The NBA playoffs begin, will anyone stop the Thunder? | the pack
The NBA playoffs are underway and the Play-In tournament begins tomorrow. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the big favorites to repeat as champions. Colin Cowherd asks if the San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics or anyone else can stop the Thunder.
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Mike Breen, play-by-play announcer for the New York Knicks and star voice of the NBA with ESPN, is not happy with a key move by the league ahead of the NBA Playoffs.
And he didn’t hold back his frustrations during the Knicks’ final regular-season game Sunday night.
For the first time in NBA history, all local network broadcasts will be removed from the playoffs for nationally televised games. Those networks paid a premium to air the playoffs, but the league had always allowed local home broadcasts to air as well as national television spots in previous seasons.
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ESPN sportscaster Mike Breen watches before the game between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center on February 25, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Celtics defeated the 76ers 110-107. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Breen, along with his longtime teammate, Knicks great Walt “Clyde” Frazier, criticized the league’s decision on the final day of his broadcast duties for the Eastern Conference team.
“This is the first time the home team announcers and announcers can no longer televise the first round,” Breen mentioned during the 110-96 loss to the Charlotte Hornets while broadcasting on MSG.
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“All playoffs are exclusive to national television stations. I mentioned this earlier this season. I think, personally, Clyde, it’s a bad decision. Fans want to hear their home team’s announcers, at least in the first round. For a lot of us, they become part of the family.”
Breen added that he understands that “networks pay a fortune for exclusivity,” since he works for one of those networks in ESPN.
“But the fans deserve to be given a shot every once in a while to let the home team have a piece of the first round,” he continued.
The NBA reached a massive $76 billion broadcast rights deal that went into effect at the start of this season and will last for the next 11 seasons. Like other professional sports leagues, the deal is across multiple platforms, both long-standing networks and streaming.
ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Breen calls the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, on January 17, 2024. (Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports)
While the NBA struck the deal it liked with Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal, Breen hopes it will consider working on something to get local broadcasters back into the fold for the playoffs.
However, he knows how business goes at the end of the day.
“Somehow, if there’s some way to come to some kind of compromise, I’m not hopeful about that, but it would be wonderful to have because this is our last broadcast of the season,” Breen said.
Breen will now focus on his ESPN duties as the “World Leader’s” lead on-court commentator. His famous “Bang!” Calling key 3-pointers has been synonymous with the biggest moments in the NBA Playoffs for years, and that will begin very soon as teams from both the East and West look for their chance to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy and call themselves NBA Finals champions.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, the reigning Finals champions, are once again the number one seed in the Western Conference, while teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers will battle them to be crowned conference champions.
Mike Breen watches before the game between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers during Game 3 of Round 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2023 NBA Playoffs on May 6, 2023 at Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles, California. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images)
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In the East, Breen’s Knicks own the third seed, while the Detroit Pistons (No. 1) and the Boston Celtics (No. 2) had successful regular season campaigns to earn a first place heading into the playoffs.
The Play-In Tournament will be the first games of the NBA Playoffs, which will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. The first round will then split its starts across NBC/Peacock, Prime Video and ESPN.
