The Press Box - Mike Breen on Coming Back From COVID and Calling the NBA Finals.

Episode Date: June 15, 2022

Bryan is joined by play-by-play announcer Mike Breen to discuss his career transitioning from radio to television, the differences between calling regular-season and postseason NBA games, working in a three-man booth alongside Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, and the responsibility that comes with calling the Finals. Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Mike Breen Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Chris Vernon, and me and my buddy Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O Everything, host an NBA podcast called The Mismatch. They call it The Mismatch because I'm awesome and Kevin is a gigantic nerd. No, no, that's not why at all, Chris. They call it the Mismatch because I have a brain and you're a loudmouth bozo. Good grief. Anyway, listen to our amazing NBA podcast, The Mismatch. Or don't.

We really don't care. We're probably going to win a million awards either way. Chris, we do care. So don't say that. Please subscribe and listen to the mismatch only on Spotify. Did you really call me a bozo? Hello, media consumers. Welcome to Pressbox.

Brian Curtis of The Ringer here, along with producer Erica Servantes. During the NBA finals, you might have heard me talking about how much I missed the presence of ESPN's Mike Breen. Missed his voice, missed the airline pilot-like control he brings to a basketball, game missed his catchphrase, bang. Well, after sitting out two finals games for a positive COVID test, Breen is back on television. And now he's on this podcast too. Breen and I talked about what it was like to watch the finals rather than call them,

his origin story in the business, and what those NBA referees are doing to buzzer beaters. Let's get this out before the official review. Here's Mike Breen. All right, Mike, you missed three games after testing. positive for COVID, including two finals games. How do you feel now? Oh, great. Brian, I tested positive, but I didn't have symptoms.

They were testing me. I flew out to San Francisco. They were testing me twice a day, and every day it came back positive. But I didn't have any symptoms. So it was frustrating. You felt like a defendant waiting for the jury to come in. Is he guilty or not guilty twice a day? And like, you had this guilt feeling when he tested positive.

But I felt fine through it and I feel great now. Thank you. Had you ever missed a big game in your career because of laryngitis or anything like that? No. And the frustrating part was because you felt you could call the game because you felt fine. Although I think the alternative of feeling horrible would have been a heck of a lot worse. So the good thing was I didn't feel bad. The bad thing is I'm watching these games that I live to call.

What was that experience like? It was, well, it was bizarre from two reasons. Number one, again, because you build a whole year to get to this point. And then number two, I'm sitting in the hotel room. I was in my hotel room in San Francisco for six straight days. And, you know, this is not a lot to do. You try and figure out, watch TV, you read, call people. But I centered my entire day around when the game started, like I was, you know, this big fan of the team.

Instead, I'm a big fan of the broadcast team and just of the event. And then to sit there and watch it was, yeah, it was bizarre, I'll say that. Would you notice about those games on TV that you wouldn't have seen if you were sitting courtside? You know, that's a good question. I think, you know, because of the job that I have, you really watch for what the announcers are doing. You watch for the director's cuts. You watch for when graphics come in. And in some ways you appreciate it a little bit more when it's done perfectly.

You know, when you're calling the game, you're just so caught up and making sure you've seen exactly what's going on that you don't notice that those nuances from a broadcasting standpoint. You know, we have, our crew is just phenomenal from producer Tim Corrigan, director, the new director this year is Mike Schwab and the camera guys. I've said long that the camera operators are the unsung heroes of our business. And when you watch the game on TV, you realize just how good these guys are. gals. They just, they seem to nail every shot. They seem to get every shot you want. It's, it's incredible how good they are. So my appreciation for their work goes a lot higher when you, when you have a chance to sit back and watch it. This is unfolding in front of you on a TV screen rather than happening in your ear and on a monitor in front of you while you're doing,

calling the game. Right. Exactly. And you know, you know, you know what they're saying in the truck, you know what they're saying. But to see it just watching it while, while you're not working is, it's just so impressive how they do their work every day. And they never get enough credit. But for me, they were getting a lot of credit watching at the hotel. Here's a small production moment from last night. First quarter, Draymond Green has that amazing ball fake, turns around, then goes the hoop and dunks the ball.

Celtics call timeout, which you mentioned, and then you lay out, and ESPN doesn't use the typical bumper music to take us into commercial. They just take in the crowd from Chase Center to play as to commercial. Is that something you guys and the producers in the truck come up with on the fly? Yeah, you know, it's strictly a fuel on that, Brian. And I've long believed that's, I think that's a great way to do it. I'm kind of a less is more type with that type of stuff.

