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Mike Breen Expresses Displeasure With NBA Playoffs TV Change

As part of the NBA’s new media deals, local broadcasters are completely shut out of postseason games.
Jimmy Traina|
For the first time in ages, Mike Breen won’t be calling Knicks first-round playoff games.
For the first time in ages, Mike Breen won’t be calling Knicks first-round playoff games. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. As part of the NBA’s new media deals, local broadcasters are completely shut out of postseason games.

With the NBA postseason set to begin on Saturday, many people are now just realizing that we’re in for some big changes when it comes to where the games can be found.

In the past, the first round of the playoffs always aired nationally and locally. For example, here in New York, when the Knicks made the postseason, the opening round aired on MSG as well as TNT or ESPN.

However, now that the NBA has signed new media deals with Prime Video, NBC and ESPN, local broadcasters are shut out of the postseason completely. The first round now will only air nationally.

Mike Breen, who calls Knicks games on MSG, as well as being the lead voice for ABC/ESPN, sounded off on this change Sunday.

“I personally think it’s a poor decision,” Breen said of the TV change. “Fans want to hear their teams’ announcers, at least in the first round. Because, for so many of us, and all of my favorite teams growing up, the home team announcers, they become part of the family, such a big part of why you root for the team.”

“Now, I get it, that the networks pay a fortune to get exclusivity,” said Breen. “Obviously, I work for one of the networks, and it’s important for them. But I just think the fans deserve to be thrown a bone once in a while. In terms of, you know, let the home team have a little bit of the first round, somehow, if there’s any way they could ever work out some kind of compromise. I’m not hopeful for that, but it would be wonderful to have it.”

Kudos to Breen for calling this out, but I had to chuckle when he said, “I just think the fans deserve to be thrown a bone once in a while.” Fans are never thrown a bone. Leagues, teams and networks have zero interest in ever throwing the fans a bone. This is the time we live in. Money rules all in sports and it just get worse and worse.

That leads me to the next change for the postseason. If you’re all fired up for the play-in games this week, you better be prepared to get locked into Prime Video. Every play-in game will air on Amazon. In addition, when the playoffs begin on Saturday, Prime Video will air games at 1 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. before ABC takes over at 8:30 p.m.

Now, I know some of you are ready to light me up and say, “Hey, stupid idiot, EVERYONE has Amazon Prime.” Of course, that’s not the point. The NBA playoffs will be a perfect example of how the no-flipping-on-streaming is a huge problem.

Let’s say you want to want to watch your team in an NBA playoff game, but also keep track of what your MLB team is doing. Most sports fans in that spot would flip over to the MLB game during a commercial or a timeout or a review. Well, those days are over because there’s no flipping on streaming.

2. It has long blown my mind that John Smoltz has been Fox’s lead MLB analyst for so long. He dropped one hell of a take Saturday, questioning why a batter would ever challenge the first pitch of an at-bat. You would think a batter wanting a 1-0 count instead of an 0-1 count would be a no-brainer, but not to Smoltz.

3. I’ve said many times here in Traina Thoughts and on SI Media With Jimmy Traina that Padres play-by-play voice, Don Orsillo, would be my choice for a national gig.

If you want to know why I’m a fan of Orsillo, just look at this weekend, when he called back-to-back walk-off wins for San Diego.

Friday night, it was Xander Bogaerts hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the 12th.

On Saturday, Gavin Sheets did the honors:

4. This was a very nice moment between Mark Jones and Doris Burke on Sunday as Jones called his last game for ESPN after 36 years with the company. Personally, I’m going to miss Jones more on college football than the NBA. I always thought he was underrated on college football, where he added a lot of excitement to the games.

5. It was great seeing Rich Eisen (and the old-school intro) on SportsCenter on Sunday.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with SiriusXM and New York Post host Adam Schein.

Schein talks about balancing his daily schedule of doing radio from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then a live YouTube Show for the Post from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. In addition, Schein shares insight into his new role as CBS’s studio anchor for NFL highlights and how that job works. Other topics discussed with Shein include his daily coffee intake, Tiger Woods, whether the NBA playoffs will be Victor Wembanyama’s coming-out party, why the Lakers’ injuries are so devastating, the start time of the NCAA women’s tournament and much more.

Following Schein, Sal Licata, from SNY TV and The Sal Licata Show, joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include everyone’s obsession with ballpark food, the Dodgers screwing an 81-year-old, 50-year season-ticket holder, the Masters, a college football coach’s unusual recruiting tactic and more. In addition, I read listener email.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: I’m not the only anti-streaming person out there.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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