Mike Breen spent Memorial Day weekend strolling the beach with his golden retriever, Holly, and playing golf with two of his closest friends. Don’t get him wrong—he enjoyed himself. It’s just that spending the final days of May at home felt, well, a little strange for the NBA’s premier play-by-play man.
Breen loves basketball, loves the playoffs even more, and loves to call the most important games of the season most of all. But the Western Conference finals ended quickly this year—with the Denver Nuggets sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers—which meant Breen had a rare extended break before calling the 2023 NBA Finals for ABC/ESPN.
“Every series that I've ever called, I root for seven games, always,” Breen tells me after coming in from his beach walk last weekend. “I was disappointed—I would have loved to see Denver and L.A. go seven games. It's the most exciting time, so the adrenaline is always flowing. But it was nice to go home.”
But he was nevertheless itching to get to Denver, to call his 18th straight NBA Finals, alongside his longtime broadcast partners Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. Breen was kind enough to interrupt his mini-vacation to chat with me about this wild postseason, the NBA’s new age of parity, and some of his favorite moments on the mic.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
GQ: You called your first Finals in 2006—the Heat vs. the Mavericks—and so much has changed in the NBA since then. What’s the biggest difference for you, whether it’s the game itself or your own role in covering it?
Mike Breen: There's just so many more people around. When you walk into the arena for Game 1 every year, you can't believe the magnitude of the event. You can't believe how many people are there. So that part hasn't changed. Obviously, the game has changed quite a bit in those years. More offensive game, obviously more three-point shooting, more pace to it, harder to defend today. That to me is one of the enjoyable things about covering the league, and how it's constantly evolving.
For me personally, I still get butterflies before Game 1 of every Finals. And I love that, because it constantly reminds me: This is a privilege and an honor to call the Finals. And I should have butterflies, because I want to do right by the players and the teams and the fans.
What do you remember about that first Finals in 2006?
I was so nervous. I was not ready for the magnitude of it. I thought, “Oh, it's just going to be another big playoff game.” No, not even close. Before Game 1, I got a number of calls from an ESPN executive telling me, “You have to call this game differently than other games, because there's a lot of casual fans who haven't watched the NBA all season long. So you have to make sure that they know what's going on.” And that was kind of pounded into my head. And the game started and I felt like I was explaining the most simple things. I'm going to exaggerate here, but I felt like I was saying things like, “Oh, that's a foul; now he will go to something called the free-throw line, and while the defenders stand along the side, they can't defend the shot.” So, I know I didn't do that. But I felt like that, and thankfully Hubie Brown was my partner. And after the first timeout, Hubie sensed my anxiety. And, God bless him, he grabbed me by the arm during the first timeout, and he says to me, “Hey, kid, just call the game the way you always do, and we'll be great.” And it's amazing how that completely changed how I felt, because here I am next to one of the most brilliant basketball minds of all time, one of the great analysts of all time, And he just put me at ease. And after that I was fine.
Do you have a favorite Finals moment, whether from a personal standpoint and your own performance, or just the series itself?
I don't mean to dodge the question, but it's impossible to name just one. That first one, I remember that when it was over, I couldn't believe that I just called an NBA Finals. And then the first time you do a game seven. Or 2008, the Celtics and the Lakers, the two storied franchises, to do an NBA Finals with them. And then when it goes to players, to document what LeBron James was doing, what Kobe Bryant was doing, the San Antonio Spurs and their dynasty. And then the Warriors dynasty, and to be able to document Steph Curry and what he was able to do in the big moment, the LeBron James block, Cleveland finally [winning a title]. Just incredible. Toronto [in 2019], to see the way an entire nation rallied around a team and what it meant when the Raptors won. To see somebody like Giannis Antetokounmpo go from where he was to winning an NBA championship and MVP and what he did in the clinching game. I swear to you, I'm talking to you now and I'm getting chills thinking about it. Because these were moments that you'll never forget, and to be able to sit there courtside and do them, I'm blessed well beyond what I deserve. And will never ever, ever take it for granted.
