Al McCoy’s legacy was built on his kindness. In his profession, he became known for mentoring young broadcasters as they began their commentating careers, supporting and encouraging them from their first seasons on the job through their roles as colleagues.
As the sports world continues to mourn the loss of McCoy, the longest-tenured broadcaster in NBA history who died on Saturday, several colleagues and mentees shared similar stories about how he went out of the way to welcome them.
Phoenix Suns radio analyst Tim Kempton recalled how the legendary Suns play-by-play announcer eased his nerves during his first broadcast for the team.
McCoy would raise his finger and point to Kempton, a former NBA player, to signal that it was his turn to talk during a segment.
“It was very comforting to me at the time because I was brand new to radio broadcasting,” Kempton said when he joined Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Monday.
As Kempton prepared to enter his first year with the team, McCoy was already in his 30th. The two ended up being broadcast partners for 21 years until McCoy retired in 2023.
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“He was everyone’s friend,” Kempton said.
Some of Kempton’s favorite McCoy memories come from their time on the road together when he and McCoy would visit the local restaurants and bars of whichever city the Suns were playing in.
“Al would take me to one of his old haunts,” Kempton said. “They’d all have a piano in them.”
McCoy had played as a jazz pianist before getting into broadcasting. Kempton recalled McCoy “playing a couple of tunes” before the two settled down to grab dinner and a drink. The staff would usually greet McCoy as if he were a regular.
“He left a mark and an impression that won’t be touched,” Kevin Ray, the television play-by-play announcer for the Suns, said when he joined Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Monday.
In July 1989, Ray, who went to college at Pittsburg State in Kansas, moved to Flagstaff to pursue his sports broadcasting career. He landed a job as the sports director for Flagstaff’s KVNA-FM.
At that time, the Suns were training at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
“Al reached out to welcome me to the great state of Arizona,” Ray recalled.
The two bonded over their midwestern roots. Ray began attending Suns games and listening to McCoy call plays.
“That’s when I really saw the magic this man had and that he possessed,” Ray said.
Ray, who has also been a play-by-play voice for the Dallas Cowboys, joined the Suns in 2003 as the team’s pregame and postgame telecast host. In 2017, the Suns promoted Ray from sideline reporter to television play-by-play announcer.
McCoy went from a mentor to a colleague for Ray. He noted that being McCoy’s teammate was one of the pinnacles of his career.
“He was willing to lift me up and provide a roadmap for me,” Ray said.
Mike Breen, the announcer for the New York Knicks and lead voice for the NBA on ESPN, recalled his first game in Phoenix when McCoy walked up to the East Coast commentator and introduced himself.
"For a man who wasn't very tall, he was a giant of a man. In our business, he was the dean of all NBA broadcasters."
– ESPN and Knicks voice Mike Breen spoke to @BurnsAndGambo on the late Al McCoy
Full segment: https://t.co/ARyu6sIXpe pic.twitter.com/mzb1wL2RVR
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 24, 2024
“For a man who wasn’t very tall, he was a giant of a man. In our business, he was the dean of NBA broadcasters,” Breen told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Monday.
“He already had this reputation and this aura as one of the giants of this industry, yet he would already carry himself as one of the guys,” he added. “When I first started, I didn’t know anybody. You would go into arenas, and he would be the one to approach you. … He came over to introduce himself to me. And I knew exactly who he was.”
Al McCoy touched play-by-play broadcasters outside of his sport
McCoy’s generosity and talents spanned beyond the NBA.
Dave Pasch, an NBA broadcaster for ESPN and the Arizona Cardinals’ radio play-by-play voice, paid homage to McCoy on Sunday during the Cardinals’ home game against the Detroit Lions.
Pasch used McCoy’s iconic phrase “shazam!” as Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. scored a touchdown during the first quarter.
“It was great to be able to honor him,” Pasch said when he joined Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Tuesday morning.
Pasch knew who McCoy was even before he had connections to the Valley.
In 2002, as Pasch prepared to move to the desert for his new role as the Cardinals’ play-by-play announcer, sports commentator Bob Costas told Pasch that he needed to meet McCoy as soon as he arrived in Arizona.
