He does NBA games with a “BANG”! Mike Breen features his signature call as the lead voice of the NBA on ABC/ESPN. Working in the league since 1992, Breen brings a professionalism and wit to his broadcasts. He’s seen many great moments in the NBA covering the playoffs and NBA Finals since 2006. Because of his tremendous work in the field, he was just inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as the winner of the Curt Gowdy Media Award.
Breen took over as the number one NBA guy at ABC/ESPN, February 8, 2006 when Al Michaels left the network for NBC. Breen was also with NBC for a time when that network had the NBA contract. It hasn’t always been basketball for him, he’s also called New York Giants preseason football. He has also called regular season NFL games for both Fox and NBC. But now it’s all about hoops.
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He grew up loving the Knicks. Mike Breen says his guys were Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Dave DeBusschere. He listened to Marty Glickman and Marv Albert growing up in Yonkers, New York. The local kid got the chance to call many a Knicks game and even got to work with Frazier.
PATH TO ESPN/ABC MAIN VOICE
The 2020-21 season marked Breen’s 29th season as an NBA broadcaster, and he’s spent many of those years with the New York Knicks.
He began his professional radio career as a sportscaster on WNBC radio in the early 1980s, and frequently substituted as host of “SportsNight” on the station. From 1988 to 2000, Breen did the sports segment on the WFAN and nationally syndicated “Imus in the Morning” radio show. According to his Wikipedia page, Breen became noted for his delivery of false sports news, such as in the mid-1990s reporting that in the previous night’s New York Mets game, “Felix Millan went 4-for-4 with 3 runs scored.”
His play-by-play career started when he called games for the Marist College Red Foxes basketball team in 1985. He then started as the Knicks’ radio announcer for WFAN in 1992 and moved to television during Marv Albert’s first leave of absence. In 2004, Breen became the Knicks’ full-time television play-by-play announcer when the team parted ways with Albert.
Breen has announced in five Olympic Games during his career, one Winter Olympics and four Summer Olympics. At the 1996 Summer games in Atlanta, the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer games in Athens, Breen called basketball, handling the play-by-play for both men and women. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Breen called ski jumping. Breen served as a play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports coverage of men’s and women’s Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
WHY IS HE SO GOOD?
He must be good, because this July will be his record setting 16th NBA Finals broadcast. That’s more than both Marv Albert and Dick Stockton who did 9 NBA Finals apiece for NBC and CBS respectively.
Breen’s style is just that he sounds like a guy you’d want to hang out with. The way he interacts with his partners, usually Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, is made to sound like three guys chatting watching a basketball game. The skill in which Breen navigates the broadcast with two very opinionated colleagues is evident. Somehow the “traffic cop” is able to still call a game among the “congestion” of the airwaves. It’s not easy to do.
The three have a genuine appreciation for each other and its evident in the broadcast. Mike Breen has a way of stirring the pot and then backing off to see the result. He’ll bring up an old story that puts Van Gundy on the defensive, Jackson will pile on and then Breen will succinctly call the action. Usually, Breen can get under Van Gundy’s skin with mention of an official that maybe JVG from a game or something like that. Again, Breen is professional enough to know when to go to this form of entertainment and when to let the game do the entertaining.
The other thing that separates Breen from others is his prep. You can tell that he’s a student of the game and knows the players he’s covering. He’s also a guy that will talk to everyone on a game day. According to an article at the Ringer in 2016, Breen speaks with players, the local broadcasters, coaches, assistant coaches and even officials. The latter of course sparked a comment from Van Gundy.
“He loves officials,” said Van Gundy to the Ringer. “He’s like the one American who is absolutely in love with officiating, and the nuances of officiating, who is not a referee.”
Breen is known to spend hours in his hotel room just studying for his next game. He’ll look over articles done on some of the teams or players he’s calling a game between. Breen will scour box scores of previous games and will create a “fact sheet” about each team involved in the game. The other thing he’ll do, taken from his days of calling the Olympics, is make sure he’s good on pronunciations. This is so important for credibility, it’s not surprising he spends a lot of time making sure he’s got them right.
“BANG!”
As mentioned, Mike Breen is known for screaming “Bang!” when a shot is made at a critical moment. Breen is also known to use “It’s good!” and “Puts it in!” to describe some clutch shots. He continues to use the catch word or phrases, even if the game evolves into a blowout.
“Bang!” is the word Breen has used for pretty much his entire career. He started using it as a student at Fordham. When he wasn’t calling games there, he’d watch from the stands and yell “Bang!” every time a Fordham player hit a shot. Then he took it to air.
“I tried it on air as a student couple of times. I said, ‘This doesn’t work. I don’t really like it.’ he told the NY Post last year. “Then I went back to it when I started doing TV and felt it was a nice, concise way in a big moment. You say a one-syllable word and the crowd rises and you don’t have to scream over it. One easy word. I’m from the Vin Scully, Pat Summerall school of conciseness. It worked with a big, loud crowd.”
There have been those to criticize the usage. He decided to stick with it even after some said it was stupid. In an interview with CBS Radio last year, Breen explained why the call continued despite the pushback.
“Even when I first started using it on TV, a TV-radio writer took a shot, saying, ‘That’s such a lame call. Why does he use that?’ It turned out to be something that became popular. But I started using it and I had a few people say to me, ‘Hey, I like the way that sounds. It’s a good way to do it.’ So, I tried it more and then more people said they liked it, so I stuck with it.” Breen explained.
In fact, Breen has doubled down on the word in some cases. Oh yes, once in a while you hear, wait for it, a DOUBLE BANG! It has only happened three times. That means it’s saved for special moments, big moments and the most exciting moments.
The first was Steph Curry’s nearly 40-foot three-point shot against Oklahoma City. This one came in a regular season game in February of 2016. The Warriors entered that game 53-4 and Curry seemed to be in a zone all season long. Hitting shots from ridiculous spots on the floor. The game winning three, was the record-tying 12th of the night for Curry. Breen clearly was caught up in the emotion of it all, seeing where it came from on the floor, the roll the Warriors had been on and who hit the shot.
Where did it come from? He had no idea. “Don’t ask me why or how it came out,” Mike Breen was quoted of saying after the call. “It was like an out-of-body experience.” Thus the “double-bang” was born.
In 2019 Eric Gordon hit a game-tying three for Houston against the Lakers that earned the DB call. It wasn’t a playoff game or even a very memorable game overall. Perhaps Breen got caught up in the moment? It happens when you are really invested in a game and its call.
The third, double-bang of all-time came in last year’s playoffs in Orlando. That’s where Luka Doncic beat the Clippers with a step back three-pointer. It drew a double-bang very quickly. This one meant a ton to the Mavericks and to Doncic who was playing in his first playoff series. If a game-winner ever deserved a double-bang, this was it. Considering Doncic finished the game with 43 points, 17 rebounds and 13 assists, I contend it should have been the first triple-bang in history.
CONCLUSION
I just love listening/viewing a game that Breen does. He has that voice that lends itself to a national broadcast. If it makes sense, he has an ability to make that game broadcast on ABC/ESPN sound like it’s a local game. Viewers really appreciate that ability, where the national guy is dialed in to what we already know about our team.
Mike Breen was recently honored with induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame He was named the winner of the 2020 Curt Gowdy Media Award, an honor being bestowed upon both Breen and ESPN’s Michael Wilbon. The ceremony took place May 14 in Connecticut.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
