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Mike Breen fawns over NBA In-Season Tournament: ‘It’s fun to broadcast.’ – Awful Announcing
Awful Announcing
Like most new things, the NBA In-Season Tournament has its fair share of vocal critics. Not Mike Breen, however, count him as a big fan of what the league is attempting to build.
Tuesday night featured the unheard of “must-win” November NBA game for those seeking to advance in the new tournament. And for some teams, it wasn’t just a “must-win” but a “must-win big” in order to advance.
Thanks to point differential being a tiebreaker in the tournament, teams with big leads Tuesday night were attempting to run the score up on their opponent. The Knicks held a 23-point lead with five minutes to go against the Charlotte Hornets and still had their starters playing. The Celtics were up by 26 on the Chicago Bulls and played hack-a-Andre Drummond to build onto their lead.
It might go against the sportsmanship and “integrity of the game” previously projected by the NBA, but it also made games much more entertaining than they normally would have been, as Breen pointed out during the Knicks broadcast on MSG.
“I can’t believe having these excitable calls with a 20-point game with three to go,” Breen said as he called the November game with late-season enthusiasm.
This didn’t seem like Breen preaching his love for the NBA’s new format simply because he works for the league and wanted to be a company man. If you watched the broadcast, the excitement in Breen’s voice was genuine.
“There are some basketball purists that probably hate this,” Breen continued. “I wanted to wait and see how it developed. I’m kind of hooked on it. It’s made games in November have some extra meaning. There’s real juice in the building. The fans like it, it’s fun to broadcast, and there’s no question the players are into it.”
Some of those purists who probably hate this include Mike Francesa and Michael Wilbon, who both bemoaned the venture. It’s new, it’s weird, and there’s no guarantee it will be for long, but there’s no question it added juice to some otherwise meaningless minutes of basketball Tuesday night.
Since the new venture was announced, fans have wondered what to make of the NBA In-Season Tournament. Does winning the tournament come with any sense of pride beyond the $500,000 set to be handed out per player on the championship team? Will the tournament be long lasting and something fans are interested in a few years from now?
Whatever it ends up being in the future, at a minimum, the tournament’s existence has made for some more exciting November basketball this season, a time in the schedule where games are often dismissed as being largely insignificant. Tuesday night exemplified the change.
“The NBA felt that this has a chance to be something fans would love and players would love, but many thought it would take a few years to kind of really pick up steam,” Breen admitted. “And it still will. But I don’t know if they expected there to be this kind of excitement this year.”
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Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com
“It would be made of a material that would make Michigan men proud.”
“I never watch Pat McAfee with Aaron Rodgers,” Stephen A. Smith said in February.
“Sports Illustrated was about two things: Writing and the photos.”
“Now the numbers are coming back and this is something that McAfee could not have expected.”
Noah Eagle took over his dad’s announcing duties for the Nets on Thursday night before his first official game this weekend.
“It all came down to the word f*** face.”
“It would be made of a material that would make Michigan men proud.”
“I never watch Pat McAfee with Aaron Rodgers,” Stephen A. Smith said in February.
“Sports Illustrated was about two things: Writing and the photos.”
“Now the numbers are coming back and this is something that McAfee could not have expected.”
Noah Eagle took over his dad’s announcing duties for the Nets on Thursday night before his first official game this weekend.
“It all came down to the word f*** face.”
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