NBA's Washington Wizards get assist from 'voice of God'

LEXINGTON – Mike Clapper never imagined he could have a longer run in this year's NBA playoffs than LeBron James.

The long-time "voice" of Lexington High School is also a public address announcer for the Washington Wizards, who are one post-season series away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals.

Clapper has been behind the mic for all Friday home games — 13 so far this season, including their home playoff debut in the surprising four-game sweep of the higher-seeded Toronto Raptors.

It was the first four-game sweep in franchise history, spanning 54 years, four nicknames and three cities. The Wizards were the first team since the 2011 Dallas Mavericks to sweep an opponent that had homecourt advantage.

"It's exciting ... and it's real exciting when you get to sit a center court and be involved in it," the 1972 Lex grad said. "There's only 30 of these (PA) jobs in the world and I'm lucky to have one of the 30."

The fifth-seeded Wizards will meet the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks starting Sunday for the right to face either LeBron's No. 2 Cleveland Cavaliers or No. 3 Chicago Bulls in the conference finals. Clapper will be on the mic if there's a game six against the Hawks on May 15.

The Cavs' chances of advancing to the conference finals have been dealt a huge blow by the loss for the remainder of the season of Kevin Love (separated shoulder) and two-game suspension for 3-point artist J.R. Smith.

Clapper isn't gloating about the twist in fortune for his upstart Wizards and the star-crossed Cavs. A recommendation from the Cavs helped him land his job in Washington.

"It's hard to explain to people how much fun this is," Clapper said. "I guess it's how hard you work to get there, and there's a little luck involved, too. But you've still got to go after it."

Clapper has been the PA announcer for Lex sporting events since 1997. He was one of 200 applicants for the Wizards' job in 2010. The list of candidates was trimmed to 50, then to 16 and finally five, with Clapper surviving all of the cuts.

The job went to Ralph Wesley, the PA announcer for the WNBA's Washington Mystics. But Wizards and Mystics owner Ted Leonsis, one of the judges, was so impressed with Clapper that he offered the retired sales rep Wesley's old job with the Mystics.

That evolved into his dual role with the Wizards.

"Ted calls me 'the voice of God,'" said Clapper, whose perfect pipes have drawn the same reaction from fans at Lexington. "I'll be walking into the arena and I'll hear his voice echoing in the halls: 'It must be Friiiday!" He's a billionaire but makes a point to come over and talk to me every time he sees me."

Clapper is also on a first-name basis with the players, including future Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, in his first season with the team, and guard John Wall, the No. 1 overall pick in 2010 out of Kentucky.

"It's kind of a cute story," Clapper said. "When I'm there, for every Friday game, after the introductions and everybody's hooting and hollering, they all come by and fist bump me. It's just a hoot.

"Paul Pierce ... the guy really is 'The Truth' (Pierce's nickname). They're all great guys ... (guard) Bradley Beal (the team's No. 1 pick in 2012) and John Wall. They're just kids."

A revamped roster, which has seen an influx of veteran talent like Pierce and post players Nene and Marcin Gortat, is a big reason Washington has improved from 29 regular-season wins two years ago — the first season Clapper got to work Wizards games — to 44 last season and this year's 46-36 mark before the sweep of the Raptors.

"When a team has a losing record, you have to work at it harder, just not me, but the whole entertainment staff," Clapper said. "Now, because we are playing better, it feeds off itself."

Clapper can do his job and still be a fan, but it requires multi-tasking. Then again, multi-tasking is right in his wheelhouse.

"John Wall will make a great move or someone will light up a 'three' — there's different things you catch, just not every second of every game," Clapper said. "You're watching the game because you've got to be ready to make the calls, but it's a different kind of enjoyment.

"Every time you do this, your heart is pounding out of your chest. It's a nervous kind of excitement."

Clapper said that in his last game he had 116 "reads" to make over the PA system — and that's not including all the baskets and officiating calls made in the contest. He has a producer talking in one ear and he's listening to the refs in the other.

"There's a lot going on in an NBA game," Clapper said. "Not only are you anticipating what you're going to say at the next timeout, but in the NBA the announcer calls everything — loose balls, kicked balls, technical fouls, not to mention substitutions, who fouled who ... it never ends.

"There are times in a 12-minute quarter I don't know what the score is until I look up just before the horn goes off at the end of the quarter. I always say I have 48 minutes of basketball and 80 or 90 minutes of show. I literally sit down at 6 for a 7 p.m. tip-off and don't get up until the final buzzer.

"And the crowd noise is unbelievable. Your brain shakes sometimes."

Clapper's game-day routine begins at his Bellville farm. He'll head to Columbus, catch a noon direct flight to Washington (55 minutes) and hop right from the plane to a train for the 10-minute ride to the Verizon Center, located in the Chinatown section of D.C. The Marriott, where the team puts him up overnight, is a block from the arena.

The pace is a little less hectic as full-time announcer for the Mystics. Their season runs from late May to September and, because it's more condensed, there's less travel and longer home stands. If the team is home for two weeks, Clapper and wife Elaine, a retired Lexington art teacher, have an apartment on the outskirts of D.C. where they stay.

"This has turned into a 12-month deal," said Clapper, who by his count has done 32 Mystics and Wizards games and 45 high school basketball games over the last year, not including Lex football games and track meets.

Working NBA games was always on his bucket list. Now that he's crossed that off is there anything left?

"I'd to make to make it to a championship," he said. "It's always cool to be associated with a winner."

If he's ever offered the full-time PA job with the Wizards, he said he'd have to choose between that or staying with the Mystics. He's not going to leave the homestead.

"I'm a homebody; I like coming home to the farm," he said. "I'm standing here looking out at my 40 acres. I'm about to go hunt mushrooms in about 10 minutes. It's great to go over (to D.C.) and do it, but it's good to come home."

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