The Knicks have tapped legendary ABC play-by-play voice Mike Breen, who is also the team’s local play-by-play voice on MSG, to be the emcee of the championship ceremony at New York’s City Hall.
The news comes from Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. According to Bondy, Breen will also be part of the larger parade down New York’s “Canyon of Heroes.”
Breen grew up a Knicks fan in Yonkers, New York, just north of the Bronx. He would go on to attend Fordham University in the Bronx.
He has been associated with Knicks broadcasts since 1991, when he was hired on Knicks radio on WFAN. He moved to the television booth in the 1997–98 season, replacing Marv Albert after Albert’s firing. Breen later returned to radio from 1999 to 2004 before rejoining the television booth, where he has remained ever since.
Nationally, Mike Breen worked with NBC as a backup play-by-play announcer and primary WNBA voice from 1998 to 2002 before joining ESPN in 2003. He became ESPN’s lead NBA voice in 2006 and has called every NBA Finals since.
“It’s over! It’s over! Knick fans, this is not a dream!” Breen said in the closing seconds of Game 5. “Your long, long wait is ended. Go ahead and cry: after 53 years, the Knicks are finally NBA Champions once again!”
This is not the first time a local play-by-play voice who also works national games has served as emcee for a championship ceremony. Joe Davis, the local voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, hosted the Dodgers’ championship parade following their 2025 World Series win.
It will be fascinating to see the reaction to a beloved national play-by-play voice, who is supposed to be unbiased, serving in such a biased role for the Knicks. When it was Davis, legendary New York radio voice Chris “Mad Dog” Russo was not a fan of the arrangement.
“When you’re a national broadcaster, and you’re the voice of the sport on the big stage, when you did a million playoff games, and one of the crippling losses that a franchise is gonna have in the history of the sport, that’s as bad a loss as you’re going to have!” Russo ranted. “The body’s not even cold yet! And I got Joe at Dodger Stadium doing the freaking Dodger parade! Oh my god! That’s bad! I’m sorry! I don’t care what you say! You can say I’m screaming and yelling about nothing! That would piss me off if I’m a Blue Jay fan!”
Joe Davis is used to facing accusations of Dodgers bias, especially from personalities in New York, so it will be interesting to see if anyone wants to stick their neck out and have a similar take on Mike Breen hosting for the Knicks.
About Manny Soloway
Manny Soloway is a Iowa based writer focusing on TV ratings. He is also the founder of the TV Media Blog substack.