Mike Breen on Knicks Win, Crazy Finals Security, & A Triple "BANG!"

All right.

Joining me now, couldn't think of anyone better to have on this week than the voice of the New York Knicks, the world champion New York Knicks, Mike Breen.

Mike, have you come down at all from the high yet?

Well, first off, you can get a lot better guests, but it's nice of you to say that.

Um, no, I haven't actually.

Um, from, from a standpoint of being back in New York now and seeing what it's done for the city and for all the fans.

And, um, also from, from our, our final broadcast as a team, I thought, uh, throughout the whole finals, but especially the final game, uh, so proud of the guys, everybody.

We had some, some important new faces.

Um, so no, I have not come down yet.

I was gonna ask you about that a little.

Yeah, it's funny.

I literally just walked in my house 10 minutes ago and right before I walked in, I mean, I'm driving on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola and there's a car with a massive Knick flag.

I mean, this is extended all the way out here to Nassau County on Long Island, but let me start with the, I mean, and that's the other thing with a, with a series like this.

I mean, I could start in 50 different places.

Let me just start with this.

From the time, I believe it was Bridges with the free throw to give them the 4-point lead, and then the closing seconds of the closeout, what was that like for you there calling that end of the game in Game 5?

Well, everything was still up in the.

A until that, that free throw.

And then, you know, unless the most colossal mistake defensively to foul a three-pointer, which, let's face it, we've seen those before, um, you realized it was, it was happening.

And, It's not just the fact that it was 53 years.

It's the fact that so many of the years recently have been so difficult for the fans and for the organization.

And, um, to have it end this way with one of the most magical runs in the history of the NBA playoffs.

I mean, that's, that's the other part.

The fact that they won is, is almost overshadowing.

How they got there, the, the complete dominance.

And, and so they, I think the stat is they start the playoffs, they're 1 and 2.

They lose 2 games in their 1st 3 in the playoffs.

They lost 1 game in the next 51 days.

It's just unheard of.

Yeah, there were so many stats that came out of that .

This, I saw a stat.

I think the Spurs led for 76% of the series, and the Knicks won in 5.

It's mind-boggling.

It was, it was, you know, that that's the thing too.

It, it wasn't just the Knicks winning a championship.

It was obviously against the future face of the franchise, this great young team.

And even though it was only 5 games, it was one of the most compelling matchups I've ever seen.

Because you had, you know, the script of every game.

Spurs go up double figures in the 1st quarter, every game, the Knicks come back.

And every game, it's, it's right there for the taking in the final 2 minutes.

It's, it was, it was pretty incredible and it's just so compelling to watch.

It's funny you say that because Since the 2nd game 5 ended on Saturday night, anytime from Saturday night till we're speaking now, I've thought about this series.

The, the, the, the first thought in my head that I can't get out of my head is how every single game was the same.

Spurs take a lead, Knicks come back, Jalen Brunson goes ballistic, Wamiyama disappears, like every game was the same.

And it was, it was crazy how that worked out.

Well, that, that's one of the keys for the Knicks in winning in that they just kept to the same formula, no matter what was happening .

They're winning, they're losing, just stick with what makes us good.

And, you know, they were so connected by the end of the season, and that wasn't always the case.

That's the other side story that, that's amazing.

Um, it was March 31st.

They lose a game in Houston, 3rd straight, they had a 3-game road trip, lost all 3.

Josh Hart says after the game, we are trending in the wrong direction.

We are not trending upwards.

And this is, you know, 2 weeks before the end of the regular season, and they're not trending in the right direction.

Um, so the, the, the sudden turnaround is another thing that you don't, you don't really see.

I mean, you rarely see.

And, and that's what made, again, their run so special.

It made it surprising.

We always knew they had the capabilities of playing at that level.

They just didn't show it on a consistent basis.

You know, it, it really does seem like, uh, you know, to go on and on about how the Knicks have taken over the city, the town, New York.