What’s your game-day routine like? How much time is spent prepping for the game, versus killing time or even getting to enjoy the city a little bit?
Game days are pretty much stuck to just prepping, making sure you covered everything. Game 1 of a series for an announcer is probably the most difficult, because you have so much to prep for, without seeing a single game. Once you have Game 1 over, now you play off that, and then you have the storylines that build as the series goes along. Anytime it's a clinching game, that requires some big-picture perspective. I'm from the old school of over-preparation. Those are pretty busy days: reading a lot of clips, talking to a lot of people, looking back at your notes. What's relevant from Game 2 that might come into play here in Game 6, or Game 7? A lot of just boring stuff to make sure you you've crossed your T's and dotted your I's. And then you just can't wait to get to the arena. I always like to get there two-and-a-half to three hours before, to see if you can grab an assistant coach, if you can grab a player. We always sit down with the head coaches before every game. And the ironic thing is all the prep you do beforehand, if you use 20 percent of that on a broadcast, that's a lot. Whereas the things that you get at the arena, if you're talking to coaches or players, you use like 75 percent of that information, because it's more up to date.
So, we're five years removed from the last Warriors-Cavs finals, which I view as sort of an inflection point for the waning of the superteam era. There was definitely some fan fatigue by the end of that. And now we're basically getting a new pairing every June. As a broadcaster, do you enjoy having fresh teams, fresh personalities on this stage? Do you miss the dynasties a little bit?
You love them both. As a fan, you love those dynasties. You love the Goliath—but there's nothing better than seeing the Goliath being knocked off his perch. What I love when a new team comes on the scene is the fan base, they're not spoiled by winning. The joy that it brings a citywhen a team is on the verge of winning either their first ever title, or their first title in 50 years or however many years, there's something just so wonderful about that, the pure joy. And then when it's a player that hasn't been really seen on the big stage, like Jokic, it's wonderful to have the opportunity of trying to do him justice and let people know why he's different, that what he's doing is so special. But there's also something to be said for just watching greatness time and time again. LeBron was in that category. Kobe was in that category. I came at the tail end of Michael Jordan's [era]. But to watch one of the greatest who's ever done it and see them do it time and time again, that's just as special from a broadcasting standpoint.
You mentioned Jokic and how unique he is, and the fact that a lot of casual fans might be seeing him now for the first time. You've seen some incredible playmaking centers in your career: Bill Walton, Arvydas Sabonis, Vlade Divac. Is Jokic the best passing big man of all time?
Yes. I'm not very big on lists and rankings and “who's the greatest of all time?” But in my years of broadcasting, night in and night out, the difficulty of his passing, his court vision for a seven-footer, I don't think I've seen better. Bill Walton was spectacular, there's no question, and the others that you mentioned as well. But I do think [Jokic] is on a different level, just in terms of his vision, his timing, his precision. You could make an unbelievable highlight tape just of Jokic's passes, and you'd be amazed. He just has this amazing touch. And as we now know, it came from he was a point guard, when he first started growing up. He told [Nuggets coach] Michael Malone, “I was a little fat point guard.” And that's how he got his touch and his ability to see the court and make those kinds of passes. And now at his size, he's still able to do it. It's amazing to watch.
There was a pretty feisty debate about how the media covers the league after the Nuggets swept the Lakers. So much of the discussion was about the Lakers’ failures and LeBron’s future, rather than what the Nuggets had accomplished. Michael Malone was pretty animated about it, as were a lot of Nuggets fans. We know drama sells, and the Lakers and LeBron are a ratings machine, but do you think we've gotten a little out of balance? Are we all guilty of selling short the basketball in favor of the narratives?
