How a Kid from West Jasper became the Voice of the Houston Rockets

Words and Images by Al Blanton

There is a time, just a few hours before the game begins, when the arena is eerily quiet. There are a few bouncing balls here and there, game personnel are running ninety-to-nothing, and players are engaged in idle chat. But just for a moment, there is a calm before the storm. And this is exactly when he met Paul.

A decade ago, Jonathan Sanford was somewhat of a newbie to the NBA announcing scene. Sure, his San Antonio Spurs would go on to win the 2014 NBA title with players like Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan, but Sanford still felt like he was cutting his teeth as a young public address announcer.

One night in a game against the New York Knicks, Sanford was sitting at the scorer's table when he noticed an older gentleman with white hair coming to sit down beside him.

"My name's Jonathan," he said, extending his hand.

"My name's Paul," the man replied.

"Paul, what do you do for a living?" Sanford continued.

"I'm in music," Paul replied.

"Oh cool," Sanford said. "My wife's a musician, and I've been involved in music most of my life."

The pleasantries continued for 15 or so minutes before the two men said their goodbyes and Paul walked away.

A security guard, noticing the exchange, then approached Jonathan as he was readying himself to welcome the Knicks to the AT&T Center.

"Do you realize who you were talking to for the last 20 minutes?" the security guard said.

"No," Sanford admitted. "He said his name was Paul, but I never asked his last name."

"That was Paul Simon."

Such is the life of Jonathan Sanford.

Today, the Jasper native has a new gig, one he's been serving in since 2021: he's the PA announcer for the Houston Rockets. That's right, the voice of a Jasper boy is the one echoing through the Toyota Center in downtown Houston as he ushers 18,000-strong through the peaks and valleys of an NBA game, from the starting lineups to the game's final curtain.

It is a warm spring evening when the Rockets are hosting the three-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Prior to the game, assistant coaches for the Warriors are putting NBA A-listers Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson through the paces as Sanford preps for his game duties nearby. He'll retreat into the bowels of the Toyota Center for a pregame walkthrough, then emerge back at the scorer's table just before tip-off.

It's game time in Houston.

After the pregame hype video rolls out on a massive screen above center court, Sanford grips the microphone and says,

"H-Town, we are go... for...Liftoooooooff!”

Then he announces the starting lineups:

A six-eleven center from Auburn, number 10 Jabari Smith Juuuuunior!

A six-seven forward, number one A-meeen Thompson!

A six-seven forward, number nine Dillon Brrrrroooks!

A six-six guard from Fresno, he's number four, Ja-len Green!

A six-foot guard from Wichita State, number five Fred Van Fleet!

Head coach of the Houston Rockets is Ime Udoka. Once again, your Houston Rerrrockets!

So, how does a kid who used to sit under the stars in the backyard of his home in West Jasper, Alabama, listening to NBA announcers like Ray Clay of the Chicago Bulls and Al McCoy of the Phoenix Suns, go from there to sitting in front of the greatest basketball players in the world-from LeBron James to Kobe Bryant to Steph Curry?

Providence.

Sanford will be the first to admit that his childhood dream of becoming an NBA announcer seemed a bit implausible. "Growing up in Jasper, I thought, 'there's no NBA team,' and it seemed like a far-fetched dream that I could ever be in this position. I thought one day I might be the voice of Alabama basketball or Alabama football in the stadium or Coleman Coliseum. That was kind of where I saw my dream going," he says.

Still, Sanford always held out the thought that one day he would get the opportunity to announce in the NBA.

After graduating from Walker High School in 1995, Jonathan's first foray into the announcing world was filling in with color analysis for the local radio broadcast of Viking football games. Though it was an incredible experience to work alongside local radio legends Woody Wilson and Johnny Elmore, Jonathan's announcing life would certainly ride sidecar for the next few years as he pursued a career in ministry.

Sanford initially went to Jacksonville State on a music scholarship, but finished at Heritage Christian University in Florence, Alabama, with a divinity degree. Around this time, he met his wife, Jennifer, an Austin, Texas, native who had Walker County connections and was serving in the U.S. military. The couple wed in 2003 and moved to Houston, where Sanford continued in the ministry.