I mean, it's all been well established, but I also feel like it, you really need the perfect storm for that to happen.

And this, I, I think you hit on it earlier.

You have a 53 year drought.

You have a team in the regular season that you really weren't expecting to then dominate the playoffs.

The, like you said, the, the lean years were extremely lean.

And this is just an unbelievably likable team.

There's nobody on this team to dislike.

I think that's always a big, I mean, I understand there are some Knicks fans, you want to talk about the owner, but we don't see him on a day in, day out basis.

He's not really affecting the season in terms of the players.

Everybody on this team is likable.

And now, now you're with them every day.

Tell me if, you know, you feel the same way there in terms of the likability of all of these guys.

There's no question, and it starts at the top.

Um, Jalen Brunson is, is a terrific young man who was raised the right way and carries himself the same way every single day.

Uh, from when he came in the league as a second-round pick to now being one of the elite players of his era, let alone in today's NBA.

Um, he has never changed.

He's, he, he's just, it's all about work ethics.

It's all about, um, treating people the right way, leading by example, leading, um, it's, here, here's the thing, Jimmy, that, that goes under the radar.

He's also very coachable.

And that's enormous.

Patrick Ewing, Jeff Van Gundy used to talk about that with Patrick Ewing.

He said to have a superstar who's coachable just makes everything different for a head coach.

And, and Jalen is like that with, obviously, with Mike Brown.

He was like that with Tom Thibodeau, uh, having his father there, his father gives him grief.

So when the rest of the team sees that this guy is following what the coach does, respects the position.

Uh, will, you know, say, like, oh, here's my suggestion, but respects the position and sometimes gets yelled at.

Boy, that filters down.

And having your star player be coachable, uh, really brings everybody together.

Yeah.

And it's funny, I, I think the other thing that I find similar similar between Brunson and Ewing, and I've said this all along, I think Ewing is the most underappreciated athlete in New York history from my lifetime, my age group, just because.

Patrick never took a night off.

It was 100% for every single game.

And I'm not talking about the load management stuff that's, you know, that, that, that has, that's a different thing.

I'm talking about From when the tip-off started to when the game ended.

There was no minute that Patrick Ewing took off.

I feel like Brunson's the same exact way.

Yes, well, with, with Ewing, he led the league in ice 5 consecutive years.

You'd go in the locker room after the game in these big packs of ice.

His knees were barking at him night after night, and he just, he would go out there.

It's a different game, uh, you know, today if a player had that knee tendonitis, yeah, we're gonna sit you.

Um, but it never impacted him.

And Brunson's the same way.

He, he gets knocked down so many times per game.

He turns his ankle so many times per game, and there's time you see him limp off and he believes he's, he's not faking it by any stretch or accentuating it.

And then he comes back and gets it done.

Um, it's just, he, he's one of the, one of the most unique.

Uh, players in terms of his mind that I've ever come across.

I, I got criticized for this once because I compared his mental toughness to Kobe Bryant, which is blasphemy.

But there's no question, his, his iron will is up there with anybody I've ever seen, and he figures it out.

His brain too.

The other, the other part, he's a smart player.

He sees what the defense gives him and he figures it out.

Sometimes he doesn't figure it out right away, but by the end of the game or by the end of a playoff series, he has figured it out.

It's funny you would have gotten criticized for that because after game two when the Knicks went up 2-0 after taking two road games, and, uh, all everyone on, I, at least I saw on Twitter, all everyone was doing was comparing the comments Brunson made about, we've done nothing yet to comments Kobe had made in one of their NBA Finals where they, he's, they took a 2-0 lead and he said they've done nothing yet.

Yeah, well, that's the leadership part.

So they see their guy, that's what he's saying.

They all kept saying it.

And that's his, that's his MO.

He would never, he wouldn't answer a single question about, well, what happens if you guys win a championship?

What would that be like?

