Tag: Mike Breen

Caitlin Clark earns high praise from Hall of Fame basketball voice

Mike Breen has taken notice.

After a spectacular Rookie of the Year campaign with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, Caitlin Clark continues to gain high praise from many throughout the basketball world as her influence on the growth and prosperity of the game increases.

During Sunday’s game between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers from Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse, MSG broadcaster Mike Breen spoke of Clark’s impact on the WNBA’s TV ratings by mentioning how the Fever’s local broadcasts this summer were higher than that of the Pacers.

“During the summer, when the Indiana Fever played here with Caitlin Clark, the building was packed. Every game,” Breen said on the broadcast. “The TV ratings of the Fever this summer, for the local telecast, were higher than a lot of the Pacers games because of Caitlin Clark.”

Breen continued raving about Clark and compared her impact on the WNBA to past NBA greats’ impact on the league.

“She’s doing, rating-wise for the WNBA, what Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Steph Curry have been doing for the NBA,” Breen said on the broadcast.

Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As the No. 1 selection in the 2024 WNBA draft, Clark’s ability to translate her game displayed during her four years with the Hawkeyes has been spectacular.

In Clark’s first full professional season, she finished averaging 19.2 points, 8.4 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 35.4 minutes per game. She also shot 41.7% from the field, 34.4% from three-point range, and 90.6 from the free-throw line.

Clark set a new WNBA single-season record with 337 assists. Clark also established new rookie single-season records for points (769) and 3-pointers made (122).

Clark led the league in 3-pointers made and finished just six behind the single-season WNBA record that New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu set during the 2023 season.

Clark helped direct the Fever to a 20-20 record and their first postseason berth since the 2016 WNBA season.

With Stephanie White taking over as the Fever’s new head coach next season, Clark will look to translate her off-court impact into another sensational WNBA season.

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Here’s every ESPN NBA announcer for the 2024-25 season

ESPN’s NBA crew features some familiar names.

ESPN is broadcasting NBA games for a 23rd consecutive year this season, and the announcers set to rotate between games will be familiar to many fans, with the team of Mike Breen, Doris Burke and Cassidy Hubbarth getting joined by Richard Jefferson (at least to start the season). JJ Redick is off the top team given that he’s coaching the Lakers now.

Although we wish we could list the announcers for every game, that’s impossible, especially when there’s some mixing and matching throughout the season.

That said, here’s a look at ESPN’s entire lineup of broadcasters, including play-by-play announcers, analysts and sideline reporters.

Play-by-play

  • Mike Breen
  • Michael Grady
  • Mark Jones
  • Dave Pasch
  • Ryan Ruocco

Analysts

  • Cory Alexander
  • Jay Bilas
  • Hubie Brown
  • Doris Burke
  • Richard Jefferson
  • Tim Legler
  • Bob Myers
  • Stephanie White

Sideline reporters

  • Katie George
  • Angel Gray
  • Cassidy Hubbarth
  • Monica McNutt
  • Lisa Salters
  • Jorge Sedano

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JJ Redick gave a classy on-air shout out to Doris Burke for her historic NBA Finals broadcast

Doris Burke deserves all the love for this achievement.

The first game of the 2024 NBA Finals was a blowout victory for the Celtics, but for other reasons, it was also historical for Doris Burke.

While she was already long considered a legend in the industry, Burke joined ESPN’s lead NBA broadcasting team earlier this season. Later in the season, when broadcasting partner Doc Rivers left the booth to take over as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, JJ Redick took over and join Burke.

So as the two of them joined Mike Breen on the call for the NBA Finals, it’s worth noting that Burke’s appearance was legitimately historic during Game 1 on Thursday night. She became the first woman to serve as a game analyst on the television broadcast of a championship final in either the NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL.

After the broadcast ended before the lead-in to SportsCenter, it was time for Redick to acknowledge this accomplish:

“I just want to say how proud I am of my teammate Doris Burke, who made history tonight calling this NBA Finals game. Look, I’m a newbie at this. I called my first tonight. It’s meaningless in the grand scheme of things. What she did tonight is historic. I’m so proud of you. I love you. It’s so great working with you.”

Burke seemed genuinely moved by the praise and told Redick not to make her cry because he is “the best” teammate.

Scott Van Pelt, who was hosting the evening SportsCenter show, echoed Redick’s comments and hoped that Burke was able to find time to enjoy her achievement.

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Mike Breen told a truly beautiful story about the late Bill Walton on ESPN

This Bill Walton story from Mike Breen is pretty remarkable.

Beloved basketball legend Bill Walton died on Monday after a prolonged battle with cancer, as tributes have poured in from all around the sports world.

One in particular from basketball broadcaster Mike Breen really made an impact, as Breen told an absolutely beautiful story about Walton that really has to be heard.

We’re betting that plenty of great stories about Walton will be told in the days and weeks to come as his memory is celebrated, but Breen’s story is going to linger for a bit. We’ll let him take it from here and commend him for honoring Walton with such a lovely tribute.

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Mike Breen excitedly broke out his ‘Bang! Bang!’ call for Jaylen Brown’s seismic 3-pointer that sent Pacers-Celtics to OT

When Mike Breen breaks out the “double bang” call, you know it’s a big deal.

You know it’s a big shot when ESPN NBA broadcaster Mike Breen breaks out his rare “double bang” call.

That was the case for Boston Celtics star guard/forward Jaylen Brown who hit an absolutely stunning 3-pointer with about eight seconds to go in the first game of the 2024 Eastern Conference finals with his team down three points.