Time rocked on and the Sanfords began to put down roots and raise a family in Space City. Eventually, they would welcome five children into the fold: Hailey (2003), Tegan (2005), Billy (2008), Emilia (2010), and Zachary (2013).

But they would not remain in Houston in perpetuity. A few years after their initial move, Jennifer got a job offer to teach music in her hometown of Austin, and the family packed up and left.

There was only one problem: Jonathan didn't have a job. "I had no church to minister to right away, and I've got to do something. I'm not just going to sit around and be bored," he remembers.

An idea hatched in his mind, and he marched down to the Austin Independent School District to inquire about announcing jobs at the local high schools. After turning in his application, he got a phone call from Wade Johnston, a local athletic director, later that afternoon. Johnston informed Sanford that his track and field announcer was sick and wondered if Sanford might step in and announce the area meet. Sanford agreed.

Later, after Sanford had completed his task, Johnston met him at the stadium steps. "Johnathan, you are the best announcer I've ever heard. I'm going to talk to the other ADs. We are going to find a way to get you to announce for us," Sanford recalls Johnston saying.

That led to more opportunities for Sanford in the Austin school district. According to Sanford, after the principal of Dripping Springs High School, Dr. Laura Cousins, heard Sanford announce, she called her husband, who was head of the University Interscholastic League (think: the equivalent of the Alabama High School Athletic Association), and requested Sanford announce the softball state championships.

Providence.

Then Sanford found himself in the booth at Red and Charline McCombs field at the University of Texas, calling the 1A-6A state championships. During the event, a man named Berry Thom walked into the booth and was met with congratulations for being named the next public address announcer for the San Antonio Spurs.

"He had been the backup announcer for the Spurs for a number of years — not their main guy, but the guy who was a fill-in — and he was going to announce that tournament with me," Sanford recalls. "They were congratulating him because the main guy for the Spurs had just announced that day that he was stepping down. So, I looked at him and said, 'Wow, man, congratulations Berry. That's been my dream since I was a little kid.'"

Then Sanford wiped it from his mind.

But Providence was up to something again. As it turns out, Jonathan was asked to announce the 18U football championships in June 2012, and in walks a guy by the name of Mike Plummer. Plummer just so happened to be in charge of game ops for — you guessed it — the San Antonio Spurs.

When Plummer introduced himself, Sanford casually said, "Oh, that's cool. I just met your new announcer a few weeks ago.” 

Sanford says that Plummer then informed him that the hire was "not official," that the job was still open, and the Spurs were still taking applications. Then good ol' Providence stepped in again.

"We got done with that first day of the World Championships, and (Mike) came up to me and said, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to go online tonight and I want you to apply for the Spurs job. Your voice...you've got to do that.' I said 'OK,'” Sanford remembers.

Sanford went home that evening to complete the application, but when he began the process, he noticed one of the job requirements was "3 to 4 years of NBA experience." Downcast, Sanford did not even bother filling out the application and returned to the championships.

"I went back to work the next day and Mike asked if I had filled out the application," Sanford says. "I said 'Well no, Mike. It says I have to have three to four years of experience.' Не goes, Don't worry about that. You need to fill it in and send it in today.’”

Sanford complied. But while filling out the app, he ran into another problem: he needed to submit a demo reel. Now, when you've been announcing at the high school and college level as Sanford had, you don't really have a good demo reel that would impress the elite of the elite, and Sanford failed to submit one when he turned in his application.

This did not sit well with Jennifer.

"My wife got mad," Sanford says. "She said, 'Listen, Jonathan, you've been dreaming about this your whole life, why don't you go ahead and put something together?'”

With Jennifer's encouragement (and a bit of censure), Sanford went to the studio, located a Spurs playoff game from a few years back, set up music, and did the intros as if he were the Spurs' announcer. Boom.

A few weeks later, at 8 o'clock in the morning, the phone rang: It was Mike Plummer.

"He said, I just want to let you know, we just played your demo for the decision makers in the arena, and it's a game changer," Sanford says.

The rest, they say, is history.