Sometimes we do talk about non-basketball stuff too much. During the season, you'll read or watch shows or even on game telecasts, talking about a certain team, and they're like, “Well, he's going to be a free agent next year. If they get him…” What are you doing? The guy's playing for another team right now. I think sometimes we get a little bit away from the present. The people who are upset that maybe there was too much Laker talk, we're talking about a guy [in James] who's one of the great players of all time, finishing up his 20th year in a disappointing fashion—that's a big story. We just have to make sure we balance it. For us, I thought we did that. Denver was an amazing story. What they've done in a year of unpredictability, they've been probably the most predictable team. Yet, LeBron James being eliminated before a chance to win another championship, and we don't know how much longer he's going to be around, that's also a big story. Listen, Nuggets fans have waited a long time for something like this. And they want all the attention on their team. That's OK. They're going to get quite a bit of attention now in the Finals. And they deserve every bit of it.
Everyone loves a great Mike Breen “Bang!” call, especially during the big games. Apparently, the players do, too. There was a really fun moment in the conference finals, when Jamal Murray looked at you courtside and called his own “Bang!” Has that ever happened before?
Chris Paul did something like that once before, but not in the heat of a moment of a big playoff game like that. I've gotten to know [Murray], and he's such a terrific young man. And for him to do that in the middle of a game, it was really flattering. And the next day when I saw him, I made sure I thanked him, because it made me feel like OK, maybe I'm doing something right in terms of trying to enhance big moments. And if a player like that, in a moment like that, that's what he thinks of, then maybe I'm doing my job the right way. So it was satisfying, but it was also very humbling.
I loved it. And it made me wonder: When you’re out and about—airports, hotels, the streets of New York or wherever, how often do you get “Bang!” calls from fans?
You walk into arenas, and they say it a bit. Sometimes I'll get off a red-eye—and it's usually the younger generation—they'll have the phone and they're already recording a video, and I'm stumbling out of my seat from a red-eye, and they put the phone up in front of your face: “Say bang! Say bang!” It's like, “No, please don't ask me to do that now.” [laughs] But I really do feel this way: For anybody to want to acknowledge that, whether it's to take a picture with them or sometimes people ask for autographs, to me it's the most flattering thing. It's hard for me to believe, the way I grew up and where I started, that people actually want to do those things. I remember being a fan and those things meant so, so much to me. So if I ever get tired of that, then maybe it's time to stop.
One more bang! question, if you don't mind. How many double-bangs have you called? Are you conscious in the moment of the weight that conveys? Because to us, the audience, the double-bang is a big freaking deal. Are you cautious about invoking it? Has there ever been a triple-bang or quadruple-bang? Or is a double-bang the limit?
[laughs] No, just a few doubles. I think there's maybe been three. And I don't take any responsibility for it. It's an out-of-body experience. I don't plan it by any stretch. It's got to be either some unbelievably special moment, or something so surprising, so unexpected. If you do it too much, people get tired of it, even just the single bangs. I rarely have more than two a game and most times, there's only one. I want to keep it for a basket that really means something, that might be the final nail in the coffin, or the one that turns the game around. It's more of a feel of the game, of OK, this is going to be a special basket.
And never a triple-bang?
No, although when Steph Curry gave me the sneakers and named them after that [the Under Armour Double Bang], he kind of suggested that if there was going to be a triple bang, he deserved to be the first one to have it.
Do you have a favorite celebrity encounter during a game? You obviously see a lot of them courtside.
There was one that kind of blew me away. There was one time during a Knicks-Bulls game [in January 2010], and at halftime ESPN was going to have President Clinton come out and give a speech about raising money for earthquake [relief for Haiti]. I'm pretty sure was the earthquake in Haiti. I was to go out at halfcourt at the Garden on national TV and interview President Clinton about why he was raising money and what he needs to do. So I was so nervous, and they wanted me to come meet him in the back beforehand. I'd always heard what a charming man he was. And I was so nervous to meet him. And right away, he makes you feel like there's nobody he wants to talk to more than you. I was blown away by it. But I was still very nervous. So we're waiting at halfcourt and we're about to be introduced in front of a sellout crowd at the Garden that's going out on national TV. And the President, he can sense that I'm nervous. And he grabs me by the arm—much like Hubie did in that other story I told—he grabs me by the arm, and he says to me, “We're going to be great.” It was so unexpected, but so comforting and relaxing. And we went out there and I asked him a few questions. And a week later, I got a letter from him, thanking me for helping him get out the message to the people. To get an opportunity to do things like that, you don't dream about things like that in your life. It's just so, so rewarding.