Now, we probably wouldn't have done that if it was the game was in Boston. But because it's in Golden State, because the crowd goes crazy. I just think it's like having an extra announcer that says the perfect thing, and that's nothing, and that's the crowd. And, you know, one of the other broadcasters that I was influenced by is Pat Summerall. And, you know, Pat, I mean, he just perfected the concise call and let the moment take over and off in the crowd. I think Joe Buck does that as well as anybody who's ever done that. He just knows when to do it. And from years from doing it, you know, you can just tell the swell of the crowd, this is.

is a time that kind of get out there because, you know, the human voice is not made to override that kind of noise. And I think it works. And we're all certainly on board with that. And it's not just me, Mark and Jeff, they really have a great feel for that as well. First half of last night's game was pretty uneven, pretty sluggish at times. Then the third quarter starts and the basketball just really, really picks up. Do you perk up on at court's side when that happens? Do you get more excited. No doubt. Although in the final, even as you say, and you're being kind, some of that was such ragged play in that first half. The defense had a lot to do with it. But it wasn't the most beautiful basketball to watch in the first half. But since it's the finals and the emotion and the

intensity of there, you're still fired up. If that's a regular season game, you're thinking, oh my goodness, this game is just brutal right now. So when it turns like that and you get two teams playing at a high level and the ball's flying all over the place and they're going up and down the floor. There's no question you start to sit up a little closer on your chair and again that's selfishly that's what we live for you know those kind of moments those kind of stretches. How does your job change during the finals? It's just you just feel pressure is the wrong word. I've always felt you feel a responsibility to make sure you get it because these are.

the big moments in a lot of these players' careers. It's when I first started, my first finals was 2006. It was Miami, Dallas, and I did it with Ubi. I've never been so nervous in all my life. I was, I was petrified, quite honestly, because you're overwhelmed by how many people are just in the arena. You're not thinking about how many people are at home watching. It just, it takes on a life of its own. And I remember before 2006, I got a call from an ESPN executive. And they told me, you know, you realize you have to call the finals differently because there's a lot of casual fans who know nothing about basketball.

So you have to explain things. And I must have gotten that reminder like three or four times before game one. And I'm like, okay, I get it, but, you know, I'm trying to figure out how to balance it. So the game starts. And I'm probably exaggerating. I've never gone back to watch this. but in the first quarter, I think I explained what a free throw was, just to appease these casual fans who've never watched a game all year.

And I was clearly out of sorts. And God bless Ubi, who is just an absolute treasure. And after the first time out, Ubi reaches over and he grabs my arm. And he could see that I had all this anxiety. And he grids my arm and he goes, kid, just call a game the way you always. do. And it's like, it was lifted from me, this burden that I had, and I exhaled and just started calling it and forgot about doing that. I mean, there's certain things that you can to perhaps that come up that's a little odd that you'll explain. But I was all twisted around and you

would be saved me that day. But it was all part of the nerves of it. And it took me a couple of years, quite honestly, before you, you can just put that all out. It really is, it's an overwhelming experience at the arena. And the players say the same thing. They've never seen so many people on the court before the game, and you can tell. And then obviously, Brian, the intensity from the opening tip on every finals game is, when you're up that close, it's exhilarating the seeds to see these players, these great athletes, and how much it means to them.

Hubey seems like the perfect guy to bring you back down to Earth. There's no question. I mean, he's been like a father to me. It's been one of the joys in my life, not only working with him, but for us to become such wonderful friends. And he's because of moments like that, he's going to tell you what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear. You grew up in Yonkers, New York. When as a kid did you first know you wanted to be an announcer? Probably around, I'm going to say, 16 or 17.

I played high school sports. So I was a high school baseball and basketball player. but one of the good things or one of the strengths I have is recognized as limitations. And I knew that I wasn't going to be able to play in college, although I did go for like a walk-on triad at Fordham. I thought about it. But there was a, we used to play wiffleball on this one street every day. And there was this guy who was in college who was a friend of all of us

who built a radio studio in his basement. And he used to spin records. So like after our doublehead of a wiffleball game, we would sit in his basement and he would be like the DJ on his fake radio station. And one day he asked me, because he had to go do something for his mother, he says, why don't you sit in and you be the DJ for the next half hour? And I did it and I loved it.

