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Fred McLeod, play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

(Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If you think announcing NBA games well means just turning on a microphone and yukking it up with a sidekick, you'd be as wrong as an air ball in the fourth quarter.

For starters, you'd better love homework -- I mean, really, truly embrace it. Forget hobbies. Forget down time. It's about gaining a lot of knowledge ahead of time, long before a camera is turned on. Announcing games intelligently means preparing.

Fred McLeod overprepares.

"I've been overprepared all my life," McLeod said. "I'm a storyteller, I love features. I'm not a stats guy. I want to make people smile. People are not going to remember the pick and roll from the other night; they're going to remember (a player's) drawstring falling out in high school. It's those kind of things that people remember and chuckle about, how Kyrie Irving learned to spin the ball off the backboard."

McLeod lives basketball. The stories he tells during telecasts don't just materialize. That means the Cavaliers play-by-play man must devote 20-to-25 hours per game to watching films and taking meticulous notes, adding to a database that yields color-coordinated, highlighted pages of biographical and statistical information.

"My philosophy is I never want to be ill-prepared for a moment. Whether it's a stoppage in play or whatever it could be -- an injury, an incident may come into play -- I can back it up with a story."

That mindset started years ago. The Strongsville native played baseball at Point Park College, with a cut fastball being his best pitch.

"My teammates hated it. I'd break bats," he said.

But deep inside there was a love of basketball. He adopted the St. Louis Hawks as his team, since Cleveland didn't have one when he was growing up. Baseball didn't materialize but announcing did, and it was what he called an "early baptism by fire" that made him realize the importance of preparation.

"The first Indians game I did in 1979, we had a four-hour rain delay," he said. "We didn't (cut to show) a movie, but I was so well-prepared."

Without that preparation, "you'd freak out."

McLeod doesn't freak out. He spent more than two decades behind the microphone doing Detroit Pistons games before moving home to Northeast Ohio to broadcast Cavs games, which he has been doing since the 2006-07 season. Over three decades of announcing, his attendance rate rivals his work ethic. He missed a game when his father died a year ago, and an exhibition game for his son's wedding.

Listening to McLeod, a fan hears the basics -- you always know what the score is and how much time remains. But he brings an energy, punctuating great plays with a rising, excited voice. He leaves most of the catch phrases to his broadcasting partner Austin Carr.

Jarrett Jack teardrop – SCORES! Little flotation device ...

Fred McLeod keeps a detailed, organized database on players throughout the league. As he finds more information on a player, he adds to the database.

Before games

Unlike a game, constrained by clocks -- quarters, shots, final buzzers -- McLeod doesn't have a beginning or an ending to his studying.

He goes over details with Fox Sports Ohio producers in a conference call in the morning. He watches film on his iPad while working out on an elliptical machine for 45 minutes, part of a strength-and-cardio routine he adheres to religiously, at home and on the road.

"You'll always pick up something," he said of watching film. "Seeing it is so key. So-and-so hits a shot, he hit the same thing last night. Its overpreparing."

He scours newspaper feeds online, "looking for quotes and for stories. Not perspective -- quotes." He keeps detailed track of injury histories. If the Cavs are traveling, he brushes up on the opponent two days before the game. He estimates he devotes an hour and a half of reading per month for each team.

"I'm looking for those nuggets," he said.

He gleans NBA news into a cumulative outline, highlights items, then goes back over everything. He wants to know the tendencies of the league's players, and there can be 350 or so players with all the roster moves throughout a year.

"If a guy catches a ball -- what side does he catch it on?" he asked.

It's through this routine that he picks up gems to share. Like knowing that Luol Deng, who the Cavs acquired in January, worked to get Sudanese people to the voting polls in the United States during a vote on independence a few years ago. Or how Deng watched videos of Grant Hill to learn how to play. Or asking Columbus native Trey Burke the origin of his first name (nickname for his order of progeny). Or how a certain player butted heads with Larry Brown years ago but now gets along famously with him.

