Nine years after ‘Blocked by James,' ESPN's Mike Breen is ready to meet the NBA Finals' moment
Blocked by James!
If you are an NBA viewer, you know exactly what I am talking about when those three words are constructed together.
The date was June 19, 2016. Game 7, NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers were tied at 89 with 1:53 left.
Let's turn it over to ABC play-by-play announcer Mike Breen:
'Irving drives. Hop step inside. Floats it up. Misses! Rebound taken by Iguodala. Iguodala to Curry! Back to Iguodala! Up for the layup. Oooh, blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!'
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It is one of the most famous plays and broadcasting calls in modern NBA history, featuring two all-time greats (LeBron James and Steph Curry) and two Hall of Famers-to-be (Andre Iguodala and Kyrie Irving) in one of the greatest finals in history. The block set up Irving's go-ahead 3-pointer with 53 seconds left to seal the Cavaliers' overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to win the championship, ending a 52-year title drought for major pro sports teams in Cleveland.
Sunday night in Oklahoma City will be the first finals Game 7 since the 'Blocked by James' game nine years ago, and Breen will be back on the lead call. It will be the fifth time in Breen's broadcasting career that he will call a Game 7 of the finals, including as a New York Knicks radio broadcaster in 1994.
'I have been blessed far more than I deserve, and I realize the privilege and honor it's been,' Breen said from Oklahoma City on Saturday. 'I remember watching Joe Buck do World Series after World Series. I'm a huge baseball fan, and it was always such a wonderful comfort level for me when I sat down and Joe was the one bringing the games to me. I was always amazed that his enthusiasm, preparation and skill level never wavered. It blew me away how he became part of my experience.'
'It's hard for me to put myself in that same category in any form or what people think of me because Joe is one of the all-time greats,' Breen continued. 'But there are times when I'll catch highlights when they do a feature on the NBA Finals, and I'll hear my voice in a highlight, and that's when it kind of hits me that I've been a part of this. I've had the privilege to be a part of calling some of the biggest moments in the game that I have loved since I was little.'
Breen said he expects to have nerves before Sunday's tipoff. Interestingly, he said the pressure is driven not from an individual desire to have a great broadcast but from wanting to do the moment justice for the players on the court.
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'I get butterflies pretty much before every finals game, but especially at Game 7,' Breen said. 'You can't think about the magnitude. What you have to think about is making sure you get it right for the players. You wanna do them justice if they perform something spectacular. You want to make sure you document that in a way that gives them the respect they deserve for their performance in the ultimate pressure game.'
One of the few people on the planet who can relate to Breen is Dick Stockton, who called three NBA Finals during his remarkable 55-year broadcasting career, including Game 7s in 1984 and 1988. Stockton also called Michael Jordan's famed buzzer-beating shot in the first round of the 1989 playoffs when the Chicago Bulls beat the Cavaliers.
Stockton retired in 2021 — he called an estimated 1,545 network television games across the big four professional sports leagues in the U.S. (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) during his run — but plans on watching Breen from his home in upstate New York. I tracked him down this week to discuss what he remembered about calling his two Game 7s.
'The 1984 series was the first finals confrontation between (Larry) Bird and Magic (Johnson) and that fabled personal rivalry, and when I called those kind of games, I never projected the ultimate meaning of them,' Stockton said. 'I never got ahead of myself because then you are assuming something and it becomes dangerous. I called that Game 7 as I called the others: the ebb and flow of the contest, the concentration to be accurate, making sure my partner would get to be the expert. My job was to do the 'who and what,' his was to do the 'why and how.' The roles would be mixed at times, but all I aimed to do was deliver the happenings and let it play out. It carried more significance than the others, but those watching knew it. They didn't need me to overdo the scenario.'
Like Breen, Stockton said he would get butterflies before calling big games, but they eventually receded as play began. 'Mike Breen is brilliant at what he has done in the NBA longer than anyone,' Stockton said. 'Whenever I hear someone in the role I had for over half a century, I can tell in seconds if the announcer is humble and not looking to prove something to the audience. Mike is one of those.'
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(When told Stockton was contacted for this piece, Breen said, unprompted: 'He is, in my opinion, the most underrated elite announcer of all time. The Mount Rushmore guys will all get their due, but what that guy did in football, NHL, in baseball, in the NBA, I don't think his name gets talked about enough when we talk about one of the all-time greats.')
There is a good chance the current NBA Finals broadcast trio of Breen, Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson will not return for the finals next year. The Athletic's Andrew Marchand has reported that though ESPN intends to re-sign Jefferson, it has not yet locked him up with his contract expiring. Marchand also reported Burke's spot might be adjusted for next season, according to sources familiar with ESPN's preliminary plans. Breen is under a long-term deal and is not going anywhere. He is certainly aware of the reports around the booth. When asked about it Saturday, he made it a point to talk about what he sees as a big step forward during the finals.
'Right now, what I'm focused on and what I am thrilled at is with the growth we've had as a team,' Breen said. 'These finals, I really feel like we've come so far. I don't know the exact amount or number of games we've done together, but it's not many. I don't think people understand how difficult it is to find that chemistry. It's hard in a two-person booth; it's harder in a three-person booth. I'm blown away by Doris and Richard and their work ethic and their care factor to get it right. I've had so much fun with them. Some of these finals broadcasts have been far and away our best together, and we keep getting better. That's my thought going into Game 7.'
The 2016 NBA Finals were an iconic series with massive interest from the U.S. audience. Game 7 drew 31 million viewers, making it the most-watched game since 1998. No NBA game over the last nine years has come close to touching it. Breen said he has thought about that game often this week because of all that was at stake.
'There was so much going on because the road team won, because there was an upset, because there was history coming back from a 3-1 deficit,' Breen said. 'It was so important for both teams. For Golden State, it was to cap off what was the greatest regular season in NBA history. For Cleveland, it was to pull off this upset and come back from 3-1 down and hand the city this championship that they've been waiting (on for) decades and decades. It meant so much to the teams and to the fan bases and the city. Just like this series. In this series, for both fan bases, the emotions are just off the chart. You can tell that by the sound in each arena.'
Breen's Sunday will include an ABC/ESPN production meeting in the morning and meetings with NBA broadcast officials. The ABC team will go over how the trophy ceremony will work and the plan to get off the air after the telecast. Then it's nonstop reading for the broadcasters, which is a blessing and a curse because you don't want to be a prisoner of too many prepared notes. Breen said he'll get to the arena about three hours before the game.
We'll see what the Thunder and Pacers have in store for audiences Sunday night, but there is comfort in knowing that the person charged with delivering the soundtrack of the game has been here before.
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