And it was the first time that was put into my head. And he also said, he goes, you know, you should think about doing this. You have a decent voice, et cetera, et cetera. So that's the first time that it got into my head. head. And then that's why I went to Fordham, which had such a great college radio station. You told your parents you wanted to be an announcer? What did they make of that? Yeah, well, my dad, God bless him. He would have, because he had heard all these stories that it's a really difficult business to get into and not very many people make it. So he had

friends of his in other fields who were calling me and saying, hey, listen, if you go this route, I can help you get a job out of college. Not that he was trying to discourage me. He just was worried I wasn't ever going to get a job in it because he had heard it's an impossibility. And the ironic thing was he was a steam fitter of my father in construction. And when I get out of college, I worked up in a small radio station for Poughkeepsie for two and a half years,

not making any money living by myself in a tiny little apartment. And I was sending out resumes all over the place trying to get jobs and nothing was happening. And I called him at me. after two and a half years and I said, hey, dad, send me the application for the steamfitters union. I can't do this anymore. And he had remembered that I told him, give me five years. I want to put five years in.

And it wasn't a five years. So he said to me, what happened to the five years? I said, I can't take it anymore. And he said, ah, keep going a little bit. Give it your five years. And fortunately, I didn't become a steam fitter, which would have been a noble and fine profession. But because he told me now stick with it. I kept going. You mentioned Fordham. You're there with Michael Kay, now Yankees announcer,

New York radio host and Charlie Slows, who's the play-by-play guy for the Washington Nationals. Did you guys have one of those things where you had beers and had one of those, here's what we're going to do when we grow up talks? Yeah, Brian, you're going to think I'm making this up. But Kay and I, we've been best friends for over 40 years. So Michael and I would go into the cafeteria and would sit and would sit with all our buddies who were all into the radio station. And he would say, my dream job is to be the voice of the ganges. And I would say my dream job is to be the voice of the Nix.

And then we'd laugh and say two fools who really thinks something like this is going to happen. And it's unbelievable. And I don't mean to bore you with another story. But so when I joined the radio station as a freshman, I was pretty introverted, fairly shy. And I was going to all these workshops. that they taught you how to broadcast, taught you how to edit tape, all that kind of stuff,

how to write copy. But I wasn't feeling part of the station. Back then, you know, the seniors that were in charge of it, some of them, they paid more attention to the freshman girls than they did the freshman guys.

And I just felt like, you know, this isn't working that well. So I'm thinking, maybe this is for me. And I walk into the radio station. And there's Kay. And I'd never met him.

He was a year ahead of me. And he's having an argument with the most beautiful girl on campus. And he's telling her that he can see it in her eyes that she wants to date him. I know you want. I know you want me. He's saying, and she's looking at him like, you would be the last man on earth I would ever date. The last man on earth. So I'm laughing my head off.

And I'm saying it myself, you know what? This guy, there's something about this guy. So after they had their little thing, I went up and introduced myself to him. And I mean, Brian, from that moment on, we became best friends. He introduced me to everybody else at the station. And all of a sudden, I had friends and I felt part of it. So I've had these little nudges first from my dad and then from Michael Kay that maybe changed the course of whatever I was going to do for a living. And the woman did not, in fact, date him at any point?

He had no chance. You mentioned your period casting around for stuff. Then you wind up as a regular on the Don Imus radio show, circa 1989. As an update guy, what was an IMS sports update like? The first six months, I was miserable. I'd go home to my wife. And again, this seems to be a recurring theme of me wanting to give up on my dream. But I kept saying to my wife, I can't do this because he would just,

he would just beat me up verbally every day because he didn't want, he didn't want the normal sportscast. He wanted something different. He wanted something to have fun. And all I was worried about was maintaining my quote unquote sports credibility. So he would just keep hammering me on that. And finally one day I went in and I made a joke about something. And he thought that was the greatest thing in the world and I got accustomed to it. But learning from them was, and not just I miss Charles McCord, Bernard McGirt, the producer, to To think on the fly, I really believe it helped me in my in my play by play because those guys were so quick in coming back and forth. Although it didn't start well.

The first day that I ever worked with Imas was a fill in for Don Cricky. Don Cricky was one of the great voices of all time was a great play by play voice. He used to miss every Friday and Monday on IMS because of his NFL assignments. So I asked the program director, could I fill in? I was about 25 years old at the time. So he says, let's go back to Imas's office and see if he says, yes. So we go back to his office and he was still drinking back in the day. That's before he became sober.

