Green With Envy: Drew Carter hopes to win your hearts just by being himself

This summer, the Boston Celtics made multiple changes to their roster. Unfortunately, that meant fan favorites headed for the exit, Marcus Smart being the most notable among them. However, those losses aren’t the only ones Celtics fans are coming to terms with, as legendary play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman is retiring at the end of the current season.

For many, Gorman is the voice of the Celtics. At 36, he’s been an ever-present when I’ve tuned into games. Gorman is a hall-of-famer. He’s a Celtics legend in his own right. And he’s going to be missed. Nevertheless, a replacement had to be named, and Drew Carter was anointed as the man to take Gorman’s place.

Carter joined the Green With Envy podcast over the weekend. He discussed the journey that has taken him from Syracuse to the Celtics, his biggest idols and influences, the daunting task of taking over from Gorman, and even gave his best Ted Lasso impression.

The 26-year-old also took a moment to note how Bill Simmons — one of his biggest influences — should be tuning into Celtics home games and hopes he gets a chance to meet him one day.

“Because Bill Simmons is one of my biggest influences…I hope I get the chance to meet him through this job because he’s obviously a huge Celtics fan…(But) He was tweeting about the Wizards broadcast…and I’m like, Bill, why are you watching the Wizards? Tune into the local broadcast”

Carter knows he will need to win over the Celtics fanbase. He’s under no illusion of the task at hand. Taking over from an ever-present is never easy. However, he’s aiming to let his personality shine through so that he can win over the fanbase by being himself.

“I think the local show as opposed to the national show, allows you the chance to really let people in... there’s such a relationship between the announcer and the fan, and that’s one of the reasons I put a lot of pressure on myself and I was actually pretty nervous coming into this job... because I know how important the announcers are and that that relationship is to the fan base”

Celtics fans have already had their first taste of Carter’s announcing style. For the duration of the season, he will be alongside Brian Scalabrine during away games as he slowly transitions into the role. Carter also noted how Scalabrine and Abby Chin have made the transition into this new role easier than it could have been.

“And Scal and Abby really make that easy”

Next season, he will be full-time. It might differ from what we’re used to, but it will be fun watching Carter’s growth over the coming years as he becomes more comfortable with the role and accustomed to the Celtics fanbase. Because, according to Carter, he hopes to cover the franchise for a long time to come.

“I hope people get used to me because I plan to be doing this job for as long as I possibly can. I plan to one day retire as the voice of the Celtics.”

You can watch the full interview with Carter by clicking on the YouTube embed above or by catching the podcast version on either Apple or Spotify.