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If there were any doubts that Mike Breen can be a neutral announcer during the NBA Finals with the New York Knicks facing the San Antonio Spurs, Joe Davis can put those at ease.
The Fox Sports baseball announcer — who also calls Los Angeles Dodgers games locally — received a thoughtful critique from Breen when the Dodgers faced the New York Mets in the 2024 National League Championship Series.
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“He reached out. It was the first time I met him, and he said, ‘I just want to let you know as a Mets fan who is looking for every mistake you might make or every sign that you’re a Dodger homer, I want to tell you how much I have appreciated how down the middle you’ve played it and how neutral you’ve been.’ To get that from anybody would be appreciated, but to get it from someone I respect as much as I do, Mike meant the world, and that was the start of what has become a special friendship,” Davis said.
Whether Breen gets similar critiques from Spurs fans over the next couple of weeks remains to be seen.
Breen will call his 21st finals for ABC and ESPN beginning Wednesday night in San Antonio, but it’s his first involving the Knicks. He started calling Knicks games on the radio in New York in 1991 before moving to television in 1998.
Despite the Knicks making their first finals appearance since 1999 and vying for their first NBA title in 53 years, Breen said his approach to this series is the same as other seasons.
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Breen said he had a good teacher in Marv Albert, who was NBC’s main NBA voice while also doing Knicks games. Albert called the 1994 finals between the Knicks and Houston Rockets on NBC when Breen was doing Knicks radio.
“He called it as he would any other two teams. And that’s the way you have to approach it,” Breen said. “Fans always think you’re rooting for the other team in the finals. And that’s a wonderful thing because it means the fans care so much, and that’s the beauty of it.”
ESPN “Monday Night Football” announcer Joe Buck — who called 24 World Series on Fox — also knows what a delicate line it can be when a local team is playing for a…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-nba-finals-wont-change-195643898.html
Author : JOE REEDY
Publish date : 2026-06-02 19:56:00
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