Jazz PA announcer calls final game after 45 years on job

The Utah Jazz won’t be going to the playoffs but they are tied for the best odds to win the NBA Draft lottery in May. So hey, that’s something.

What they won’t be doing is going to the postseason after finishing with the league’s worst record (17-65). That means Sunday marked their final game of the season. It also meant that a fixture at Jazz games for more than four decades has officially called it quits.

That would be PA announcer Dan Roberts, who retired after 45 years on the job on Sunday. That meant Roberts had been handling PA since the season after they moved from New Orleans to Utah. He was the last remaining member of the original Utah relocation team.

In other words, Roberts started during the era of Darrell Griffith and before the cherished days of John Stockton and Karl Malone. So as bad as the Jazz have been lately, he witnessed lots of winning and two trips to the NBA Finals (1996-98).

Roberts was congratulated by modern Jazz players such as Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, Walker Kessler and others during the season finale and presented with the game ball.

“It’s a voice, whether you’re intentionally focused on it or not, it’s going to be a sound that you know,” Jazz coach Will Hardy told reporters of Roberts. “Obviously, his tenure here speaks for itself — 46 years, over 2,100 games.”

Wrote Ryan Miller of KSL: “Roberts’ catchphrase ‘How ’bout this Jazz?’ has served as the exclamation point for major moments delivered by Adrian Dantley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Deron Williams, Donovan Mitchell, and to the recent days of Lauri Markkanen — even if the team reportedly asked him to stop using it a few years back.

“… It’ll be bizarre not to have him on the mic, either, though NBA 2K26 might help fans out there. He just returned from California, recording lines for the upcoming game.”