Sanford served as the Spurs announcer from 2013 to 2018, an era when the boys in black and silver played a brand of basketball known as "The Beautiful Game." While San Antonio was wowing fans on the court with the blissful purity of team basketball, Sanford was becoming a beloved presence for home games in the AT&T Center.

But in 2016, something unexpected happened that would disrupt the Sanfords' bliss: Jennifer was diagnosed with cancer.

For the next two years, she battled the disease while Jonathan provided for his family by serving in the dual capacity of church pastor and Spurs announcer. The option to remain in San Antonio was certainly there, and the allure of the Spurs job was hard to give up, but eventually, Jennifer and Jonathan decided to pack their things and move to Houston.

Why Houston? Because in their minds, it was home to the best cancer treatment center in the world, M.D. Anderson.

Over the next three years, Jonathan secured another job in the ministry and put announcing on the shelf. continued to receive treatment and her condition slowly improved.

Two years after the Sanfords moved back to Houston, during the covid pandemic, Jonathan received another phone call. This time, Providence arrived in the form of an invitation from the Houston Rockets, who were summoning him to the Toyota Center for an audition. Sanford remembers it vividly.

"I walked in the security entrance, and they took me down to the floor, to the player tunnel, and when I walked in the arena, they had lowered the scoreboard to the floor, and they had a little section of the scoring table set up," he says. "And they said, ‘Jonathan we want you to call it as if you are the Rockets announcer.' So I did."

Thinking they needed a backup, Sanford says he was surprised when they called him shortly thereafter and said, "No, we want you to be the guy."

Now Sanford is enjoying his second NBA announcing job and wooing the crowd in Houston with his Tony-the-Tiger-like, his "R'" rolling like a grinding machine. There's “IIIIIiiits RRRRRRRrrrrockets ball!” “RRRRRRRrrrrrockrts win!” and the aforementioned “Liftoff!” 

But perhaps the most distinctive aspect of his portfolio is hit monotone, Eeyore-like voice when the Rockets commit a foul and the other team has the luxury of shooting a free throw: Steph Curry for two (the "two" dropping off into an abyss. Sad. (Melancholic).

"You put as little 'umph' into it as possible," Sanford laughs. "It's all in good fun."

After all, getting creative in his job, he says, is not really about what he wants, but rather what suits the players and the fans.

So, to answer the initial question, "How does a kid who used to sit under the stars in the backyard of his home in West Jasper go from there to sitting in front of the greatest basketball players in the world?"

Listen as Sanford explains:

I was a small-town boy who always had a dream of doing something bigger than myself. And the moment you give up on that dream is the moment that you never have the opportunity to fulfill it.

And if I can tell my future grandchildren anything about my journey, it's that I never gave up on that dream. And it wasn't about just me. It was about having a wife who supported me and children who supported me.

I always say this... it's not about who you know; it's about who's willing to say they know you. And when you build relationships with people, and you are trustworthy, and they know that you are going to give your all in everything that you do for them, when it comes time for them to speak on your behalf, they are going to be willing to speak for you. And for me, that's what has made my journey possible. Having a good family, good faith, good friends, and good relationships has gotten me to this point in my life.

Not that he ever took anything for granted, but this time around, after a hard-fought family battle with cancer, Sanford holds a great appreciation for having the best seat in the house, right there in Houston. 

"Every day that I walk into this arena, I always treat every game as if it's my last because that's how special it is. Every game is a one-game series for me," he says. "Because in this business, listen, there are so many people out there who would love to sit where I am sitting, so I am going to treat it with the most professionalism as I can because, hey, I don't want to give up that seat. I feel blessed anytime I've been able to sit here and have my voice be heard by 18,000-plus fans."

If you're wondering, Sanford is continuing his ministry, pastoring a new church in Houston. He says the congregation has been super supportive of him being the Rockets announcer. And with as much talent and experience as he's built up over the years, there's no telling what opportunities may arise in the future.

No matter the stage, though, Sanford hasn't forgotten the thing that helped him realize the dreams of a young boy from the community of West Jasper. He hasn't forgotten what has sustained him, sustained Jennifer and the family, and opened doors for him through the years, from Jasper to Jacksonville, Florence to Austin, San Antonio to Houston.

Providence. 78