The Greatest To Ever Do It: Bill Raftery Shuts Down Any Retirement Talk, Will Be The Voice Of College Hoops Until They Make Him Stop Calling Games

[Source] - There’s never really been a year in my mind where I’ve felt tired. Plus, the tournament rejuvenates you. It’s like a whole different step up.

I just sort of do whatever they ask and, God willing, if they still want me I still enjoy doing it.

This is exactly what I needed to read this morning. Spent last night on tornado watch, somehow being part of a group tweet thread with Bosco on the bus and trying to get a couple hours of sleep before the kids woke up. Seeing that Bill Raftery is not planning on retiring any time soon is all I needed to make up for last night. The man is 81 years old, he's still the single best voice in the game and is perfect for college basketball.

Why? 
Simple, look at how he talks about the game and where we are today: 

It’s almost like the rules of basketball, where commentators will say, “I don’t like the jump ball possession arrow.” Whatever the rules are, well, what are you gonna do about them? You adhere to them or you get out.

Whether you like it or not, whether it’s distasteful or not, it’s just another area where you just have to go full steam ahead. I think there had to be a correction at some point to let the young guys benefit. The level it’s gone has far exceeded what a lot of people thought, but I think calmer minds and heads will prevail and they’ll get it where it’s feasible and reasonable at some point.

A perfect answer. We all agree that there needs to be something out there to help figure out the whole transfer portal/NIL stuff. I'm pretty sure most people with a brain don't care that kids are getting paid, we just want some sort of consistency on teams and not a free agency every single year. But look at how Raft talks about it. He could be the typical old man yelling or bitching about anything and everything with the sport. Instead he talks about how he just loves watching basketball. Yeah, there needs to be something but that's not going to stop him from enjoying a game. That's what I want. 

I say it all the time. He's the best announcer we've ever seen in college basketball. Hell, I'd throw him up there for all of sports. He's my number 1 answer. He's the voice of college basketball, whether it was him and Verne calling NCAA Tournament games, the old Big Monday crew or now him, Eagle and Grant Hill calling the Final Four, Raft is everywhere. So, yeah, let's make sure he doesn't retire any time soon. If he wants to call games, the powers at be need to let him. And when he does decide to retire, he deserves a retirement tour that puts Derek Jeter's to shame.