"It's the extra mile to find stories," he said. "You want to leave people saying 'That's cool, I didn't know that.' "

That extra mile is noticed by announcers. "I can tell when a guy does intense work," McLeod said, citing his Cleveland baseball counterpart on radio, Tom Hamilton, as someone who shows up always ready.

And then there's watching practice. For a spectator, there is nothing more mundane than a collection of drills. McLeod attends Cavs practices as religiously as he works out. It's all part of homework.

Want to be a broadcaster but don't like studying? Find another field.

Thompson harassed, goes to work, Jarrett Jack -- another teardrop!

During games

Game day begins "as soon as I get up. It doesn't stop -- 9 a.m. until midnight, easily," he said.

"I'm a stickler for pronunciation. It cuts to the core of your credibility if you mispronounce. Same with knowing rules." McLeod even spearheaded an NBA 'rules for dummies' primer he shares with colleagues.

While McLeod's attention is almost a single-minded focus on preparation before a game, his approach changes with tipoff. When the ball goes in the air, he is consumed by communication and chemistry.

Constant communication with staffers in the production truck is key, he said. If he has an anecdote about an opposing player, he has to let them know, and quickly, during breaks. "Give me a shot with Chauncey Billups, and I can talk about him," he'll say.

Fred McLeod and Austin Carr, at a recent Cavs game.

McLeod finds time to Tweet during games. That connection to his almost 12,000 followers comes at a price.

"I have to ask producers to repeat things coming out of breaks because of Twitter," he said. "But I enjoy connecting with fans. You have to evolve in this business. It's pretty powerful."

What he hears is as important as what he sees. "You've got to listen to each other. It's something you develop. It's multi-tasking. I'm doing a game and listening to AC."

McLeod said part of his job is to build off what Carr -- who played in the NBA for a decade -- is saying and weave a similar thread.

"It becomes a kind of a conversation slash entertainment for two and half hours."

Deng needs to find the range -- GOT IT FROM THREE! Mirror image of three balls from Deng!

After games

When a game ends, he heads to the locker room. He's asking questions there alongside beat writers and broadcast counterparts in the media. Much of what McLeod culls in the lockers winds up on cavs.com.

"I like to be in the locker room, I want guys to see me there. If the guys see me putting in the work, it's an unspoken respect. They know you're putting in the work every day."

McLeod will run from courtside to post-game interviews to the airport if the Cavs are leaving for another city. And the work continues.

"If I get on a plane, whether it's a four-hour trip or a 30-minute trip, I'm on to the next bit of preparations. A lot of it is video, watching guys' tendencies. Travel time is work time ... I haven't watched a movie on an airplane ever. I feel like if I do I'm cheating."

Carr, his broadcasting partner who sits to McLeod's right during games, witnesses the result of the preparation.

"He has taught me a lot about being prepared and staying focused," Carr said. "His preparation is off the charts ... To work with someone like him, that has seeped into my job and has helped me."

McLeod said soon after he started working with Carr, he would turn apologetic on plane rides: "A lot of times I say to AC, 'Sorry buddy, I don't mean to be anti-social if I don't say anything.' It's the only way I know how to do it."

Carr understands.

"He's been doing it since I've known him. When we're on a plane, that's when I do a lot of my work, too. You have peace and quiet."

And in that peace and quiet, while other passengers may chatting or dozing, McLeod is watching more video.

So you still want to be a broadcaster?

McLeod's work week is about 70 to 80 hours. What little time is left is shared with his wife, Beth, who has her own early morning routine doing weather for WOIO Channel 19. The McLeods steal a couple of hours together during the day. Free time is relegated to the off-season, when he golfs.

McLeod's advice for any aspiring broadcaster is simple: "Follow your dream" and "be a good person and work hard." Its simplicity is rooted in the realities of today's job market.

"It's too competitive," he said. "There's no shortcuts. We're all too replaceable. I've got one of 30 greatest jobs in sports. If I slack off someone's gonna pass me."

Deng thought about that three ball, plenty of time to go to work, gets in with the left hand, Thompson says I GOT YOUR BACK!