And he's sitting hunched over in his chair. It's like 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And he's already three sheets to the wind. And the program director says, hey, Don, this is Mike Green. He's the young producer on the night talk show. Can he fill in for cricket? And Imus, without even raising his head, says, yeah, that's fine. now get the F out of my office,

which was a typical line from him. So I'm all fired up. I'm going to be on the IMA show, which I listened to when I was in high school and growing up. The next morning I go in, I sit down next to him from my first sports cast at about 610 in the morning. And he's looking at me. He has no idea who I am.

And he hits his mute button and he says to Charles McCord his news guy, he motions to him, keep talking. So he leans over to me while McCormer, doing the news. And he says, who the F are you and why are you in my F in studio? And I'm like, I start to explain to him and he puts on his mic, he goes, Charles, Charles, this kid who looks like he's 16, he says he's filling in for cricket. Have you ever seen him before? And that was my first moment on the air with I was. It was one of the best things that happened in my career. It was so much fun. You know, it was all

crazy humor, stuff that you can't do today. And he was, he was brilliant. He really was brilliant. And he taught me a lot. You would come in and write what we would recognize as almost old-fashioned radio bits that you would

deliver during the sports update. Is that right? Yes. And you know, it took me a while to figure out what he liked and what worked and what I knew would play off him well. and it really forced you to come ready every day. That was the thing with him.

I could have Monday through Thursday. I could have great fits and make them laugh. But if I had an off day on Friday, man, he would jump you. He was hard. He was tough. But he made you better. I mean, he really pushed you to make sure you brought some material every day. There's a moment in January 95 where you delivered the scoop on the air that the Jets had fired their head coach Pete Carroll.

but you did it in such a jokey way reporting that they replaced him with Weeb Eubank former Jed coached it was not totally clear to listeners that you guys had a scoop. Well, that was the best part is you could just do stuff like that

and he loved it. The audience seemed to like it. It'd always be one or two people that were upset that you weren't taking something seriously. But he taught me that having a sense of humor on the air that people love

that. And it's not going to affect my quote-unquote sports credibility because it's a complete different forum and it's a different job. And it took me a while to get there, but it really was so much fun. The talent on that show, the writing and just the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the brilliance of some of them. Charles McCourt is one of the smartest people I've ever been around. It really forced you to, to try and figure out and do your best because you wanted to please them. It was a great, great experience, Brian. The way I must told the story was, you mentioned sometime you were afraid it would hurt your credibility. And he said, Mike, you don't have any credibility. I get crushed. But that's the one thing I could deal with after a while. I grew up in a house

of six boys where we not only verbally abused each other, we physically abused each other. So all I got from him was verbal abuse. So I could do with that. You get the Nix radio job in 1992. You're 31 years old. You told us about your first finals game. What was your first Nix game like? I do remember having a dream the night before. And I've had this dream.

I'd say every couple of years it comes back where I was sitting at court. The two teams come out on the floor and you don't recognize one single player. They're all players you've never seen. and all of a sudden you're looking at your notes and then you wake up in a cold sweat. So that was the dream I had the night before. I'll never forget that. And I do remember, I talked so fast

during that radio game. And I must have just sounded like I was 11 years old, but it was one of the highlights of my life because I was a Nick fan since I was a kid and to actually get that. And, you know, that's, I remember when I got the call that I got the job, Mike McCarthy is the man who hired me and will kind of change my life.

But right after he called to tell me, Marv was out in Portland doing something with the dream team, like their pre-exhibition. And I got to call at my house from Marr to welcome me to Nick's basketball. And it was, you know, just a thrill of a lifetime to hear from him. And then we got to travel together a lot with the team on the team charter. So it was, you know, if you would have told me back then that I'd been doing Nick's, I'd be doing Nix radio for the next 30, 40 years, I'd have signed up for that right then and there. That dream, that's the normal person's version of the, I didn't study for the test dream.

Exactly, exactly. And I've had that too, but that's for a play-by-play geek, it's, that's the dream that you, at least that's what I've had. And every once in a while, I have it again. It's so funny, it rears its ugly head every once in a while. But that's the didn't study for the test stream. Nick's won 60 games that season, finished first in the Eastern Conference. And I read that your dad got to sit behind you during the playoffs and listen to you, call the game on headphones.

What was that experience like? You know, when you're a father of six boys and you're in a house, that type of house, sports is it's not an option. It's a way of life. And he's the one that led that. You know, he was a big sports fan. He was always watching things. And, you know, he played, you know, on the men's softball team that we would always go and watch him. So, you know, my dad is, I was and still is my idol.

