Mike Breen will call his 21st NBA Finals for ABC and ESPN beginning Wednesday night in San Antonio, but it is his first involving the New York Knicks. Despite the personal significance, Breen insists his approach remains unchanged.
A Lesson in Neutrality
If there were any doubts that Breen can remain neutral, Joe Davis of Fox Sports can put them to rest. Davis, who also calls Los Angeles Dodgers games locally, recalled a thoughtful critique from Breen during the 2004 National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and New York Mets.
“He reached out. It was the first time I met him, and he said, ‘I just want to let you know as a Mets fan who is looking for every mistake you might make or every sign that you are a Dodger homer, I want to tell you how much I have appreciated how down the middle you have played it and how neutral you have been.’ To get that from anybody would be appreciated, but to get it from someone I respect as much as I do, Mike meant the world, and that was the start of what has become a special friendship,” Davis said.
Whether Breen receives similar critiques from Spurs fans over the next couple of weeks remains to be seen.
Breen's Journey to the Finals
Breen started calling Knicks games on the radio in New York in 1991 before moving to television in 1998. Despite the Knicks making their first finals appearance since 1999 and vying for their first NBA title in 53 years, Breen said his approach to this series is the same as other seasons.
Breen credited his mentor, Marv Albert, who was NBC’s main NBA voice while also doing Knicks games. Albert called the 1994 finals between the Knicks and Houston Rockets on NBC when Breen was doing Knicks radio.
“He called it as he would any other two teams. And that is the way you have to approach it,” Breen said. “Fans always think you are rooting for the other team in the finals. And that is a wonderful thing because it means the fans care so much, and that is the beauty of it.”
Lessons from Other Announcers
ESPN “Monday Night Football” announcer Joe Buck, who called 24 World Series on Fox, also knows the delicate line when a local team plays for a championship. Buck had four Fall Classics involving the St. Louis Cardinals, the franchise for which his father, Jack Buck, called games for 47 years.
Buck said outside noise and concerns about appearing too partisan affected his call of the 2006 World Series, when the Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers in five games.
“That is easily my least favorite call of my career,” he said. “I was so worried about it that here were the Cardinals winning the World Series for the first time since I was a kid, and my voice is flat.”
“I was better equipped in 2011 (when the Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers in seven games) because I decided not to let anyone else determine how I make a call. It is up to fans to assign extra importance to a call. When you are in the booth or courtside, fandom does not enter your mind. You are focused on being accurate and aware of game situations.”
Davis said the biggest difference between local and national broadcasts, especially with the Dodgers, is the need to relearn things because they are presented to a different audience. Often, it means introducing an audience to a team they might be seeing for the first time.
Even though the Dodgers have been in the last two World Series, there have been plenty of dramatic moments when it would have been hard to know if Davis had any rooting interest at all.
“For me, I get lost in it in the best way where any connection to one side melts away, and you are so invested in this moment, this game, and these two teams,” he said. “In a perfect world, there is not much thought about needing to do this or that differently based on the team I am covering.”
A Bucket-List Item
Breen admitted calling an NBA Finals involving the Knicks is a bucket-list item he can cross off. He has not yet considered what his emotions would be if the series ended with a New York championship.
“As the series goes on every year, no matter who is in it, you try and think of, OK, how am I going to word this? How am I going to wrap up, summarize what this means to the winning team, what this means to the losing team? And you wait until the series goes on before you get into those thoughts,” he said.
“You have a couple of generations of fans who are saying to themselves, will I ever see a Knicks championship in my lifetime? We saw that with the Cubs when they finally won, with the Red Sox when they finally won. It is such an emotional thing because the fans invest so much time and emotion; they care so much.”
Breen will be teaming up with Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson on finals coverage. This will be the first finals for Legler and the second for Jefferson.
