In an October of online acrimony toward Fox Sports’ Joe Davis, one of the only other announcers who can relate offered some words of support.
“I am such a Joe Davis fan,” ESPN NBA voice Mike Breen said during the network’s NBA preseason conference call Monday. “I think he’s done an incredible job. I listen to his calls when the Dodgers do things and when the opponent does things. I don’t see any bias at all.”
Breen, like Davis, is both the voice of the reigning champions and of the league’s premier national television package. Asked by this writer about the backlash against Davis, and the general complaints of bias against announcers when they work national games involving their local team, he offered his perspective as a fan of the Mets: “I’m a huge Mets fan, and [Davis] did a Dodgers-Mets National League Championship Series [in 2024 for Fox Sports]. And as a huge Mets fan, I did not notice any bias towards the Dodgers. I think he’s done an incredible job.”
Davis was roundly criticized on social media throughout the Dodgers’ now-completed playoff run for what were perceived as low-energy calls of plays that benefited the Dodgers’ opponents, and for more electric calls of the Dodgers’ best plays — particularly a Shohei Ohtani home run early in Game 4 of the NLCS, when the team was already trailing 3-0 in the series. [Related (YouTube): Is Joe Davis really biased toward the Dodgers?]
Breen said he began to hear some similar complaints during last year’s Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals, which saw New York win its first NBA title in 53 years, but described the criticism as simply “part of the job that you just have to understand.” Breen: “The fans are so passionate that they’re the least objective probably in terms of deciding if a guy is being biased or not because they care so much about their team and they’re so emotional, especially in the postseason.”
While he has never shied away from his longtime Knicks fandom, Breen said Monday that he tried to be as excited for the Knicks’ big plays as for the Spurs, or for any other team in the past — mentioning the 2021 Bucks and 2023 Nuggets. “You try and have that same energy.”
“The backlash,” he concluded, “is part of the job, and again, to reiterate, I think Joe Davis has been amazing in the job he’s done.”
The conversation surrounding Davis figures to die down during the World Series, the first without the Dodgers’ involvement since 2023. Davis is working the Fall Classic for the fifth time, having replaced Joe Buck as the lead MLB on FOX voice in 2022.
Like Davis, Buck worked a World Series won by the team he covered on local television, when the Cardinals won the Fall Classic in 2006. He has since gone on the record with regret for offering a low-energy call of the final play, for fear of being viewed as biased by the national audience.
