Sean Grande facts for kids

Sean David Grande, born on December 11, 1971, is a famous American sports announcer for TV and radio. He is best known as the exciting voice of the Boston Celtics basketball team. Over his long career, which has lasted more than 25 years, he has announced almost every sport you can imagine!

Sean Grande works with analyst Cedric Maxwell to call all the Boston Celtics radio games. They are a well-known team called “Grande and Max.” Only two other Celtics announcers, Johnny Most and Mike Gorman, have called more Celtics games than Sean. On December 2, 2009, Sean Grande became one of only three people in NBA history to announce 1,000 NBA games before turning 40. He called his 2,000th NBA game on August 21, 2020.

About Sean Grande

Sean Grande has had a very busy career in sports broadcasting. He worked for seven years at the radio station WEEI from 1991 to 1998. For the last three of those years, he was the sports director.

Sean has announced many different sports. He called WNBA basketball games for the Minnesota Lynx (1999–2001) and the Connecticut Sun (2006–2007). He also announced MFS Pro Tennis, Providence Bruins hockey, Harvard basketball, and even Major League Soccer.

In 1998, he helped host the NCAA Hockey Selection show on ESPN2. He also spent three years hosting the Stanley Cup Playoffs on NHL Radio. In 2005, he became a regular host for Sports Tonight on Fox Sports Net.

In 2013, he joined Joe Castiglione to call Red Sox games on WEEI when Dave O'Brien was away. Later, Sean, Cedric Maxwell, and the Celtics radio broadcasts moved to 98.5 The Sports Hub. In 2021, "Grande and Max" passed the famous team of Mike Gorman and Tom Heinsohn. This meant they had called the most games together as a pair in Celtics history. Also in 2021, Sean Grande started sharing Celtics television play-by-play duties. Mike Gorman called the home games, and Sean joined Brian Scalabrine for the road games.

Early Days in Boston

Sean Grande was born in New York City. He went to Boston University and finished his studies in 1993. While there, he spent seven seasons announcing hockey, football, and basketball games for the university's teams on both TV and radio.

In 1996, he moved to Boston College. For three seasons until 1999, he was the voice for the Eagles football and hockey radio networks. On television, Sean Grande was the first announcer for the Hockey East Game of the Week on Fox Sports Net. He was a regular voice on the original Sportsradio WEEI in Boston from 1991 until he left for the NBA in 1998.

College Hockey Calling

In the fall of 1989, Sean Grande announced his first game on air. It was a hockey game between Boston University and Providence. This was the start of his long connection with college hockey.

His work calling college hockey for Fox and the NCAA Tournament earned him three New England Emmy nominations. This included the 1999 Emmy for Best Play-by-Play. He spent six years as the TV voice of the NCAA East Regional. In 2016, which was his 27th year in a row broadcasting the sport, he finished his fourteenth time as the “Voice of the Frozen Four” on CBS Radio. Sean Grande has called a record 16 NCAA Championship Games.

Working for ABC Sports and Returning to Boston

Sean Grande was asked to come back to Boston in 2001. Before that, he had spent three years as the TV voice of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves. When he signed with Minnesota in 1998, he was the youngest announcer in the NBA.

Sean Grande has also announced for ABC Sports. He was part of the College Football broadcast team for two seasons. He worked alongside famous announcers like Keith Jackson and Brent Musburger. His call of the January 1, 2001 Florida Citrus Bowl on ABC was watched by over ten million homes. In 2003, readers of Boston Sports Media Watch voted him the best play-by-play announcer in Boston.

Movie and TV Appearances

Sean Grande made his first appearance in a major movie in 2001. He had a small role, playing himself, in the film Joe Somebody, which starred Tim Allen. Also, his call of Ricky Davis' amazing buzzer-beater shot from November 2005 was used in the soundtrack of the final season premiere of HBO's The Sopranos in 2006.

MMA and Boxing Announcing

In July 2015, Sean Grande signed a deal to be the main play-by-play voice for Spike Sports. He became the announcer for Bellator MMA, which is a major mixed martial arts organization.

After stepping down from Bellator full-time in 2017 to spend more time with his son, Sean still called some Bellator events. He also started announcing boxing matches for PBC on FOX and Top Rank Boxing on ESPN. In 2021, he returned to Bellator, which is now on Showtime, to share the announcing duties with Mauro Ranallo.

Personal Life

In October 2018, it was announced on CBS This Morning and Inside the NBA that Sean Grande was engaged to CBS News anchor and former ESPN host Dana Jacobson. According to CBS News, they were married on September 28, 2019, in New York. They live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Sean's son Jack, who was born in 2011.