The fateful shot sent the game to overtime and helped Boston avoid losing the first series game at home, at least temporarily.

As it was majorly consequential to this entire series, Breen couldn’t help but use his patented “Bang! Bang!” call to commemorate the seismic 3-pointer.

No matter how this series ends, we at least know we got a Breen “double bang” call out of it. That’s pretty neat.

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Mike Breen had the best call of 76ers fans celebrating free chicken after 2 missed Heat free throws

Hey, free chicken is enough to make anyone excited!

Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin missed two consecutive free throws during his team’s NBA Play-In Tournament game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, and it was a big deal.

Not just for the Heat who definitely wanted the two points, but for the 76ers fans who all won free chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A out of the moment.

Indeed, the “Bricken For Chicken” promotion gives all Philly fans free chicken nuggets from the fast food restaurant if an opposing player misses two shots from the charity stripe in the second half.

Martin did his part of the job, and ESPN NBA broadcaster Mike Breen did his with a very funny call to commemorate the crowd going wild for the free nuggets.

This is such a fun moment for Breen, who clearly knew how to accentuate the crowd’s reaction with such an endearing call.

Hey, people love free food. Boban Marjanović earned plenty of new Los Angeles Clippers fans when he missed two free throws to give that home crowd free chicken, and Martin did his part to win over some new fans in Philadelphia.

Maybe Breen will, too, with this delightful moment.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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Mike Breen playfully roasted Doc Rivers after leaving ESPN for Bucks coaching job

Mike Breen gave Doc Rivers a very funny farewell from ESPN.

After the Milwaukee Bucks hired Doc Rivers as their new head coach this week, ESPN’s Mike Breen paid a hysterical tribute to his former co-worker.

Rivers wasn’t with ESPN very long before heading back to the NBA as a head coach, and Breen noted the irony as he joked about Rivers making such a swift career transition.

The best line had to be Breen thanking Rivers for his “many weeks of service” with the network, which is pretty accurate since Rivers really wasn’t with ESPN very long at all.

May we all have a co-worker like Breen to send us off like this if we leave for another job one day.

However, it was clear after Breen’s kidding around how much he and fellow ESPN broadcaster Doris Burke respect Rivers and enjoyed working with him for the time that they had.

Burke in particular delivered a moving farewell to Rivers as the latter tries to win another NBA title with the Bucks in his coaching return.

While we’re sure ESPN would take Rivers back in a heartbeat if the Milwaukee job doesn’t work out, he at least got a very fitting on-air goodbye from two of his former ESPN colleagues.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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Mike Breen said he was saddened, surprised on losing Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy in ESPN cuts

You have to feel for Mike Breen here.

With ESPN letting go of commentators Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, it leaves the network’s lead NBA announcer Mike Breen without his longtime sidekicks.

Speaking with The New York Post, Breen expressed his sadness over Jackson and Van Gundy being gone from the network.

They’ll reportedly be replaced by longtime NBA reporter Doris Burke and former NBA coach Doc Rivers.

It’ll be a tough transition for Breen, however, as he’d really developed a great chemistry with Jackson and Van Gundy in the years they’d all worked together.

You could tell in Breen’s words how much the partnership meant to him.

“It’s sad because we really thought we had something special and that’s going to be the thought going forward is that we were able to do it a lot longer than anybody ever did,” Breen told The Post. “It’s something we’ll all treasure, but we just wish it was a little bit longer.

“You don’t expect it, because it was such a great team and to have it completely broken up was a surprise.”

This is a tough turn of events for Breen, but Burke and Rivers definitely could replace Jackson and Van Gundy with success.

It’s just never easy to say goodbye to your on-air partners, so we definitely get where Breen is coming from with his words. NBA fans will see how the transition goes when ESPN’s game coverage returns this fall.

Mike Breen seemed so annoyed by a fan who wouldn’t let him relax and watch Yankees-Mets

Breen just wanted to watch the game in peace!

Following a long NBA season, ESPN’s lead play-by-play voice Mike Breen is officially in “vacation mode.” After calling the Denver Nuggets’ first-ever championship in franchise history on Monday, one of the simultaneous Knicks voice’s first stops was understandable — a relaxing baseball game.

Well, he was probably hoping it’d be relaxing.

On Wednesday night, Breen was in attendance for the second game of the “Subway Series” between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. And when the ESPN camera focused on Breen at the bottom of the ninth, he didn’t look happy. In fact, he seemed downright annoyed, likely at the fan in front of him who was yelling and clapping.

I know the standard inclination to explain this is Insert Mets Joke Here, but based on Breen’s irritated face, one gets the sense this was happening all game:

Oof. You have to feel for Breen. After finishing the long grind of an eight-month NBA season, he picked a New York MLB game as one of the best places to chill out and let off some steam. But that apparently (and unfortunately) didn’t happen.

I get the sense he wasn’t letting off any “BANG” calls last night.

A hilarious meme with fake dialogue between Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson is everywhere

This is a hilarious new meme.

The trio of Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson on ABC and ESPN is always solid, with the play-by-lay man providing his usual great summary of the action (including a “BANG” or two), and the former coaches/players coloring in the action from their perspectives.

But it’s kind of funny at certain point when Van Gundy goes off the rails, sometimes off something Jackson said, and Breen has to gently bring the broadcast back to the action on the floor.

All of that has turned into a hilarious new meme that is now everywhere as the NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat: