Mike Breen has spent 25 years building one of the most recognizable single-word calls in sports. On Tuesday night in the Eastern Conference Finals, that word almost ended a series. Then it rolled out of the basket and turned into the funniest broadcasting moment of the playoffs.
Late in Game 1, the Knicks defense double-teamed James Harden with about five seconds left. Harden kicked it out to Sam Merrill, who was wide open at the top of the key. The shot looked perfect. Breen started his call. “Ba…”
The ball rolled halfway down. Then it spun back out.
Breen cut himself off mid-word. The “bang” that has punctuated thousands of NBA daggers from coast to coast got chopped down to a syllable. The internet caught the clip within minutes, and ESPN’s lead voice was suddenly the star of the broadcast he had been calling.
For the unfamiliar, “bang” is Breen’s signature on big shots. He started using it informally in the early 2000s, and it became a calling card by the time the league hit its modern era. Kobe Bryant got plenty. LeBron James got plenty. Stephen Curry has gotten the loudest ones. Breen does not call every made shot a “bang,” which is part of why it works. He saves it for the moments that deserve a one-word stamp.
The Merrill shot was going to be one of those moments. A dagger three to give the Cavs a five-point lead with the Garden silent. Instead, Cleveland watched the ball spin out, Breen reset, and the Knicks went on to force overtime and steal the game.
Breen owned the moment afterward. “There’s been a few,” he told reporters. “Often you have the perfect sightline of the ball going in, and you wanna jump on the call. There’s been three or four of them that have happened.” That is the kind of self-aware admission you only get from a broadcaster comfortable enough with his craft to laugh at himself.
It is also the second-best part of the night for Breen fans. The best part is that he gets to do this all over again Friday. ESPN has him locked in for every Knicks game in the ECF and the Finals, regardless of which network would normally be broadcasting. The plan is for Breen to call every game of New York’s run if they make it that far.
Knicks fans should be thrilled. There is no voice better for the franchise’s biggest games. Breen grew up a Knicks fan. He called the Allan Houston shot in 1999. He called the Jeremy Lin run. He called the heartbreak years and the dark years. If New York is finally going to break through and reach the Finals, he is the one who should narrate it.
And if Jalen Brunson hits a real dagger from the top of the key on Friday night, Breen will get to say the whole word this time. Sam Merrill cost him a perfect one. The Knicks will give him another chance.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
