Longtime ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Breen is in the midst of calling the NBA Finals for the 20th time in his career. With the Oklahoma City Thunder one win away from securing a league championship for the first time in franchise history, there has been a blend of compliments and criticism surrounding the game broadcast itself, which also features analysts Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson along with reporter Lisa Salters. Ken Carman and Anthony Lima broached the topic on the Tuesday morning edition of their show on 92.3 The Fan, starting by examining why games within the championship series feel somewhat ordinary.
Carman acknowledged that the NBA Finals is the highlight of any television package and seemed ostensibly confounded as to why it was being made into “a regular old game.” ESPN on ABC aired the in-arena introductions of the starting lineups on Monday night for the first time since 2013, bringing audio from Thunder public address announcer Mario Nanni and the Paycom Center crowd into the presentation. From there, Lima catalyzed a debate pertaining to delivering calls of the action in real time.
“What if I told you that the NBA is the only sport where the clear best play-by-play guys are not doing the biggest games, meaning Kevin Harlan [and] Ian Eagle are the best,” Lima said. “I don’t even think there’s a big debate. Right now, they are the best in basketball, yet can’t sniff an NBA Finals.”
As the NBA prepares to begin new 11-year media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), Comcast Corporation (NBC/Peacock) and Amazon (Prime Video), the NBA Finals will be remaining on ABC for the foreseeable future. Disney is reportedly paying the league $2.62 billion a year for its rights package, which also includes playoff games, regular-season contests and select matchups within both the WNBA and NBA G League. Carman acknowledged that Harlan and Eagle do not work for the right company, and both broadcasters are reportedly expected to join Amazon’s NBA coverage beginning next year.
“I know,” Lima replied. “I’m just saying, ‘When does that happen?’ The NFL, it rotates so we get everybody. Now baseball, people would argue that Joe Buck, but I would say Joe Buck over time has become the voice of big-game baseball.”
Upon questioning who is the best play-by-play announcer in baseball at the moment, Carman referenced Brian Anderson and Matt Vasgersian as potential options. Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play announcer Joe Davis is currently the lead voice for MLB on FOX coverage, which includes the World Series, and the show mentioned him in the conversation as well. Lima then reflected on the legacy of Toronto Blue Jays play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman, who used to be the voice of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN and currently calls college basketball games for the network.
“If we really want to make it the biggest event, you got to have the best guys,” Lima said. “Breen is really good, really good. Nobody has a bad thing to say about Breen. He’s not the best though.”
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