He passed back 11 years ago. But to be able to have him come in and sit there with me and sit with Clyde Frazier, who is, you know, right next to me, you know, those are the type of things that mean so much. And he was proud and he loved every minute of it. So it was pretty cool, Brian. What was different about your sound in 92 compared to your current sound? Again, I talk when I, every once in a while I hear a tape from back in the day, I talk so damn fast. And I did sound like I was probably 13 to 14 years old when I was first starting.

And the radio, it took me when I went from from radio to TV, it took me while, you know, make that adjustment. It's harder to go from TV to radio. Radio is a much more difficult game to call because you've got to supply everything. But the adjustment to make was to go to TV is obviously to talk less. And you've really got to, you know, you got to figure that out where you have to give enough stuff. But at the same time, let the picture tell a lot of the story as well. But my biggest problem when I first started was I just talked so damn fast.

how long did it take you to slow down? You know what? I think fairly quickly, but I do remember that every year on radio, and even so still on TV, because I take off now during the summer, I stopped doing all the other sports that I tried to get involved in.

I did the NFL and things like that for a while. So I'm off like four months after the NBA season ends, and I do find that every season it takes about, say, around 10 games before you get back into that rhythm, whether it was radio, whether it's TV. It's just something that, you know, it takes a little while before you just get back in shape. It's like, you know, conditioning to play, conditioning to talk, same type of thing. But to answer your question, I don't remember exactly. I don't have the greatest recall, Brian, as you could probably tell.

But every year it took me a little while. while. What happens in February 2006 to fast forward a few years that allows you to get the top job at ESPN? Well, NBC lost. I was doing games for NBC and I was doing arena football. And arena football was kind of fun once you got to the arena and you did the game. It was kind of cool to call. And the people you work with had a great fun with with the people I worked with. But I remember sitting and watching the NBA games that were on ESPN thinking, this is wrong. I got to be doing it. I need to get back to the NBA. So when I finally got back in, Mark Shapiro hired me. And again, another guy that changed my life.

Al Michaels, well, first it was Brad Nestler, who was the lead voice. And then when they made the change to Al, you know, I'm thinking, okay, I'll get great games. I'm just so happy to be doing it again. And then when the news that I left, I was like, wow, I'm surprised that he's gone, but, you know, I understand all that stuff. And then they, when they called me to offer me the job, I remember thinking, no, this is just like temporary until they find somebody. That's the way I thought. I mean, I knew I call a pretty good game, but the idea of doing the finals didn't quite sink in at first.

And I remember saying that, okay, if I do a good job, maybe they'll keep me. But my initial thought was that this is just going to be temporary until they get a big name to come in. Like a one and done kind of thing. Yeah, right, right. Now, they didn't say that. They never said that. You know, I had a contract at the time. But that's kind of the way I felt because, you know, you think of people like Marlb Albert and Al Michaels and Jim Nance and all these lead announcers.

And I'm not in that, I'm not in that category. So that was my initial thought. It was interesting reading the articles from spring at 2006 after you got that job because you're doing reading articles from back there. Oh, you know, just doing a little research here. But it was funny because you're a very known commodity in New York, but in L.A. You know, there were some articles like, wait, wait, wait, Mike Breen, who's this guy? Did you feel like you were flying under the radar a little bit?

Yes. And quite honestly, Brian, I like that. That was okay with me. you know, I think, you know, when I took over for Marv, after Marv went through that stretch where he was taken out, that was probably the hardest thing for me because here I am, as a young broadcaster, number one, taken over for the greatest basketball playboy voice of all time. And number two, he was, he became, had become a friend of mine. So it was a really difficult situation because what he was going through,

and now I have to come in and take Mark Albert's job. So that was the hardest thing. And it was, you know, I got advice from a number of different people is don't try and be Mark. Just be yourself. And you can win people over. They'll give you a chance. You can win people over. And again, it was one of those things where I was so nervous before that season.

I had done Nick's basketball for a number of years on radio. but now to take over for Marm, I was so nervous. And I think it was like two or three days before the season started. I got a handwritten note from Marb sent to my house. And, you know, for a young broadcaster to have him write a note that said, hey, listen, you're going to be great. Just keep doing what you always do. You're going to have a great year.

And then he wrote, of course, the typical Marb, sorry you have to deal with Johnny Hoops, meaning John Andres, which was his partner. But little things like that where you get a note from him that kind of settled me down and helped. And clearly I had some great people around me that had worked with Mark for years that were going to do the same thing for me. So those moments are a moment you remember. You did that first finals you mentioned with Hubey Brown. But then since 2007, you've done them with Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, with the exception of the two years.

