For 20 years, Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Mike Breen has called some of the most iconic moments in recent basketball history. But if not for a series of unlikely events, Breen’s historic run might never have begun.
In early 2002, the NBA announced a six-year deal with Disney, making ABC the new home of the NBA Finals. The agreement ended the league’s run with NBC, the network that became synonymous with Michael Jordan and the dynastic Chicago Bulls. While Jordan was solidifying his place among the most decorated athletes in sports history, Breen was working his way up the NBC depth chart, calling NFL games with Hall-of-Fame WR James Lofton and Arena Football League games with Ray Bentley.
Football provided occasional opportunities, but the NBA was Breen’s natural home, and when NBC brought him aboard as a secondary play-by-play voice in the late 1990s, the fit was seamless. From the timeless John Tesh anthem “Roundball Rock” to the dramatic pregame teases to the witty commentary of broadcast legends like Bob Costas, Marv Albert, and interplay of Bill Walton and Steve “Snapper” Jones, NBC’s coverage gave the NBA a sense of gravity the sport had not seen.
When it won the rights to the Finals, basketball fans and sports media observers wondered how ABC (and Disney partner ESPN) would follow NBC’s grade-A production. Would ABC pay for the rights to “Roundball Rock”? What signature touches would the network place on its broadcasts? Would ESPN hire an established NBA announcer to call its biggest games?
Instead of Albert, Breen, Costas or NBA on ESPN Radio lead voice Brent Musburger, ESPN named veteran college football and college basketball announcer Brad Nessler as its number one NBA broadcaster. Not only was Breen not named a lead voice, he wasn’t on ESPN’s initial roster, at all. Breen eventually landed at ESPN in 2003 after placing a cold call to then-ESPN executive Mark Shapiro, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
That same year, ABC brought in esteemed “Monday Night Football” voice Al Michaels as its new NBA lead. During his two-year stretch, Michaels called only half the possible 26 regular season games, with most of those taking place in Los Angeles (where he lives) or Sacramento. Whether it was his intention or not, Michaels’ California-based schedule communicated a lack of commitment to the NBA. Football would always be first for Michaels, with basketball a distant second.
Michaels left ABC in early 2006 to become the new voice of “Sunday Night Football” on NBC. The move sent shockwaves through the industry and left a chair open for the NBA on ABC. After years of being passed over, Breen would finally get a chance to serve as the NBA’s championship voice. A nervous Breen worked his first Finals series that year with television veteran Hubie Brown.
“He (Hubie) grabbed me by the arm — and grabbed it tight — and he looked me in the eye and he says, ‘Just call the game the way you always call it and we’ll be fine,'” Breen said to the Associated Press last year. “And it just relaxed me.”
Breen has been in the lead chair ever since, chronicling historic moments such as Kobe Bryant’s back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010; classic seven-game series between the Spurs and the Heat in 2013, as well as Cavaliers-Warriors in 2016. He was on the call when Giannis Antetokounmpo won his first title in 2021 and when Nikola Jokic won his first in 2023. For most of that time, Breen worked with Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, forming one of the most respected broadcast teams of all-time.
But in 2023, ESPN inexplicably fired Van Gundy and Jackson in a move that stunned sports media and saddened the longtime announcer.
“It’s sad because we really thought we had something special and … we were able to do it a lot longer than anybody ever did,” Breen told the New York Post in 2023. “It’s something we’ll all treasure, but we just wish it was a little bit longer.”
In the years since, the NBA Finals booth has been a bit of a revolving door, yet Breen has remained the steady hand. While his no-frills style remains the foundation of his work, Breen has had to become more of a facilitator as the personalities around him have evolved. It is unlikely this year’s crew of Breen, Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson stays together for a long time, yet the booth is the strongest it’s been since the firings of Van Gundy and Jackson.
It’s hard to say what would have happened had Michaels not left for NBC 20 years ago. Though he needed a few breaks along the way, the fact that Mike Breen is still at the top of the industry two decades later is a testament to his superb talent.
Plus: How Russell Wilson can succeed at CBS
Russell Wilson has officially joined CBS Sports as an analyst on “The NFL Today.” On the surface, Wilson has all the ingredients a network looks for in an analyst — he is a well-spoken, Super Bowl-winning former QB.
Few athletes are as controlled in front of a microphone as Wilson, whose communication style blends leadership, positivity, and meticulous message discipline. This approach may help him in the locker room or the board room, but it does not produce compelling television.
Wilson’s success in the CBS studio will hinge on his willingness to be honest with the viewer. One should not expect Wilson to be a loose cannon a la Charles Barkley or Terry Bradshaw, but he must be critical when needed, even if those criticisms are of former teammates or coaches.
