over 15 years.

I won’t pretend to be a huge expert on the work of Jim Durham or act like I knew him personally, but what I will say is that when you have this many people mourning your loss and universally saying good things about you, there’s a very high probability you were a good person, and good at what you did.

And what I can also say for sure is that he got to call some classic moments (though to hear others say it, he managed to make pretty much everything sound important).

Durham also got to call another famous shot from earlier in Jordan’s career. He wasn’t quite as stoic for this one (nor was his broadcast partner, for that matter). Durham’s call begins at the 20-second mark:

[SB Nation]

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ChiTownGone

I’m saddened to hear of the passing of Jim Durham. I lived and worked in the Chicago area when he was calling Bulls games, and his radio work was a treat to listen to. His calls were skillfully detailed (so necessary — and appreciated — on radio), and I especially remember one instance of his verbal painting of action under the hoop: “Tip again, no; tip again, no; tip again, YES!” I don’t remember a lot of dead air with Durham, who also wasn’t afraid to offer sometimes critical commentary on what he was seeing. He’s an icon as far as I’m concerned.
Lucas Sheiner

really nice moment at Bulls game when they showed an honorary video about Durham http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCjmHiDwKMQ&feature=plcp