He would shut it down .

No, I'm worried about the next game.

And they do a thing, uh, during the finals where they bring players in with a Larry O'Brien trophy.

And some of them hold it, some of them kiss it , some of it, you know, they just, they're looking at it lovingly.

He wouldn't do it.

That's nothing to do with touching it until he's touching it when he has the right to touch it.

You know, it's funny, it sort of makes me think, you know, I mean, sports fans with their jinxes and I, and I've always said, And I put myself in this, sports fans are deranged.

We're not a, we're not a normal bunch, the way we approach these things.

And in a way , it is, it is, when you think about how warped sports is in that the reason this championship , a big reason is so enjoyable is because it's been 53 years and because the team was so bad for so long.

It's like, that pain ends up becoming worth it in the long, like, I'm a diehard Yankee fan.

Then it, the fun was taken out of it because they had won so much.

Then it was like you had the, then there was the pressure to win, then it became old hat.

This way is, is better, but you have to go through so much pain to get here and it just shows the warped mentality of sports and sports fans, right?

I, I, Jimmy, I've, I've said this a couple of times in the past week, um.

There, it's, it's all about the business of caring.

Roger Angell, the great writer, um, people should look up, he wrote a passage on what it's like to be a sports fan, and it's kind of what you're talking about.

There, there's something so irrational about rooting for something.

You know, what seems like so simple as, as, as a sports team, but it's about the business of caring, like truly caring, caring with your heart, caring with your time, caring with your money, and you invest so much of it.

And the caring part is a good thing.

To care about something is a wonderful thing.

And with sports fans, you care about it with so many others, and you relate with so many others.

My, uh, my son Matt, who's 29, he watched a game.

5 with his buddies in the city at one of their apartments.

After the game, they want to go out and celebrate, so they walk a few blocks to go to a, a watering hole.

He told me, he says, Dad, in those 3 blocks, I hugged 80 strangers.

So it's, it's the people like, like that.

And, and I, I got off, um, I got off the plane this morning and people just, they just wanna come up and talk about it and wanna talk.

They wanna tell you they've never been this happy.

I'm, I can't believe this is happening.

I went through so much.

They want to tell you where their emotions are.

And it's such a wonderful bonding thing.

I get it.

I thought because, you know, it's funny, I, you know, I have a, My oldest friend, we became friends in seventh grade.

We're still friends to this day.

And a big part of our friendship that we always would always talk about glowingly was '94.

We loved that team with Ewing and Starks and Oakley and Pat Riley, and every day there'd be a Knick and Ranger playoff game and Stanley Cup Finals game.

And You know, you go through these waves with the Knicks because they were so bad.

And then like this, this playoff run started and we were texting all day every day about the Knicks.

It was like going back to '94.

Like, it, it, there is that community feeling and it could be like you said, you're, you could be hugging 80 strangers.

It could be your best friend for 40 years.

Like, it, it, What happened in this month, 6 weeks was like nothing I've ever seen before.

And, and add it to that, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters.

It's, you know, that, that, you know, every family has their, their ups and downs, but to, to, to grow, and this would last their entire lives.

If, if you're a son, and like my dad was a.

Big sport.

The reason I got in, I fell in love with sports is because my dad loved sports and we were one of 6 boys and sports was not an option.

I mean, you, you, you, you had to love it and we loved it because he loved it.

And our whole lives, we watched games together and shared games together.

It's, it's just, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

And when, when you see it come to a, a thing like this, like the, the way they won, how they won.

Um, it just, it just adds so much to it.

Uh, and I wanna, I'll end it with this, and then I just wanna get into some specifics on you with Legler and Jefferson and calling the games, but I thought.

The quote from Monica McNutt right after the Knicks won Game 5 was tremendous.

She said, there is nothing like the love letter that an organization has an opportunity to write to its fans and its cities, quite like winning a championship.