Jackson was coaching the Warriors. What's the trick to do in a three-man booth in basketball? Yeah, you know what? It's, I think the trick is the relationships with the analysts, you know, from my job standpoint, obviously I'm going to talk less because now I have two analysts. And that's okay because, you know, they have so much to offer. And TV is certainly the analysts is the ones that's supposed to shine. Radio is the play-by-play guy. But I think the key, Brian, is for the two analysts, not only to respect each other, but like each other. And I think that's the key with those two guys. You know, they have so much fun together in teasing and making fun and going back and forth. But there's real respect. You know, Jeff coached Mark. Obviously, Mark coached in the league.

And I think that's why it works so well. There is never competition for airtime between the two of them. Often when we're going to a break or a highlight package is coming up and one of those have to take it to break, they're pointing to each other. You go. No, you go, you go. You know, they're new with hand signals. And I think that's what makes it work so much.

And they have an incredible feel for when they're not supposed to say anything, like when it's my turn to say something at the end of a big game or something, they just have this innate feel. I never have to tell them. And people say, oh, how do you control them? I don't control those two guys. Number one, they're fun and entertaining. But number two, they have a feel for it as well.

But I really do believe, Brian, the reason it works in this instance, because I think often a three-man booth is too much. But in this instance, it works because of the respect and admiration they have for each other. So when they're deciding who's going to talk over into a break or over a replay that's often done just by pointing hand signals sitting there at courtside? Right. Now, sometimes producer Tim Corrigan, he's the one that's in charge. He'll say in the ear, Mark, you take this or Jeff, you take this. but a lot of times we're just going to break. And all they're doing, they're just pointing, you point, where you go.

And Jeff is very good about that. Like he likes to share all the stuff and mark the same thing. So sometimes it is just pointing the fingers at each other. It's interesting last night, having another set of eyes there, an extra set of eyes. They both at different points in the game saw that guys were injured away from the ball. So you're calling the play. And they're looking down the court and say, hey, Marcus Smart's hobbling over there.

He got hurt on that play. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, Mark is, he has an incredible ability to see things that I don't see. And I don't mean like, you know, why the pick-a-roll or the staggered screen worked. I mean things about a player where if something seems to be bothering a player or things like that, he picks that up so well. The two of them, you know, there's the phrase all 10. You know, most of us when we watch, we're focused on the ball. and who's defending who's got the ball.

These guys, they see all 10 and they see things away from the ball where I'm concentrating on what's happening with the ball that to me what makes them such great analysts. You told Pablo Torre on the ESPN Daily the other day that your signature catchphrase, bang, originated when you were a student at Ford yelling that during basketball games.

Did you ever get pushback from a producer about bang? You know, that's an interesting question. I pushed back myself when I first used it. I'm like, I don't know, because I was doing radio. I didn't know that it worked. I thought, you know, again, I'm a young broadcaster trying to figure out what's the best way to do this. And I'm thinking, well, maybe they don't know that the basket scored if it's on a radio. So I need to say that it's good.

So the audience knows. Obviously, they would have known if they got used to hearing it. So I shelved it for a while. And then I started doing these high school games of the week on sports channel America was the name of the company back then. And we do a Friday night high school game of the week. And as you know, Friday nights, high school games in certain parts of the country, the entire town goes to those games.

And the place is packed and it's so loud. And I tried it again there on, again, baskets that got the crowd going crazy. And I like the way it worked because you didn't have to override the crowd. And it was a good, concise, simple way to, you know, make a big, excited call, but at the same time not stretching it out, trying to out scream the crowd. And I started like it then when I started to use it there. When do you decide to upgrade bang to bang bang on a particular play? They do have a timeout. Decide not to use it, Curry, way down to town, bang!

A shot from Curry with six-tenths of a second remaining! That was never a conscious decision. That was an out-of-body experience watching this, credible player having this dream season. And just when you think they were going to fail that particular day, he hits a half-court shot, Steph Curry beat Oklahoma City. And, you know, that was a cumulative bang, bang, because of all that had happened that season, that game, he got knocked out with an ankle injury.

They were down double figures in the fourth. Finally, somebody was going to beat the Mighty Warriors. And this guy pulls this one out of his hat like he had done so many times. And I just lost it, lost it. as the basketball fan in me. The fan took over at that time. And when I go back, even to the day when somebody plays it, I'm wincing like the screaming fool.

