Matt Cord, Unplugged

In 1999, the NBA raised an issue with Sixers minority owner Pat Croce and front-office executive Billy King.

No, not about the team's roster. Not about practices they believed undermined the league or the integrity of the game.

About the team's public address announcer.

They didn't like the way Matt Cord sounded when visiting players scored.

"'Tell your PA guy that he’s got to be more enthusiastic. Louder when the visiting team scores,'" Cord recalled in a phone interview with On SI.

Croce and King wouldn't have it any other way.

"I remember Pat saying, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Billy King was like, ‘Matt, you do you. I’ll take care of the league.’ And it’s never changed,'" Cord recalled.

They had Cord's back, even when the league applied pressure by threatening fines.

"Pat’s like, ‘I’ll pay the fine, don’t worry about it.’ And Billy’s saying, ‘Matt, I love how you are you. You do you, I’ll deal with the league. Don’t worry about it,’" Cord said.

Cord is forever embedded in your memory if you've spent most of your life living and dying with the Sixers. You hear him rock the building with his calls of players' names when the Sixers make a basket. His voice leads the Philadelphia faithful in excitement when the Sixers put up a momentous score.

His melancholy tone reflects the sentiment in the building when a visiting player scores.

He brought it to the Sixers from his time doing Philadelphia Wings games.

"Like, say the Wings are playing Buffalo. Buffalo would score and I’d go, ‘Buffalo goal.’ And then, when I got the Sixer job, it might’ve been like Danny Ferry, and he scored, and I was like, ‘Danny Ferry.’ I brought that over," Cord told On SI.

Now, it's common for public address announcers to call games that way.

The thump you heard on missed shots because microphones were attached to the baskets came and went. Cord has been a constant in your experience, whether it be through the simulcast or in person.

He invested in being the in-arena voice of the Sixers in 2002, several years after he first got the gig.

Cord would blow out his voice regularly.

"You get into it. If it’s a close game, you’re screaming. You’re yelling, ‘Defense!’" Cord explained.

So he started working with a vocal coach, some guy Cord found in Manayunk.

“He was kind of like, ‘What, so you don’t want to sing?’” Cord remembered with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘No, I just want to know how to not lose my voice.’”

Cord learned how to do scales and vocal exercises, practices he's used ever since.

He does 10 minutes of vocal exercises in the car on the way to games. When he gets to the arena, he goes to the visiting team hockey shower and does them for 10 more minutes.

He hasn't lost his voice since doing that. It's become a superstitution of sorts.

Cord was behind a microphone well before his time as the Sixers' public address voice.

He's been in rock radio since 1988, 10 years before he got the Sixers job.

Cord's time in radio prepared him for public address.

Many people would find speaking into a microphone to be uncomfortable, perhaps drumming up anxiety over being too loud or too quiet.

Not Cord.

"Even though you’re not talking on a PA system on the radio, you’re used to hearing your voice. So it wasn’t completely like, ‘Oh, wow. This is weird, you know?’" he told On SI.

"So I was used to hearing my voice. I was used to wearing headphones, used to some kind of a microphone technique.”

Cord views his voice as a gift.

Not one that he bestows upon others, but one that was bestowed upon him.

"My voice on the radio is completely different than my voice at a Sixer game," Cord explained. "But I think they’re both kind of unique. Yeah, I think it’s definitely something I got because I definitely have a lower voice than most people. I mean, it’s not super low. But I think I have a voice that can carry through a crowd with a microphone."

Unlike so many others in this business, Cord views others as people who can carry his gift forward—not competitors from whom he has to protect his unique voice.

"Whenever I get on the mic or I’m with someone else and we’re doing something on the mic, I’m like, ‘Come here, let me see.’ I’m pretty good at telling people how to talk on a mic. You got to eat the mic up. I always say that. You got to put your mouth right on that mic. It’s something that I’m not shy about," Cord said.

He doesn't get nervous. As soon as he hears himself on the microphone, everything is fine.

"There’s anxiety before that. But once I start on the mic and there’s 20,000 people, it’s like, ‘This is perfect. I love this,'" he told On SI.

Cord's voice may make him different from others. But he's just a guy who lives and dies with Philadelphia sports, just like you.

It doesn't take much to get him excited.

"I’m a fan. Like, I’m a Philly fan diehard. So it’s almost bad because I’ve seen myself, like, say if a ref makes a call and it’s a call we don’t agree on, I react to it. I mean, you can’t do that. So, yeah, I get into it. I’m really passionate," Cord said.

And just like most fans in this city, Cord is territorial.

When the Knicks come to town, he knows a sea of New Yorkers are following. They usually sit behind him.

More passion comes out.

"Like, I think I told you, if someone scores, if it’s a nice 3-ball from Tyrese [Maxey], I’ll say it, but I’ll turn around and say it to the Knick fans. Like, in the microphone.”