That was such a perfect, brilliant, dead-on sentence there by the radio analyst Monima Monica McNutt of the Knicks.

Yeah, she, that is perfect.

She, she has such a love of the game and And she always looks at it from an emotional standpoint.

And that's, that's great.

I mean, you, you, you have different people look at the game in different ways.

Emotion is a big part of the game.

It's an enormous part of the game, and she looks at it like that.

Her and Tyler Murray, who, who is the radio voice who's just in his 2nd year, is , he is outstanding.

He's, he's gonna be a, a big-time network announcer in my opinion, someday.

Yeah, tremendous quote by Monica there, um, on the rap.

All right, a couple of things here about you.

You know, it's funny.

I spoke to Marv right before the final started and he had had words of praise for you and he talked about you could even be an official because you know the rules so well.

You've always been known as a guy with the rules and the refs.

Now, even you have to admit, there are a lot of problems with the refs in this series.

Tell me , You're the play by play guy nationally for the NBA Finals.

Now, you are the voice of the Knicks, so that's already, you know, maybe an issue.

The refs then are atrocious in every game.

Was that difficult to navigate all that with the refs because it became, here's the thing, there were people who were rooting against the Knicks who hated the Knicks were saying the refs blew, you know, so wentmiyama when he threw Brunson across the court, but as the play by play guy, tell me in your head how that was to navigate the bad officiating in this.

Um, that was not a problem because both legs and Richard very strong on that, very opinionated, not afraid to say that's a terrible call.

And they looked at it objectively, and you don't need 3 guys.

If, if 2 say it's a bad call, you don't need a 3rd saying it's a bad call.

So I let them do the heavy lifting on that, and they're really good on that.

Um, and sometimes they disagreed, and sometimes that's fun to listen to them disagree.

I would break the tie every once in a while.

Um, but they, um, they were really strong on that stuff.

First finals working with Richard Jefferson and Tim Legler, how would you assess how you guys did in the, In the playoffs here and in the finals.

I, I'm so proud of them.

Um, when they first started this year, they knew each other, obviously, and, and were cordial, but they weren't what, what I would call best buds.

They have become such great friends and they've helped each other.

Um, they each have different strengths.

And what I think that, what, like, for example, legs, his X's and O's and his strategy stuff is, is off the charts.

Meanwhile, Richard looks at it from an emotional standpoint, a teammate standpoint , locker room, uh, field standpoint, coach-player relationship standpoint.

He has a lot of that stuff that, that's his strengths.

They're both good at the other stuff, but those are their strengths.

And I really felt that, that, um, Legs' presence raised Richard's strategy game.

And because Richard likes to have fun and entertainment, look at stuff, he, he raised Legs as fun, a fun level.

And, Uh, they really started to play off each other and liked, liked each other on the air, not afraid.

A key on this, and, you know, this was the way with, with Mark and Jeff, uh, key on this is not being afraid to disagree and say, you're out of your mind.

Nobody's feelings gets hurt.

And just in their , their, their passion for the game too.

They, they just, they love the game so much and they want to see it played the right way.

And I think that comes flying through the screen.

And I, listen, I don't want to put you on the spot here.

You don't have to comment.

I, I wrote this.

I said it on social media.

I said it on the podcast.

ESPN finally getting inside the NBA as their pre-halftime and postgame.

And then Van Pelt after that, who's tremendous as always.

This NBA Finals for me watching on TV felt totally different.

It felt so elevated.

I , I had written, I, I mean, I thought you, uh, Richard and Tim did great in the first finals calling it together.

And then having that crew, that iconic crew, to me, it felt like a whole different presentation with them there.

Now you're listen, you have to go with the flow.

You're getting paid to be the play by play guy, but do you notice that at all?

Did you, did it feel any different to you that those guys were in the mix?

Yeah, and, and you can say that without criticism of anybody else who's done that because they've done it better than anybody.

Everybody else.

They are the standard for a studio show, especially in basketball.

