Brandon Tierney fires back at Gregg Giannotti: ‘You’re f*cking dead wrong!’

St. John’s vs. Duke can wait a few days, because for now, the most interesting matchup in New York is Brandon Tierney vs. Gregg Giannotti.

Last week, Tierney joined WFAN’s midday hosts Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber to preview St. John’s being in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. And during the interview, he was asked about Giannotti recently admitting he prank called Tierney last March. Tierney referred to Giannotti as a “bad teammate” for the prank call, an allegation that set the WFAN morning host off.

Monday morning, Giannotti claimed he’s not the bad teammate, alleging Tierney is. “Everybody that worked with Brandon couldn’t stand him,” Giannotti ranted. “People hated working with that guy. He’s the bad teammate. He would trash his producers. He would belittle them. So don’t tell me I’m a bad teammate because you can’t take a joke”

“Everybody that worked with Brandon couldn’t stand him…people hated working with that guy. He’s the bad teammate. He would trash his producers. He would belittle them. So don’t tell me I’m a bad teammate because you can’t take a joke” – Gregg Giannotti on Brandon Tierney pic.twitter.com/JB0lpPBGqT

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 23, 2026

And after Giannotti unleashed on WFAN, it was Tierney’s turn to fire back on his YouTube channel, BT Unleashed, Monday morning.

“What I really learned in life is to really not give a flying f*ck what anybody thinks about me that doesn’t really know me,” Tierney said. “And Gregg doesn’t really know me, and I don’t really know Gregg, to be fair.”

Tierney claimed he always had a cordial relationship with Giannotti and WFAN’s morning program, as proved by the occasional appearances he made in studio to offer context about anything related to something that may have happened during his show with Sal Licata. And Tierney also said he has no issue with whether or not Giannotti likes him as a host, but he has a big issue with what he believed was a “character assassination” on WFAN Monday morning.

“I will say that it bothered me, I’m not gonna lie to you guys, that bothered me,” Tierney admitted. “When I said Gregg was not a good teammate, I was talking about the prank. Let’s be very clear about that. And I didn’t know, because Gregg never told me, I didn’t know until the other day, so I guess I’ll give him props for a pretty good prank because I did not know.”

Tierney remembered the call, which he now knows was a prank. Tierney, who is a St. John’s basketball radio analyst, previously acknowledged celebrating the team’s first round NCAA Tournament win last March with some of the program’s staff. Apparently, a listener mistakenly took that to mean Tierney celebrated with the student athletes, which was not true. Giannotti, however, played into the false narrative by pranking Tierney as a caller who was outraged that he would be out celebrating or drinking with players.

“The only reason I was so bothered by that is – and I’ll speak to my character – there is certain things I don’t do, and there’s certain things I would never do, and that’s one of them.”

Tierney noted he has a very different on-air style from Giannotti. He mostly sticks to the nuts and bolts of sports talk, whereas Giannotti plays into radio bits and comedy on his show. Tierney acknowledged Giannotti is very successful and even funny on-air.

“But when you prank a teammate…and you keep the story going, perpetuating a story that was false that I was out drinking with college players who are underage, that’s not cool,” he said. “And even if it’s funny, it’s not cool. There’s a line that you don’t cross, and to me, that’s crossing a line.”

Tierney admitted there was a point in his career where he wasn’t able to laugh at himself, but claims one area where he’s grown as a person and host is the ability to take himself a little less seriously than he once did. But Tierney didn’t think the prank call was something to laugh at. Because as a member of the St. John’s men’s basketball radio team for more than two decades, Tierney believes Giannotti put his job in jeopardy by continuing a false claim about drinking with the players.

As for the criticism from Giannotti that he’s hated by all of his former colleagues, Tierney responded by touting some of the relationships he’s built in the business, insisting he’s the same person off-air that he is on-air. And Tierney even acknowledged there were times where Giannotti was a good teammate. But when the microphone was off, Tierney claimed Giannotti wasn’t always a good teammate.

“Being a good teammate is not selective,” Tierney said. “When somebody that you work with for a couple of years five feet away, and the show right after you, when they lose their job, you know I’ve got two kids, you know I’ve got a pretty expensive mortgage because you’ve been to my home…. Not a word. I didn’t forget that, because I wouldn’t have done that.”

“Don’t come off as Mr. Innocent here. You actually picked up the phone and you punked a teammate. And for a whole year, you never told me…You can say whatever you want about my lack of humor,” Tierney continued. “When you talk about my character, now you’re f*cking dead wrong. Now you’re dead wrong. That’s the one thing that I will defend to the end of the earth.”