Any others?
One of my heroes is Michael J. Fox, and it has nothing to do with his acting—though he’s a brilliant actor. But my father died of complications from Parkinson's disease. And it's an awful disease, where you lose your dignity in many ways. And what Michael J. Fox has done for Parkinson's research is one of the extraordinary things I've ever seen in my lifetime. And the fact that he's out there always, even with all the complications of the disease that are on full display, often when he's even sitting courtside at the Garden. He has shown so many people that you can live with this disease, and you can live with it with dignity. So to be able to meet him, and to be able to thank him for what he's done for something that I saw take its toll on my dad, that was one of the really one of the great honors of my life.
You were on J.J. Redick’s podcast earlier this year, and he mentioned that you kind of recruited him, or urged him to pursue broadcasting while he was still playing—which obviously turned out pretty well! Because he's pretty good at it. You clearly have an eye and an ear for this. Has that happened before? And who's next?
You can just tell when you interview somebody—not somebody that's necessarily gregarious or has charisma, but their line of thinking is just different than the others. And that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be good on the air, because we've seen some unbelievable names of great players, great coaches who go into broadcasting, and they're not very good. But there have been others that I've said that to. [Redick] was one, clearly, because he was one of those go-to guys that you could ask him about his team where they're at, and he just he answered differently than most. But there are a number of really smart players—just for example, Jalen Brunson, who I've gotten to know this year as the Knicks announcer. He would be an outstanding analyst. Just the way he talks about the game. He just has a great understanding. There's probably one or two on every single team that I think would be good. But they make so much money as a player, that it's an enormous pay cut for them to go into broadcasting.
Do you have any idea how many miles a year you log? Do you have one of those like fancy 10-million-miler cards like George Clooney in Up in the Air?
I'm a million-miler on three different airlines, but now I'm a big Delta guy. So I have some pretty good status on Delta. It's the only negative of the job, is all the flying and all the airports and hotels. I've never counted, to answer your original question. People ask me, how many nights are you on the road during the year? I refuse to count that as well, because I would probably get depressed, as a father of three, although my adult children now are older and out of the house. It's the toughest part of the job, but it's a necessity. We all have to travel and get flight delays and stay in airports or hotels that have terrible water pressure. So you can see where my priority is for hotels.
You, Jeff, and Mark have been doing this for a long time. You have this really fun dynamic. It's clear you guys have an affinity for each other, but you mix it up a bit too. I'm curious if that dynamic holds when you go to dinner on the road. Are Jeff and Mark arguing about appetizers? Do you have to step in and settle the debate?
Oh, it's worse on the road. It's worse at meals, the drives to the arena, the drives after the game. They go at it. It's more profane when it's off the air. It's the beauty of them. You know, we all met way back in the mid-90s, Jeff was an assistant coach for the Knicks, Mark was a player and I was a new radio broadcaster. And to be able now to spend all these years side by side with them, it's one of the great joys of my life. I love them like brothers. We've all grown up together in the NBA. We've watched our kids grow up together, and to spend all these years with them, and their knowledge of the game and how much fun they have while they talk about it, it really is like I'm living a dream. I always say, any bit of success I've had, I can thank for having the two of them next to me.
We need someone to send a camera crew with you guys and film the dinner, or film the car ride.
We've said that Jeff could be a sitcom, just following him day to day. Like Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm with Jeff, that would be very, very popular.
Definitely a similarity there! And we all enjoy a good Van Gundy rant.
Most broadcasters hate blowout games, and I do too. You want a close game every time you sit down to call a game. But when it's a blowout game, there's part joy, because he's going to go into a lot of other stuff besides basketball. But also there's anxiety, because you just don't know where he's gonna go. It's always a danger zone.