But that was completely losing it as a basketball fan. And I guess that's a good thing because one of the things I always want to do is whoever's watching. You know, whether they like my style or not, you can't control that. But what I want them to feel is that I love basketball. And that's what I hope. And that call certainly shows that I'm kind of into basketball. How did the increase in the number of three-pointers, NBA players and NBA teams were taking Change Your Job?

You know, that's interesting. I thought about this the other day because we were talking about the very first year in the finals, which was 1980. They introduced the three-pointer in 7980. in the finals between the Sixers and the Lakers, there were 23s taken in the entire finals. One make, one out of 20. So, you know, back then it was no big deal. And I started calling Bang usually only on three-pointers.

But if I did it on a lot of big three-pointers at the end of the game, you know, I try and keep it to a minimum. I rarely go more than twice in the game. People would get sick of it. So I had to change that. There were so many three-pointers. It was early. It was easy to pick early on, you know, when you get a field, which would be a good time to use the phrase.

But now there's so many times that you really kind of have to think about it and hold back to later because everybody's shooting three. I mean, I think it's too much, quite honestly. And I wish we'd go back a little bit in terms of more post play. But it's a part of the game now. So it's changed my approach in terms of when to use the phrase, that's for sure. A couple of questions about this year's postseason. and there have been a bunch of blowouts during the playoffs. What do you do during a blowout?

Well, it's actually pretty easy with Mark and Jeff. There was one finals game. It was the Warriors and the Cavs. I can't remember which year that might have been like 2017. One series would seem every single series, every game leading up to the end of the series was a blowout. And we started talking about favorite sitcoms.

And I even said on the year, I can't believe I'm calling a finals game. We're talking about our favorite sitcoms. Those guys have a great way to, you know, a great way to have fun with it, especially in games like that. But it's also dangerous because Jeff starts thinking about rule changes. And that could go off the rails when he starts. My favorite one was, he was, we had done like three or four blowouts in a row. And he said, are he goes, all right, I got a new rule. says if a team is down by 20 points or more,

but hits a shot from half court, it's a tie game. He really wanted that. And so stuff like that, but they're fun with things like that. And, you know, other blowouts, you tell, it's a chance maybe to tell some more stories, which is one of my favorite parts of the job, it's telling stories of where the people are.

But you figure it out in terms of ways to fill the air time. It can be dangerous, though, with Jeff and Mark. I got to ask you about the refs, too, because game one of Celtics Nets this year, Jason Tatum hits that incredible shot at the end of the game. You call it perfectly, perfectly. Jaylon Brown kicks it out. Smart fakes inside. Tatum, speed.

And then here come the refs waving their hands. Say the shot is waved off. What happened there? Well, first of all, I didn't sleep for two nights. Here's the first game of the playoffs. We have this, not only was the game so thrilling and exciting, but I thought it was our best telecast of the year, and I ruined it, completely ruined it.

I was a mess that night because you don't want to, such a great moment, you don't want to mess it up, but I did. And it's because it was so close to the end of the game, I thought they were going to put time on the clock and say that he didn't get it off in time. So I didn't make the call that it's over. I wanted to say, I said Celtics 4.1, I think, and I wanted to say it's over, but I see Zach's arm out of the corner of my eye, and he's waving it off. So I'm not sure if he's waving it off because it came afterwards. I'm not sure if he's waving it off because they want to put more time

on the clock. And I guess the wrong one, obviously, thinking that the way he was waving his hands, that's what I felt. And I was, I was crushed that. You just, you hate to make mistakes like that. But, you know, it is part of the job. But I didn't sleep that night at all, Brian. Has the idea that referees are going to come look at every big play a few seconds after you call it? Does that sit in your head somewhere? Yeah, well, that was the reason for my hesitation. I've seen it happen too many times where you say it's good to get in the Bulls win or the Knicks win and then all of a sudden they don't win. Then you put time back on the clock and, you know, so you want to make sure it's absolutely. But that was,

like the perfect storm on something like that. And because they look at those replays, you have to really keep a close eye on the clock. And I had a good view, but then all of a sudden, when I saw his arms waving, I guess the wrong one. It's just got to be so strange because, I mean, I was watching last night, Jordan pulled Banks in that shot at the end of the third quarter. And again, you're right. You correctly He got it. There we go. And then you start to watch the replay and go, uh-oh.