What they've done over their careers is, is just, it's monumental.

And there's no question it, it, it raised the bar for so much.

Um, and it's all of them.

And like, for me personally, uh, it's, it's a dream come true to throw it to those guys and say, come up at half-term at the end.

And, and it, you know, for Ernie, Ernie, Ernie Johnson is somebody that I look up to Ernie Johnson.

And I think so many other broadcasters look up to Ernie Johnson because his, his standard of professionalism, standard of humanity, um, is just off the charts.

And the other three, the, the chemistry they have together, and the beauty is they're all so different, the three of them.

And, and each brings such a special part.

Charles is one of the greatest of all time.

Uh, but Kenny and Shaq, they bring a different element to it.

Then you bring in Ernie.

It's, it's perfection.

It's absolute perfection.

And just like you said about Legler and Jefferson, like those guys not afraid to disagree, and that's what makes good TV, but it's authentic.

Right, and that's the key because, you know, it's people we've seen it when it's not right, right, right, there's no doubt about it, and people know that and it's, it's good and it's good.

So in terms of you, I mean, obviously we're gonna do like huge prisoner of the moment stuff right here, but where does this rank in terms of the finals that you've called?

Is this the in terms of the most memorable finals?

Um, for me, it, it's certainly up there.

Um, I, I never like to rank them.

So I always say the one of the, uh, and there's no doubt.

And, and listen, I, I, I, I have not, uh, run from the fact that I've been a Knicks fan since I was a little boy.

I've broadcast Knick games for MSG for over half my life.

So it had real meaning for me to, to finally be able to call them in the finals and to have them win a championship in a game that I, that I broadcast, uh, it's beyond special.

It was a bucket list thing.

And then it, when it wound up being this great compelling series with amazing comebacks and this special young player catapulting himself into, uh, the list of one of the greats of all times when it comes to the playoffs, it, it was like the perfect storm and, and, uh, it was just a wonderful experience.

I'm just curious because you've called whatever it is now 2021, 22 of these.

This was 21.

Excuse me.

Take out this one.

What's the most memorable.

The ones that go to game 7, 2016 was amazing.

Um, the only team to come back from, from 3-1 down.

Uh, obviously, the Ray Allen, um, when, when he hits that shot, the Spurs are gonna win that in 2013, but he hits that shot and it changes everything.

Uh, so those two are up there.

Um, but I, you know what I, I love Jimmy?

I love like this year when teams haven't won in forever.

And the fans experience it.

Milwaukee, they hadn't won in 50 years when they won in 2021.

Denver had never won.

And, and the fan bases, it mattered so much to them.

Toronto, same thing, had never won.

So that, that uniqueness or greatness after a long absence, that was, those seem to be the, the special, the special years.

And because, you know, we're in this, those cities a lot leading up to the, to the championship games.

So you're around the city.

You go to restaurants, you see people on the streets.

You do get a feel of what that team means to that city, like Cleveland.

uh, uh, uh, what, what that victory meant to the city of Cleveland is like what this victory has meant to the city of New York.

It's, it's incredible.

And you get a nice feel of that during the course of, of covering the series.

This might be a ridiculous question because there's been so many, but if, if I asked you the single greatest play you've seen, or call, that maybe even altered a game, or like, is there one play in your head, when you think about your career, you think about one play that comes right to your head that you called.

LeBron's block.

I was wondering if that was gonna be the, that's why I asked, I was wondering because I, because, you know, when, you know, when during the finals, they, you know, they, you see all these shows going back to other finals, and when you see that play, it's still to this day just off the chart.

But you know what is, is right up there now with it is that it always tip.

So let's go to that.

Where do you rank the 29 point comeback in games you've called?

Um, is that the biggest comeback 20, like, have you ever called a game, even regular season where someone made up a larger deficit?

Yeah, there was one, there was a regular season game that was, I believe it was 32.