“He was as kind and thoughtful and gracious as everyone said he was,” Pasch recalled.
Kempton praised his former broadcast partner’s longevity and ability to maintain a positive energy throughout every game. He added that the legacy McCoy left behind will live on for generations to come.
“You thought he would go on forever,” Kempton said. “It seemed like he would.”
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Arizona State’s first-year athletic director Graham Rossini told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Thursday that there is merit to the concept.
“We’re studying a lot of scenarios across many of our sports because right now, you think about the life of a college coach in any sport, you’ve got to wake up in the morning and determine whether you are putting your energy into coaching the team you have or recruiting the team that you need,” Rossini said.
“We know coaches, they work around the clock, but there are only 24 hours in a day. As the access to talent and access to information becomes more and more important, I do think you’ll start to see more of a specialization into scouting and roster management, as opposed to coaching and player development. And that’s obviously a very tried-and-true model in professional sports.”
College programs are starting to turn to general managers. ASU AD Graham Rossini shares his thoughts on the development with @BurnsAndGambo: pic.twitter.com/ws6mlwhGj3
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 20, 2024
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Rossini returned to his alma mater Arizona State earlier this year after spending 13 years working in professional sports for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and former ASU athletic director Ray Anderson cited the changing collegiate athletics landscape and NIL as prime reasons for his departure amid investigations of recruiting violations.
Versions of a pro football-like system have been in effect for college football programs for decades, and basketball is now catching up. Duke got the ball rolling by hiring the first college hoops general manager, Rachel Baker, in 2022. Other programs followed suit.
The University of Arizona hired Gaizka Crowley to be its new football general manager and Matt King as its president of basketball operations earlier this year.
Alabama made waves this past offseason by awarding general manager Courtney Morgan with a three-year contract worth nearly $2.5 million, a potential market-setting investment.
“I think as there’s just more at stake in college sports, now more than ever, there is some merit to having a group of your sports staff that can really be focused on future roster composition while the current coaches are developing the talent that needs to win now,” Rossini said.
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Kyler Murray threw a perfect game — in passer rating terms — rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. showed up big-time and the Arizona Cardinals pass rush got to the Los Angeles Rams’ Matthew Stafford.
The combination of such things led to a 41-10 win for Arizona (1-1) against a team it hadn’t beaten at State Farm Stadium since 2014.
After a close loss at Buffalo to begin the year, we touched base with our show hosts and writers to take the temperature of the Cardinals immediately after the Week 2 victory.
Here’s what they’re taking away from a dominating performance against Los Angeles.
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Our reactions to Cardinals blowing out Rams in Week 2
Luke Lapinski, co-host of Wolf & Luke: The Cardinals came into this game 3-19 in their last 22 games at State Farm Stadium. They hadn’t beaten the Rams in Arizona since 2014 — when they were the St. Louis Rams and Andre Ellington was the Cardinals’ leading rusher — and they were just 2-13 in their last 15 against the Rams overall.
Oh yeah, they were also 1-11 in the division since 2022.
Their response? Hand Sean McVay his most lopsided loss ever.
That’s a pretty good response, and it started with Marvin Harrison Jr. The first two scores of the game came courtesy of Marv, and they were the kind of electrifying plays that make you believe this offense is capable of anything now that he’s here.
Maybe it is. The Cardinals have put up 69 points through two games — second only to New Orleans as I write this — and they’ve done it against two pretty strong opponents in the Bills and Rams. Kyler Murray’s passer rating Sunday was a perfect 158.3. The Cardinals outrushed LA by 178 yards (231 to 53).
And it’s possible MHJ might simply be uncoverable on some plays.
On top of all that, you could make the argument that Sunday’s performance by the defense was the most encouraging part. Budda Baker was everywhere, starting with a huge fourth down stop on Cooper Kupp early. This was one of those games where it looked like there were seven or eight Buddas on the field, and his teammates followed his lead. Dennis Gardeck had three sacks, Zaven Collins and Krys Barnes each added one apiece, L.J. Collier recovered a fumble and Arizona stifled Kyren Williams — the running back who torched them for 362 total yards and three touchdowns last season — to just 25 yards on the ground.