Did it get out of his hands soon enough? In real time, I didn't think there was any question. So that's why I was confident in making the call. But when you see, it's like you have to slow it down. The ball just leaving his fingertips, which makes it so hard. Now, it's a little better if it's a halftime shot or at the end of a quarter shot as opposed to the end of the game, which, you know, you really don't want to. But that one I thought, I thought for sure.

sure he had got rid of that one just on time. And that goes to one of my pet peeves in the NBA is players who are afraid to take that half-court heed at the end of a quarter because they don't want to affect their three-point percentage. Well, it shows you you never know when it's going to go in. And look at that, you know, a difference that can make in a possible NBA finals game. He didn't care if his percentage went down and he was going to give it a shot. So I always praise those players who were courageous enough not to affect the three-point percentage. The other one I would ask you about are the reviews for flagrant fouls, which have been kind of interesting. It reminds me a few years ago when NFL announcers were watching replays about the catch rule.

The replay was, did he catch it? And do we understand or agree with the rule? What do you make of those reviews? It's impossible to predict the last. line for what a flagrant is has changed dramatically. And then when it gets to the playoffs, you know, they don't want to be so quick to call a flagrant to an eject a player in a playoff game. And then, of course, it's the subjective way that each official looks at it. You know, when you do a flagrant file, it's the officials who are on the court that make the

call. They can get input from the replay center. But it's those that make the call. So a lot of it is subjective. You know, there's certain criteria. That's a flagrant one. That's a flagrant two. But because it's, there are different levels of flagrant one. There are different levels of flagrant two. You just can't predict. And compared to what they used to call to what they call now, you know, how many times we sounded like, oh, that's, that's going to be a flagrant two. That's definitely a flagrant two. And then it's a flagrant one because you can't predict. But you do feel frustrated, especially when it's taken them a long time and you've seen the replay now nine times in a row. It's like, what more can you say about it? Just tell me.

Your colleague, Sean McDonough, had one during a bowl game where the referees kept coming on to explain something. And eventually he just said, into an open mic, please stop talking. I'm not surprised. That's, Sean's got a great sense of you. I'm going to have to use that. One more to hit you with, and it's an old article, I warn you, 1992, you told the New York Daily news, this is when you first got the Knicks job, I'm not a Marv Albert, so I'm not going to be a legendary play-by-playman. You still feel like you're not going to be a legendary play-by-playman? Ryan, I'm just so, so thankful and blessed to be calling NBA games. Like I said, and I mean it sincerely, if I was just the NICS radio broadcaster for the rest of my career, I'd have been thrilled.

I sometimes it's hard for me to comprehend that I've done the finals for so long and and I truly believe this it's because of so many people that have helped me over the years and every year in the finals there's a handful of people before I call game one of the finals this year it was game three that I send an annual email to to tell them that I'm thinking about them because they're the reason why I'm there. And I've had so many people. I made a speech once after getting an award. And the phrase I used was, I wish I could bring everybody who's helped me up on this stage to accept this award with me. But unfortunately, there's not a stage anywhere big enough in the world to hold that many people. And I really feel that way. So from that standpoint, words like what you

just use, I can't even think about use. And I'm just grateful to be doing what I'm doing. Mike Breen, thanks for coming on the press box. Thank you, Brian. I really enjoyed it. It's time for the second weekly edition of David Shoemaker. Guess is the strained pun headline. Yeah. Monday's headline about Jurassic World bringing back its beloved Troika of characters was

their jerseys are hung with the raptors. Today's headline comes from valued listener David Downing. It's from the Syracuse Post-Standard and Syracuse-Dakuse. story goes like this. A thief broke into a donut truck early this morning and took it for a joy ride before dumping it in the city's inner harbor. No word yet on who broke into the donut truck

and drove it off. What was the Syracuse post-standard's strained pun headline? A thief broke into a donut truck. Um, and drove it into the river? I believe they parked it and the inner harbor would be the area of Syracuse

I thought it went in the water too but they just found it to park somewhere. Donut I keep thinking of that old Hertz donut joke from when we were kids crispy cream let's stick with donut donut

God what is it It's a mystery. Donut. We don't know who did this, David. Another word for mystery or? For mystery. Like a who don't it? A who don't it?

Is that really it? Who donut? By the way, the donut truck, the company was called, wait for it, glazed and confused. That's too good. I had to delete that from the intro, so it wouldn't get too puny. there. He is David Schumacher. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Erica Servantes Shoemaker and I are back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.