Herbert Frederick Kuhn had a cough. It sounded like he had a cold, which would be a problem, because Kuhn was going to be in front of a microphone soon, exhorting a crowd of more than 19,000 basketball fans to cheer for the Toronto Raptors.
To them, he is known simply as Herbie.
And two hours before a recent home game, Herbie was coughing over a bottle of water at a coffee shop across the street from Air Canada Centre. He had not missed many games over the 21 years spent as the team’s public address announcer, and he was not going to miss this one.