It is fair to expect Wilson to know how to playfully banter with the rest of “The NFL Today” crew. But given the importance of the QB position as well as his success in the league, Wilson’s insights will carry added significance.
With no shortage of NFL studio shows competing for attention, analysts must bring authenticity to make an impact. Wilson’s effectiveness will depend on whether he is willing to trade polished platitudes for candid analysis. Whether he is committed to offering that level of candor remains the open question.
For all the love Mike Breen gets, few people realize he’s a one-trick pony. He worked low-level NFL games for Fox in 1996 but couldn’t stick amid a roster of Summerall, Stockton, Harlan, Ron Pitts, Joe Buck, and Kenny Albert. Still did low-level NFL at NBC only for that network to lose its NFL package in 1998 (and I don’t think CBS considered hiring him even though it had basketball).
I would hate to call Mike Breen a ‘one-trick pony:’ his best place is doing NBA games. At the height of his popularity (in this country) in 2014, people wanted Ian Darke to do ESPN’s college football game of the week once. Before he got big, Gus Johnson filled in for several MLB teams, including the Detroit Tigers, whom gave him a tryout in 2002. Eric Collins’s best venue, despite being capable of doing every sport from Professional Women’s Softball to baseball an everything in between, is the NBA, which matches his true personality and delivery, as it does for Mike Breen. Not everyone’s capable of credibly doing various sports, like Kenny Albert or Mike Monaco or, to a lesser extent, Sean McDonough.
The reason Breen is so good is he works regular season games not just nationally but locally as well. He knows the broader league and does his homework- the aforementioned Mark Jackson and VanGundy had rarely demonstrated preparation and seemingly were more concerned with their catchphrases or stand-up routines than to explain to the viewers what they likely weren’t noticing. Maybe the broadcasts would be better served by analysts that work the occasional non-national game rather than former players resting on their laurels and stubborn old takes (Reggie Miller, the entirety of Inside the NBA).
I have to add to this post.
Sitting on a Sunday night, the most watched night of the week on television, and there is not an NBA final or Stanley Cup final being shown. And the fact that it’s the last Sunday in more than a month without a World Cup soccer game makes it more stunning. How could ABC with other the NHL or NBA not have designed a schedule to have a game this Sunday night is mind blowing. A huge missed opportunity for both leagues and ABC.
Great piece on Mike Breen. Without a doubt he is the voice of the league. Hopefully they reunite him, Jackson and Van Gundy…one can hope. Right now he, Jefferson and Leger are good but not great.
Breen is the best. I remember the “Al Michaels” days when he barely called regular season games. Al is an all time great announcer who has excelled doing play by play in multiple sports from the NFL to MLB to Olympics to college football. But the only time I saw his heart wasn’t in it was the NBA. Breen was the ultimate upgrade. His time with Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy formed one of the great 3 man booths in sports history. They worked well off of each other. The new booth with Richard Jefferson and Tim Leglar is still a work in progress. While Breen is still amazing at play by play, both Jefferson and Leglar are trying so hard. I do wish ESPN would have decided on a 2 man booth. I think either Jefferson or Leglar with Breen would be better than both in a 3 man booth.
The Michaels era will always be a head-scratcher. Had Doc Rivers not been fired in mid November 2003, ABC would’ve been in a real jam. Same thing happened the following year, when Hubie stepped down as Memphis HC.
Armand, curious your thoughts on the current booth? Do you like the 3 of them together? Or would 2 be better?
I think it’s fine. Jefferson feels a little out of place, but I’m not totally annoyed by his levity. Legler is very sharp, but a bit dry.
I always joke that Al Michaels had more energy calling the OJ slow speed chase for ABC News than he did at any point for the 2004 or 2005 NBA Finals. I will quibble about the breakup of Breen, Jackson & JVG—social media at the time before the breakup (the ultimate arbiters of society *cough*) either felt the two analysts spoke more about Dua Lipa and their own catch phrases than the games in front of them or that they didn’t introduce more stats and data into the broadcast (TS%, eFG%, etc.) and were doing a disservice to the basketball crowd at large by not speaking the new language of hoops. Add in that it was almost layoff times at Disney, and the two groups who shaped the suits’s thinking JVG & Mark Jackson were expendable were suprised after it happened. *sigh* Luckily, Mike Breen wasn’t swept up in that need for fresher, younger, more analytically involved broadcasts. Catering to social media is fine and can lead to better change and discourse in sports and its consumption, but breaking up booths ‘for the sake of’ isn’t beneficial to anyone. Like ‘Mike & Mike In the Morning,’ broke up because…..Greeny said ‘Mike & Mike In the Morning’ 100+ times in 4 hours?’ (I kid. ‘This show is stale. Break them up’ *Break up happens* ‘Why’d you break them up?’ Too glib a conclusion here, but that’s for another time…..)