{"id":1961584,"date":"2026-05-29T09:30:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1961584"},"modified":"2026-05-29T09:30:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:30:50","slug":"the-angst-and-joy-of-mike-breens-distinct-new-york-journey-to-2026-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1961584","title":{"rendered":"The angst and joy of Mike Breen\u2019s distinct New York journey to 2026 NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the late 1960s and \u201970s, the black-and-white Zenith television in the Breen family home just outside of the Bronx in Yonkers always had a game on.<\/p>\n

It was a grand time in New York sports, as the Mets were pitching miracles and the Knicks won their last championships with a rotation of stars, featuring Walt \u201cClyde\u201d Frazier, Willis Reed and Bill Bradley.<\/p>\n

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John and Mary Breen had a full starting lineup of their own, even throwing in a sixth man for good measure. The Breens were a family of six boys.<\/p>\n

John, a former Marine and a steam fitter, rooted for the Mets, Giants, Rangers and Knicks. The boys followed their late dad\u2019s gregarious lead.<\/p>\n

The fourth of John and Mary\u2019s boys, Mike, was born in 1961, and was just 8 during the glorious orange-and-blue clad New York year of 1969, when the \u201cMiracle Mets\u201d won the World Series and the Knicks tipped off an NBA season that would end with the franchise\u2019s \u2014 and the Big Apple\u2019s \u2014 first NBA championship. He was hooked.<\/p>\n

Nearly every day, Mike wore his No. 3 Mets shirt in honor of his favorite player, the scrappy shortstop Bud Harrelson.<\/p>\n

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\n A young Mike Breen in his ubiquitous Mets shirt. (Mike Breen)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mike and his brothers had an affinity for Frazier and also loved the Knicks\u2019 enforcer, Dave DeBusschere, whom young Mike thought was the second toughest man in town, after his dad.<\/p>\n

Between the Knicks title in 1969-70 and 1972-73, when Mike was 10, the family purchased a poster of Frazier. Mary \u2013 now 93, and whom Mike describes as the selfless head coach of the family \u2013 still lives in the house in Yonkers, and never misses watching her son\u2019s games. The poster of Frazier remains up in the mud room a mere 55 years later.<\/p>\n

This is the TV backdrop of the forthcoming NBA Finals as Breen, the voice of both the Knicks on their regional cable broadcasts and ESPN\u2019s top NBA national booth, will call his hometown team on ABC starting Wednesday.<\/p>\n

There is a little more to it, as the tale of the boy from Yonkers has some of the same up-and-down flair of the Knicks and Mets during his Hall of Fame career. If not for Breen\u2019s strong dad and one of his best friends \u2013 who made a pretty good name for himself in the sportscasting world \u2013 Breen probably isn\u2019t on the call for Game 1 in Oklahoma City or San Antonio. The Knicks in The Finals has been a long time coming, and Breen knows it as well as anyone.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m so happy for the fan base because there were so many nights where they were dreadful, one of the worst teams in the league,\u201d Breen said. \u201cThe fans never went away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breen called the 1994 NBA Finals on New York radio when the Knicks lost to the Houston Rockets in an agonizing seven games. In 1999, he did not call the Finals as the legendary Marv Albert had the radio call as the upstart, 8-seed Knicks lost to the Spurs in five games. From the Ewing era to the Allan Houston years, the Knicks were consistently really good, but not championship quality, before the bottom dropped out for nearly a quarter century, save for a few highlights from Carmelo Anthony and Jeremy Lin.<\/p>\n

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At 65, more than three decades into calling Knicks games, Breen will now reach another milestone, adding to what has been a Hall of Fame basketball life. It was all never a certainty.<\/p>\n

As a high schooler, Breen first got the bug for basketball broadcasting as an older friend of his named Tony Minecola built a radio station in his mom\u2019s basement. Minecola let Breen DJ, and Breen thought broadcasting could be a possibility for his future.<\/p>\n

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Breen went on to play basketball at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y., for coach Brother Jim Wiegand, who had a knack for explaining and teaching the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where my love of basketball took off,\u201d Breen said. \u201cThat\u2019s where I started to think that broadcasting basketball may be something.\u201d<\/p>\n

He ended up at Fordham, which has a rich sportscasting history dating back to Vin Scully. Breen was shy and almost stopped broadcasting after his first year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came close to saying \u2018This is it,\u2019\u201d Breen said.<\/p>\n