Baker summed it up afterward the way you would expect him to sum it up: “This proves we can win one game.” He’s right of course, but now that narrow loss in Buffalo last week looks a lot more acceptable, if not flat-out encouraging, especially after what the Bills did in Miami on Thursday. And the Week 2 performance was a glimpse of the best-case scenario that the most optimistic Cardinals fans have been envisioning since April. It’s not a mere hypothetical anymore though, it’s reality. It happened. Now they just have to figure out how to do it consistently.
Dave Burns, co-host of Burns & Gambo: You’ve heard of things ending not with a bang but a whimper? This was a bang. A big, loud, window-rattling bang. An eight-game division losing streak. Over. A decade without a win at home over the Rams. Done. Nineteen losses in their last 22 games at home? I suppose TBD, but that sure feels like it’s over. If it is, and if the Sean McVay reign over the Cards is over (or at the very least on hold), now we’re talking.
I suppose you could say that given the Rams’ injury situation, that this was expected, and with the state of their offensive line maybe we shouldn’t be surprised the Cardinals won. It was the dominance of the win; a roundhouse 40-burger dropped on their personal tormentor in front of a home crowd that’s been starving for that moment in this building. The defense hit some notes that most didn’t think they had in them. James Connor continues to do the nasty work.
But mostly this will be remembered as the day Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. displayed the chemistry that would make Walter White jealous. It was humorous and revealing to hear Harrison bemoan that Murray’s only four incompletions were to him. The two jaw-dropping touchdowns and Murray’s literal perfect passer rating weren’t enough to satisfy. He wants more and so do we.
Is this the win that validates the belief — or at the very least the possibility — that the Cardinals are better than most think? It is truly too early to say. But this result, in this building, against that coach, with those two players leading the way is as good of a starting point as anyone could ask for.
John Gambadoro, co-host of Burns & Gambo: Simply the best game I believe I have seen Kyler Murray play. We wanted elite. We got elite. Forget the perfect rating. To me, his ability to make precision passes, the touch on his deep ball, the ability to create time and space for his receivers to get open and his football IQ were on full display.
The Cardinals exorcised some demons against McVay and the Rams and turned this game into a bloodbath early. Murray could not have played any better. First drive: touchdown. Second drive: touchdown. Third drive: touchdown. Fourth drive: field Goal.
First drive of the second half: touchdown. Cardinals up 31-3. Game over. Absolutely nothing not to like.
The degree of difficulty on the first touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. — I mean how many quarterbacks in this league can make that pass? The second touchdown to MHJ in which he rolled right to buy time as Harrison crossed the field then turned up the field was a thing of beauty. My favorite play was the third touchdown: Murray’s improvising and scrambling ability made Jared Verse miss tackling him not once but twice and Braden Fiske as well as he found Elijah Higgins for a touchdown to cap a 13-play, 99-yard drive. Nothing not to like today. Kyler played like a top-tier Quarterback and gave Cardinals fans a reason to believe in not only him but this season.
Tyler Drake, Cardinals reporter and co-host of the Cardinals Corner podcast: We gave the Cardinals a lot of (warranted) grief last week for their midgame adjustments, or lack thereof. Marvin Harrison Jr. was a nonfactor, there were no deep balls and the defensive pressure was nearly nonexistent. Just a tough look overall for a team that came out firing in Buffalo.
Against the divisional bully Los Angeles Rams, though, the Cardinals made all those adjustments we all were screaming about just a week prior.
Harrison nearly saw his target share (eight) triple and found the end zone twice. The Cardinals also looked deep at a much higher rate. They didn’t hit on all them, and they didn’t need to! Just the threat alone was huge. And last but not least, the Barbarian showed flashes of his 2020 self, racking up three sacks in the win and leading a much-improved pass rush.
Even when things went wrong – James Conner fumble into a Trey McBride touchdown – the Cardinals still came out on top on Sunday.