Um, now again, this is semantics, but I, at the end of the game, I called it.

I said it's the greatest comeback in the history of the NBA playoffs.

It's not the largest.

It's not the biggest.

There were a couple of times where it was over 30, but those were first-round matchups against teams that were gonna be out in the first round.

This was a finals game where the critical game 4, it's gonna tilt either 2-2 and here we go, or a 3-1 advantage.

And he, he makes this, this play.

And they make this comeback, um, to me, it's, it's the greatest comeback in the history of the NBA when you, when you take in all the circumstances, what it means for both teams, and you take what it means on whether or not somebody wins a championship.

At what point in that game did you think the Knicks could come back, could win the game?

Uh, they cut the 29 to 15 by the end of the third.

And you're thinking, OK.

But when the 4th started, it went right back up to 20.

And then you're thinking, uh, you know what, they're probably out of gas.

It, it takes so much effort to, to come back from that much now.

But it was like, then all of a sudden there's 6 straight points and it's 14.

That's when I said, this has a real chance.

Because, and here's where, and, and, um, Richard was great on this stuff, and Richard and Tim talked about this.

You, you look at the players when this is happening.

And you can see the different body language, and not just the fact that the, the Knicks believe they could do it, but you could see the body language of the Spurs saying, uh oh, we could be in trouble.

And that's, that's what I love about what those guys bring, uh, talking about stuff like that.

And that made me think, OK, if they're seeing that stuff, the way the Knicks are rampaging right now, this could be something historic.

Tell me, I'm curious what you thought of game 3 cause I felt like it, it , it almost felt like, and, I'm gonna use a phrase, but I don't know if it's the right, it , it felt like things got a little out of control.

You had, obviously, the president was going.

The, the amount of celebrities that were there was insane.

Then they're blocking off Madison Square Garden.

Like, it felt like it, it was almost too much game 3.

It felt like, that's why in game 4, even though they came back, you know, they could have easily lost, um, It felt like game 3 was almost like a distraction for the players because so much was going on.

Now, this team is, you know, the coach is great.

Maybe they don't let that bleed into them, but game 3 felt like too much was going on.

Well, routines were broken.

Many routines are broken.

And at this point in the season, you're talking about players who are superstitious about their routines and are set in everything they do.

All their routines are broken.

Routines are broken in terms of how long it took to get to the arena.

Routines are broken and them being able to go where they normally go because there were Secret Service everywhere and just the timing of the whole thing.

And then you have routines are broken.

They all had families, both home and road.

Had families who they had to worry about.

Are they going to get into the arena on time and all that stuff, everything but basketball, um, I think affected the play from both teams.

And probably in some ways more for the Knicks because you've got more people coming from home.

It's a little easier, uh, when you're the road team and it's all a little more concise.

Uh, but you, your, your beat on that is, is spot on because there was, and it's because all the routines were broken.

Did, did you have trouble getting to, like, do you even have to show an ID to get into the garden?

Like, I, do you pull like, I'm Mike Breen.

Do I need to show ID?

Can I just get in here?

I've been calling games for 500 years.

Yeah, I've been calling these games for 500 years.

I need to show ID.

You know, this is, this is actually one of the reasons why, why, um, I, I, I took joy in, in what it meant to so many other people.

Most of the security, uh, guards at the garden, I, I've known for 30 years.

So many of the same.

Uh, they're just that it's all like a one big family, so.

Um, normally I don't.

No, I don't need the ID, but you needed, you needed, uh, so much like we had to come in on 31st Street, walk all the way over the 33rd, go in one side, then come up and up.

It was, our routines were completely broken.

It took, from the time we left the hotel, and, and we all stayed in a, in a hotel in Midtown, normally, it's like a 10-minute ride from the hotel, and you're in the building within 5 minutes.

From the time we left the hotel and the time we got in, I think it was.

About an hour and 20 minutes.

Oh my God.