One day, he walked into WFUV, the college\u2019s radio station, and a fellow student named Michael Kay was holding court. Breen introduced himself to his colorful classmate.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe was like the Pied Piper,\u201d Breen said. \u201cHe had eight or nine guys around him, and he introduced me to all his buddies. And now I went from having no friends to 10 friends. After that day, I felt comfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI credit him all the time because there is a good chance I wouldn\u2019t have gone back the next day. He\u2019s the one that saved me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kay is the longtime TV voice of the New York Yankees and an ESPN New York radio afternoon talk show host.<\/p>\n

Out of college, Breen got a break doing news in the New York suburb of Poughkeepsie, but he got a little stuck there. He worked a few Marist basketball games as a TV analyst, but was becoming impatient by the mid-1980s after not landing the Villanova basketball play-by-play job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking, \u2018I can\u2019t do this anymore,\u2019\u201d Breen said, \u201cI\u2019m not making any money. I had to borrow money from my parents to pay for my rent. I told my dad, the steam fitter, I was thinking of quitting. I said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you give me the application for the steam fitter union? Maybe I\u2019ll do that and I\u2019ll start making some money.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me, \u2018Didn\u2019t you tell me you were going to give it five years before you decided whether or not you wanted to do this? It\u2019s only been two-and-a-half, you\u2019ve got to stick with it for a few more years.\u2019 Because of that, I stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six months later, Breen was hired to produce on WNBC Radio. The station had \u201cImus in The Morning,\u201d Soupy Sales and Howard Stern, but had started dabbling in sports with longtime radio personality Jack Spector. Breen worked six days in Poughkeepsie and one in New York before it turned into a full-time job.<\/p>\n

Breen eventually filled in for Don Criqui on the Imus show, reading sports headlines between Imus\u2019 insults.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of that, I got a little exposure,\u201d Breen said.<\/p>\n

After a stint on the Knicks pre- and post-game shows, Breen landed the Knicks radio play-by-play job in 1992-93 as a top MSG executive, Mike McCarthy, was a big fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream come true,\u201d Breen said.<\/p>\n

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Albert telephoned Breen right after. Breen got off the phone and told his wife, \u201cThat was Marv Albert who just called me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the coolest day of my life that Marv called me to congratulate me,\u201d Breen said.<\/p>\n

He has now worked with another Knick legend, Frazier, for decades as his broadcast partner. Breen said the 81-year-old Frazier \u2014 known to today\u2019s Knicks fans not only for his sartorial splendor but his signature slang, like \u201cdishing and swishing\u201d \u2014 is rejuvenated by Jalen Brunson and company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was worried he was going to retire because he was so sick of the bad play,\u201d Breen said. \u201cNow, I think he wants to keep going year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Decades later, a Clyde Frazier poster from Mike Breen\u2019s childhood is still on the door in his original house. (Credit: Mike Breen)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For Breen, by the mid-\u201990s, NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol put Breen on the NBA and the NFL. After NBC lost the NBA, Breen\u2019s agent couldn\u2019t get anyone on the phone from ESPN. Finally, Breen just cold-called ESPN\u2019s hotshot top programming executive, Mark Shapiro.<\/p>\n

Shapiro picked up, and Breen said Shapiro asked Breen what took him so long. He was on ESPN\u2019s team for the 2003-2004 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark hiring me at ESPN changed everything,\u201d Breen said.<\/p>\n

After Brad Nessler and Al Michaels didn\u2019t have the right sound for the NBA, Breen got the top job for the 2006 Finals, and he has been ESPN\u2019s voice for the Finals ever since, with plenty of moments featuring Breen\u2019s signature flourish for the biggest shots: \u201cBANG!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, with the Knicks in the Finals and Breen on the call, he will use Albert as an inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched Marv do all those great Knicks-Bulls games on NBC,\u201d Breen said. \u201cWhen you watch them so closely, as I did and so many others did, you realize that\u2019s the way to do it. I wanted to maintain the standard he set in terms of being unbiased and professional.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the late 1960s and \u201970s, the black-and-white Zenith television in the Breen family home just outside of the Bronx in Yonkers always had a game on. It was a grand time in New York sports, as the Mets were pitching miracles and the Knicks won their last championships with a rotation of stars, featuring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1961584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1961584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1961584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1961584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1961584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}