There haven’t been many complete games like this for Arizona in quite some time. Relish in this one a little more, Cards fans, especially knowing the stranglehold L.A. has had on Arizona for just about the past decade.
Kellan Olson, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: I’m going to go under a decent assumption here that most of the words you’re reading are about Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr., deservedly so. I’ll zag here and toss a ton of credit the defense’s way. Yes, the Rams’ offensive line was shorthanded. Yes, Puka Nacua was out and Cooper Kupp only played half this game. But Arizona’s defense was in such a shaky position coming into the season and after Week 1 that we didn’t know if it could take advantage of a vulnerable group like the Rams.
The Cardinals did. Emphatically. Outside of Budda Baker’s lone blunder on a deep completion, it was a signature performance from him. The front seven did well to close up gaps in the run game while a questionable secondary wasn’t put to much of the test thanks to a pass rush that was indeed capable enough to pounce on a wounded pass-blocking unit. Dennis Gardeck had three sacks, continuing to be a compiler no matter his role.
This just looked like a game when defensive coordinator Nick Rallis pushed all the right buttons and was a step ahead of Sean McVay. A reminder to toss just about zero blame his way when this defense inevitably falters due to its shortcomings.
This was the type of stuff good football teams do. You have a divisional rival in town you know you can beat in what is very likely the second-most winnable game on the schedule until December. Arizona dominated ’em. If you want to talk about litmus test games, let’s see what this team is really all about next week against a 1-1 Detroit Lions squad.
Mitch Vareldzis, co-host of Arizona Sports at Night: BEAT L.A. BEAT L.A. BEAT L.A. That was the most fun I’ve had watching the Cardinals play a football game since I started working here in 2018.
This game had everything! Marvin Harrison Jr.’s breakout with two touchdowns. A pass rush led by Dennis ‘The Barbarian’ Gardeck. And Kyler Murray getting that pest of a monkey off his back in beating the Rams, Sean McVay and doing it in front of a home crowd. I’m additionally way more excited for when the Lions come to town next week. The Cardinals have a chance to show dominance for a second consecutive week against one of the best in the NFC.
Kevin Zimmerman, ArizonaSports.com lead editor: I was told by a man — whose name starts with a W and rhymes with “gulf” — not to apply the transitive theory when the Bills rolled over the Miami Dolphins on Thursday. But I am going to lean on that result harder in judging the third-party Cardinals and say it appears that Arizona competing with Buffalo said a lot.
Because against the Rams, the defensive line didn’t look bad. The offensive line got the run game going easily. And of course, the passing game found Marvin Harrison Jr. — for a quarter at least.
It was predictable a good football team could beat the Rams, whose offensive line was decimated and whose receiving corps was without its Nos. 1 and 2 by the end of the game Sunday. But to beat Los Angeles by 31 — and to beat coach Sean McVay by 31 — means a loss to Buffalo should at the very least not mean the high preseason expectations haven’t been met on Arizona’s end.
After two games, they’re within reach of the highest of expectations.
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Arizona State football has a tremendous recruiting opportunity over the next two weeks with Thursday’s road game against Texas State and a Week 4 matchup at Texas Tech, first-year athletic director Graham Rossini told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo.
Rossini said the Texas State nonconference game has been on the docket for about a decade, and it was intended to give ASU a chance to play in the football-powerhouse state to give recruits a closer look.
“Here we are a decade later, and ironically, we’re back-to-back with our game at Lubbock and Texas Tech next week,” Rossini said Thursday before the Texas State game.
“So we’re really trying to maximize the time on the ground. A number of our coaches are going to stay after the game tonight and get a chance to recruit in Houston and Dallas and Austin and some of the surrounding areas, San Antonio as well. … We need to show up tonight. We need to represent but we also know there’s tremendous recruiting benefits if we play well tonight and again next weekend.”
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The Sun Devils come into Thursday night’s game 2-0 after wins over Wyoming and Mississippi State, while Texas State is also 2-0 coming off a blowout win over UTSA. The game will be showcased on ESPN as the only nationally televised college football game of the day.
ASU is now in a conference with four Texas schools (Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor and Houston) with no California teams. Maintaining a foothold in the Golden State remains imperative, but taking advantage of the Big 12 matchups in new states is a priority for the program, Rossini said.