And the hotel was in Midtown, in Midtown, yeah.

Oh my God, because they shut off all the perimeter.

So driving in took probably 45 to 50 minutes.

If I remember it was close to an hour.

And then we, we had to be let go like 2 blocks off and walk around the building.

It, it was, it was bizarre when you're walking around, are Knicks fans recognizing you?

Are you getting chirped at all in, in when you're walking around the garden?

Yeah, I, I mean, uh, in some cases, yeah, and that's, I, I, I, I love, I love that so much.

That's so, it's such a flattering thing, uh, that somebody wants to take a picture with you or somebody wants to come up and thank you.

Um, uh, it's just, it, it blows me away, but it, what it does is a reminder of, of how blessed you are to be able to be doing this for a living.

Now, what's your role at the parade on Thursday?

I don't know yet, OK, but you will be there.

Oh, for sure, for sure.

I, I can't miss that.

Two questions and then we'll wrap it.

After the game ended Saturday and the Knicks win the title, I think they did , there was this trophy ceremony with, with Ernie Johnson, then they did inside the NBA.

And then I think there was a rap that you narrated.

When did you narrate that?

Did you, you couldn't have narrated that after the game?

No, well, we've done it now for, I'm gonna say 13 years, but people don't sometimes see it because it's at the very end after all commercials, after the studio show.

It's, it's might be my favorite thing to do in the business.

Um, what I do is, and when it's a series that's 3-1.

Then you only do the team that's up 3.

Now, if the Spurs had won the next 2 games, I'd have to do 1 for the Spurs.

And you write it up, and we have magnificent people, um, in the, in the truck who they take what I write.

Like I'll, I'll, I'll give them the audio the day before and they find all the video with it and they put it together and that's what makes it so special.

Um, and it's, um, it's, what we do is we time it.

Pretty perfectly.

And then when we run it, I read it live, but they don't put the last ones in until the championship because you wanna have all the, the final game.

You know, it's like one shining moment.

They have the final game in there, they edit in, but it's, it's read live, but the, the, um, uh, we do go kind of go through it and rehearse it.

OK, so it's Red live.

Interesting.

All right.

Last question.

The most important question of the entire podcast.

I'm rewarding everyone who has kept listening.

This is the single most important question.

Game 5, 29 point comeback.

Brunson misses the 3.4G.4. Brunson misses the 3.

OG with the tip in for the win.

If Brunson hit the 3, would we have gotten a triple bang from Mike Breen.

Oh That's the only negative on Jalen Brunson's resume.

He, he, he, he prevented us from a triple bang.

I, I could, I can't do a triple bang on a tip in.

I just couldn't do it.

So I did a triple.

It's good.

It's good.

It's good.

Well, let, let me get, I just, I know, I said, I'm just curious because I think I wrote about this.

How difficult.

Is that as the play by play guy doing the call when it's a tip-in, because you have to wait.

There's a lot of anticipation that you can't go right into a call.

You know, if he hits that 3, you do your triple bang and the game's basically over at that point.

But I would imagine a tip-in for a play by play person has to be a little tricky to call.

Um, it depends, it all depends.

Some are easy, some are more difficult, but after you do a couple of 1000 games, you've seen it from all angles.

So, and we had, it happened to be the perfect angle where we were watching it.

So, so that one was OK.

The triple, the triple bang thing, I think I, I, I, I don't, I think I made a mistake by saying I might do it because it sounds, it seems to me like it might be a little much, but I never thought I would do a double bang, and it just came out when Steph Curry hit that shot in Oklahoma City.

So if it's, if the moment requires that kind of over the top emotion, and certainly a finals game does, then it, uh, then it will come flying out.

Take it from someone who covers this nonsense for a living.

If you didn't give a triple bang on that 3, you would have been bludgeoned on social media.

They don't care about you're one of the best play by play guys of all time.

That would have been, how did he, how did he not give a triple bang?

