Mike Breen
Sports Media with Richard Deitsch
Audacy
4.5 • 757 Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 627 of the Sports Media Podcast features Mike Breen, the lead voice of ESPN/ABC's NBA coverage. The NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs begin June 3 at 8:30 PM ET on ABC. Breen will call games with Richard Jefferson, Tim Legler and Lisa Salters. In this podcast, Breen discusses his thoughts of this Spurs-Knicks series; the immense value of Victor Wembanyama being in the Finals; why he thinks the series will appeal nationally; what it's been like for him to do a lot of press on the series as the TV voice of the Knicks; the celebrity row that will appear at Madison Square Garden; how he looks at a neutral broadcast; the atmosphere in NYC; what it means that the Knicks-Spurs winner will be the eighth NBA champion in the last eight seasons; calling his 21st NBA Finals; his first NBA Finals call on TV, which was in 2006 with Hubie Brown; calling the 1994 NBA Finals on New York radio when the Knicks lost to the Rockets in seven games; working with Don Imus and being made fun of by Howard Stern' becoming friends with Ben Stiller, and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the sports media podcast. |
| 0:09.6 | I'm your host, Richard Dijt. |
| 0:10.5 | My producer is Jared Rowland. |
| 0:12.2 | One guest on this podcast, this is someone who has done a lot of press. |
| 0:16.3 | Let me tell you in the last couple of days. |
| 0:18.0 | So I am honored to get him. |
| 0:19.9 | If you are an NBA fan, he needs no introduction. |
| 0:22.9 | Mike Breen is the lead voice of the ESPN ABC's NBA coverage. |
| 0:27.8 | The NBA Finals will be contested between the Knicks and Spurs. |
| 0:31.4 | They begin Wednesday, June 3rd, at 8.30 p.m. Eastern on ABC. |
| 0:36.8 | Mike is, of course, joined by Richard Jefferson, Tim Legler, |
| 0:41.1 | and Lisa Salter as part of the main broadcast. It's great to have Mike Green this week because |
| 0:45.4 | obviously, and we will get into this, there is a significant connection as Mike Green, of course, |
| 0:51.2 | is the longtime voice of the New York Knicks. And with that, Mike, welcome. Welcome back, I should say. Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me, Richard. All right. Mike, before I stop mocking you for all the press that you've been doing, I will actually start this interview like in a professional manner. No, it's okay. My own family's sick of it. It's the ultimate overexposure. And I apologize to my family for having to watch or read things too many things. |
| 1:17.1 | Yeah. Between you, Timothy Shalama and one of those Kardashian-Generes, like it's been a lot of press in the last year. |
| 1:22.8 | That's very nice of you. Thank you. |
| 1:24.6 | All right. So here's what I want to start. Just so people know, we're taping this on Sunday. So we're, you know, less than 24 hours after the Spurs beat the Thunder in what was really an exciting game seven. Mike, I know you watched that, obviously, even though you didn't do the game. When you saw it was the Spurs and the Knicks, just like sort of briefly, like your initial thoughts |
| 1:44.8 | and top line thoughts when now you know that it's the finals. |
| 1:48.4 | Yeah, well, either one would have been a compelling finals, but this one seems to have a little |
| 1:53.2 | bit more juice when you think of, okay, you've got one team trying to break a half-century |
| 1:59.1 | drought in terms of championships, And you have the other team, |
| 2:03.0 | is this to start of a dynasty? It's, I mean, it's so compelling. And the fact that the last |
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