“We’ve got to maintain Southern California, and we will,” Rossini said. “But obviously, having the Big 12 connection with the state of Texas … there’s just a tremendous opportunity across the footprint of the conference to get more awareness onto ASU. And then you add Florida, with Central Florida in the conference as well.
“There’s a reasonable chance we’re going to be on a lot of people’s radars because we are competing against UCF, we are competing against the four Texas schools and maintaining our presence in Southern California. So it’s, in many ways, the best of all worlds.”
Arizona State takes on UCF at Mountain America Stadium on Nov. 9.
ASU’s top-ranked 2025 recruit, wide receiver Adrian Wilson, is from Texas, while the program’s next class of freshmen has 12 players across California and Texas.
Watch ASU visit Texas State with kickoff at 4:30 p.m. MST. Tune to the Arizona Sports app, ESPN 620 AM or 98.7-HD-2 to listen.
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TEMPE — The Cardinals offense was the biggest reason why Arizona came close to upsetting the Buffalo Bills at home on Sunday. Rookie and No. 1 wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., however, had little to do with that.
Held to just one catch for four yards on three targets, the rookie was ineffective and underutilized.
It was a shocking NFL debut for all the wrong reasons.
And while head coach Jonathan Gannon believes “the ball went where it should” given what the Bills defense gave the Cardinals offense throughout the defeat, he knows that can’t be a repeat performance.
After a disappointing NFL debut, how does @AZCardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon plan to get Marvin Harrison Jr. more involved in week two?
🎧: https://t.co/3zqo7WF6cc pic.twitter.com/175mzI3C8Y
— The Burns & Gambo Show (@BurnsAndGambo) September 9, 2024
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“The game plan with how they wanted to play us dictated a lot of his involvement,” Gannon told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Monday. “They kind of took some of that away. We planned for that — or maybe there was a couple other plans — but no question we got to get him going. We got to get him a little bit involved, but they did some things that took him away and put a lot of resources to him.”
Across his 33 routes ran, Harrison rarely appeared to be the first read for quarterback Kyler Murray with the Bills clouding the rookie with a safety more times than not.
Instead of Harrison getting a healthy dose of targets, it was wide receiver Greg Dortch (eight targets on 23 routes ran) and tight end Trey McBride (nine targets on 31 routes ran) getting the bulk of the looks.
The offense has to take what the defense gives it at times. It also has other play-making options to consider. But there was also a handful of missed opportunities between the quarterback and wide receiver. And that’s without including the viral shot of Harrison wide open down the field.
Some of that included not allowing deeper plays to develop and instead focusing on shorter pickups with other pass catchers. There’s also the fact of just giving the 6-foot-4 wideout the chance to make a play. That’s why you drafted him No. 4 overall after all.
As for how Gannon and offensive coordinator Drew Petzing can get Harrison more involved moving forward, especially if more teams deploy a similar look, there are multiple avenues to consider.
“There’s different ways you can align him and deploy your people, that’s one thing,” Gannon told Burns & Gambo. “I think another thing is to get him on the move a little bit.
“I’m not going to give away all our secrets right now, but there’s ways to do that. Week 1 we wanted to leave him at X and play, so we’ll have some stuff for him if people want to do that to him the whole game.”
‘Marvin will be fine’
For a rookie that has generated as much hype as Harrison heading into Year 1, Sunday’s forgettable showing — that included a surprising drop — can leave a mark and impact the psyche.
That is unless you’re Harrison, says his head coach.
Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said Marvin Harrison Jr. will be “perfectly fine” after Week 1’s showing:
“He’ll be fine. Marvin will be fine. He’ll get back at it and go to work. Nobody’s going to put more expectations and pressure … on him than himself.” pic.twitter.com/q08vWpf1St
— Tyler Drake (@Tdrake4sports) September 9, 2024
“He’ll be fine. Marvin will be fine,” Gannon said Monday. “He’ll get back at it and go to work. Nobody’s going to put more expectations and pressure … on him than himself.”
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