How did he not give a triple bang?

Yeah, there's a little pressure there on that one.

Well, I appreciate you doing this.

I know it's been a bit.

Do you want to tell people your travel nightmare?

Because I gotta, I mean, that was, when did you get into New York after Saturday night?

Uh, so I left Sunday morning from San Antonio.

I walked out of the hotel at 8:00 a.m. 8 a.m. And I walked into my home today at 12:30.

AM no, PM.

Oh my God.

So you left San Antonio Sunday at 8:00 a.m., got back to New York at 12:30 p.m. We, so the flight, I had a flight to San Antonio to LaGuardia, but I had to go through Atlanta.

So we're flying to Atlanta.

Everything's good.

We're 30 minutes outside of Atlanta, and they caught, the pilot comes on.

You know what, bad weather in Atlanta.

We've got to divert to Birmingham.

So we go into Birmingham, land, and we sat on the tarmac for, I think it was almost 3 hours because they had no gates available.

It's a Sunday.

There's not a lot of people working on a Sunday or not as many people.

So we had to refuel.

He goes, we're gonna refuel, we're gonna get you to Atlanta.

Now, I've missed my connection, but there are several other connections we can get.

So we go out, we refuel, we're about, about to take off, and the pilot comes on and says, oh, I, I timed out.

I can no longer fly.

They're legally, they can after a certain time.

Back to the gate.

And now there's no way, now it's late afternoon, early evening , there's no way they have another pilot that's going to be available.

So this flight's canceled, but the flights from Birmingham to Atlanta are all booked.

But we all have a chance to make an Atlanta flight.

So we rent a car, 5 of us, Tim Corrigan, uh, our executive producer, Phil Dean, Jody Brits, and, uh, and Shane Smith, and we drive 2.5 hours to Atlanta , get into Atlanta and their flights are gone.

So they're gonna stay in a hotel and go the next morning.

But I've got a 1:00 a.m. flight.

And I'm gonna make that 1:00 a.m. flight.

So they dropped me off at the airport, probably around 9:30.

Well, I got a little time at the airport, no problem.

At midnight, they announced the flight is canceled.

Oh my God.

midnight.

So I wait all that time.

I could have been in the hotel getting some sleep.

So now I , I rebook, I get a 7:30 flight, but I gotta get some sleep.

I don't want to sleep on the airport, in the air, in the airport.

So there's a Marriott a couple of, uh, blocks away.

I go there.

No rooms, no rooms.

They're all sold out.

But they have a lovely couch in the middle of the lobby.

So I go and I, I'm gonna sleep on the couch in the middle of the lobby in the Marriott.

I don't even believe what I'm hearing right now.

And so I'm lying, about to lie down , and I just, it's been a long, long day.

And the guy's so nice, uh, and happy.

He comes, hey, Mike, can I take a picture?

Like I'm, I'm, I'm sleeping in the lobby of the Marriott.

I said, of course.

But it actually turned out to be good because it woke me up and I heard that another guy say, hey, they got some rooms because I wasn't the only one.

So I, I checked into a room, slept for 3 hours, went over and, uh, my flight this morning out of, uh, Atlanta got there in time.

And my bag, my, uh, from Atlanta, and my bag, which was in Birmingham overnight.

Actually beat me to the, to LaGuardia Airport.

So as I arrived, there's my bag from Birmingham on the, on the carousel.

My God.

Well, I, I mean, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you doing this 3 hours after you got home, basically, uh, after that disaster.

So, um.

I owe you big time because it's, it's awful nice that you take the time to do this because the adrenaline, Jimmy has been flowing, uh, since Saturday.

So but you could sleep all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday, and then Thursday will be complete anarchy.

So we'll, we'll see what happens.

I'm going to nap the second week we end here.

Go nap.

Goodbye.

Thank you for everything.

I appreciate it.

Have fun Thursday.

All right, Jimmy, thanks, thanks .