Knicks in NBA Finals? Mike Breen would like to see it someday
Mike Breen works a game between the Knicks and Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden during the 2023-24 season. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Mike Breen will call his 20th NBA Finals on ABC starting on Thursday, a record that will not be broken, if ever, until after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton are long retired.
But even after all these years, Breen has not gotten a chance to work a Finals on national TV involving the Knicks, whose games he has called on local radio and television for more than 30 years and whom he rooted for as a kid in Yonkers.
So what was it like for him watching the Knicks come within two victories of their first Finals since 1999 before losing to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals?
“Clearly, I would like to see the Knicks win another championship in my lifetime, and it would be very cool to call a Finals that they're involved in,” Breen told Newsday as he prepared for Game 1 of Pacers-Thunder. (The interview was conducted before news of Tom Thibodeau's firing broke.)
“But they're not ready for it. The Pacers were the better team.”
Breen did watch “every second” of the six-game Knicks-Pacers series, not because the Knicks were playing but because that is what he always does with the conference final that ESPN/ABC is not carrying.
He watched the first four games in hotel rooms between working Timberwolves-Thunder games in the Western Conference Finals. When that series ended on May 28, he was able to attend Pacers-Knicks Game 5 in person the next night at Madison Square Garden.
“I won't go to a bar or go out with a bunch of people to watch the game [on off nights],” he said. “I'll watch it in my hotel room, because I want to really concentrate on it, and I want to listen to what is being said.”
What Breen saw and heard was a Pacers team that deserved to advance, and that he believes will give the favored Thunder a stiff challenge.
“The Pacers are a thrilling, exciting team, and I think this particular series is going to be much more competitive than people think,” Breen said.
“Do not underestimate a very confident underdog, and that's what the Pacers are right now. They're an underdog, but they're playing with such confidence, and they've been playing as well as anybody in the league over the second half. So I think we've got a chance to have a special Finals. I certainly hope so.”
Breen took over for Al Michaels for the Finals in 2006. What would he have said 20 years ago if someone told him then he still would be at it in 2025?
“If somebody would’ve told me 21 years ago that I'd be doing the NBA Finals once it would have been hard to believe,” he said. “I still don't believe I've been blessed like this to do it. When I think of the number ‘20,’ all I can think of is all the people that are responsible for it and all the people that helped.
“It's not any kind of false humility. I really feel that way. You could fill one of the arenas that I'm about to go to this week with the people that have helped me get to be able to do this for 20 years. It's an honor and a privilege, and it's a complete team effort.”
Breen’s longtime analysts were Jeff Van Gundy — for 16 years — and Mark Jackson. But since the start of last season, ESPN on ABC’s lead announcing team has been marked by instability.
Doris Burke has had three co-analysts over two seasons in Doc Rivers, JJ Redick and Richard Jefferson. The first two left to take NBA coaching jobs.
“It's really difficult, and she's worked so hard at it,” Breen said. “She's never once complained about it. And her love of basketball keeps coming through. So yes, it's been a challenge with new partners, but it's been a fun challenge.”
Burke told Front Office Sports in April, “There are just certain people you sit next to and you are better because you sit next to them, and Mike Breen is that guy.”
Breen said he has not thought about an end point for his long run, saying that is “up to the man upstairs, and it’s up to the executives in the offices.”
The thrill is not gone.
“Even after all these years, it's just the coolest thing,” he said. “There's something about Game 1 when you walk out on the court and it seems like there's 2,000 people on the court, and everybody's abuzz with this new Finals matchup.
“I was never so scared of being on the air as before Game 1 back in 2006. I'm not scared anymore, but I still get butterflies before Game 1.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