Most fans have the luxury of calming the tension with a beer or other drink at the game. They can go home at the final buzzer and move on with their lives.

Again, not Cord. He can't so easily unwind after games.

"It takes me a while to go to sleep. Even if I get home two hours after the game, I’m still kind of like, ‘All right, I can’t go to sleep yet. I’m still wound up.’ The adrenaline, the energy is still there," Cord said.

He's tried a late-night beverage or two to ease the nerves. But, his radio obligations in the mornings mean 4:30 a.m. wake-ups.

“That’s the worst feeling, when you know you got to go to bed and you can’t. It’s like, ‘Damn!’”

Cord has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows over the last 28 seasons.

His time as the in-arena voice will come to an end when the Sixers' season is over. He may never experience the glory of being the public address announcer for a title-winning team.

But Cord has memories for a lifetime.

He remembers the 2001 Finals as if they were yesterday. The path to get there—which included two Game 7s in Philadelphia—is fresh in his mind.

The next year, Philadelphia hosted All-Star Weekend.

"I got to do Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They don’t do that any more. They break up the PA guys for all that now. So that was really cool," he said.

He remembers a three-on-three celebrity event. If his memory serves, Philadelphia's team was Moses Malone, Dawn Staley and Justin Timberlake.

Who could forget that Michael Jordan's last game as a Wizard was in Philadelphia?

"Stuff like that, you never forget," Cord said.

Of course, the more recent the event, the more vivid the memory.

Cord recalls Kobe Bryant's final game in Philadelphia down to the exact date.

"December 1, 2015, we were 0-18 going into that game. Tied for the worst start in the history of the NBA. Gave Kobe that great intro, like, ‘Two-time Finals MVP, 17-time All-Star…’ The whole thing. Before that, it was just ‘6’6” from Lower Merion, Kobe Bryant.’ So we went over the top and he loved it. That was great. We won the game. I think Kobe hit his first three 3s," Cord remembered.

Cord took pride in being the public address voice to introduce Joel Embiid when he received his MVP in 2023. It was live on ESPN. Before a playoff game. He wasn't just introducing the recipient of the league's most prestigious individual honor that night. He was introducing commissioner Adam Silver, too.

He accurately remembers the night Embiid scored 70 points the next season.

"That was great. I never called a 70-point game. His name is a long name to say. He was giving me a workout," Cord said.

Judging by the level of detail Cord can recount, perhaps the most awe-inspiring memory was Maxey's first career start.

"A lot of people forget, it was Tyrese’s first start in January of 2021. If you remember, there was nobody in the building because of COVID-19. The Nuggets, I think it might’ve been an afternoon game. In his first start, he had 39 points. I had said his name a few times because he played, but I was working the mechanics of how to say his name that whole game," Cord remembered.

"You didn’t know at the time, like, 'Wow, that’s amazing.' I remember saying, because everyone near me was 10 feet down. You had a mask on. That whole dynamic, that whole first two months of that season was really strange. And on top of that, here’s our star player getting 39 points in his first start.”

But there's one moment Cord will take with him wherever he goes for the rest of his life.

Back in 2019, when the Golden State Warriors were in town, Steph Curry was so entertained by his introduction of the Sixers' starting five that he acknowledged Cord.

this is why @MattyCord is the best!

check out @StephenCurry30’s reaction. pic.twitter.com/XjqohNHRrE
— Christian Crosby (@ChristianCrosby) March 6, 2019

It wasn't the only time a visiting player acknowledge Cord's dedication to the pregame introduction. But Steph Curry is not every visiting player.

"So that game, Joel was out. So Ben Simmons was introduced last. But he was watching from the very beginning. Like, right when I say, ‘Head coach, Brett Brown! Now, tonight…’ He was like, ‘All right, I’m going to watch this. He was stretching and then he stopped. And he just kept watching all five players, and when I got to the fifth, that’s when I looked at him," Cord recalled.

"He’s like, ‘Give me a high five’ and he throws his hand in the air, walks and gets ready for the tip. I was like, ‘Well, that was cool. I kind of wish I had that on video.’ Then I turned around. You forget wherever Steph goes, there’s a video. Everyone’s got their phone out. So everyone behind me, every seat, ‘I got it. If you want it, I can send it.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah. I forgot. This guy is pretty popular.’”

It left an impression on Curry, who remembered Cord years later and told him, “You’re good, man.”

It's anyone's best guess when Cord's final game will be. Perhaps it's Thursday night. Perhaps it's some time in June.

But he'll never be that far removed from the job.

Cord has the same advice for his successor that beloved play-by-play voice Marc Zumoff had for Kate Scott—make it your baby.

“Get your own call. I mean, I’ll help. Whoever they choose, I’ll be more than welcome to help and go and watch. I love doing stuff like that. I’m not sure what they’re going to do. They have an audition process. I would love to be one of the judges," Cord told On SI.

"But I’ll definitely be there for that next person, without a doubt.”

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