Sports News
Every round of the NBA playoffs will be nationally televised, leaving no room for local broadcasters on the call.
ESPN and ABC broadcaster Mike Breen has called the NBA Finals 20 times. Jeff Chiu
April 18, 2026
4 minutes to read
If you are familiar with Mike Breen solely from his national work, he might seem an improbable advocate for regional broadcasts.
After all, ESPN and ABC’s lead NBA play-by-play voice has called the NBA Finals 20 times in his career. There is no more prominent basketball play-by-play voice on a national scale.
But those familiar with the deep roots that Breen maintains in New York — he has called Knicks games since 1991, and on MSG Network since ’97 — were not surprised that Breen recently spoke up on behalf of local broadcasters. It was not for the first time.
Near the conclusion of the Knicks’ regular-season finale Sunday on MSG, Breen lamented that the NBA’s new media rights deal with NBC, ESPN, and Amazon ended the tradition of the first-round playoff games airing on the regional sports networks that broadcast their games all season.
That means that RSN’s like NBC Sports Boston, the local home of the Celtics, no longer get a single playoff broadcast. Every game of the NBA postseason is now exclusive to its national rights partners.
“I personally think … it’s a poor decision,” said Breen during the broadcast, adding, “I get it, that the networks pay a fortune to get exclusivity. Obviously, I work for one of the networks, and it’s important for them. But I just think the fans deserve to be thrown a bone once in a while. In terms of, you know, let the home team have a little bit of the first round, somehow, if there’s any way they could ever work out some kind of compromise. I’m not hopeful for that, but it would be wonderful to have it.”
During a conversation Thursday, Breen elaborated on his decision to speak up for the local broadcast teams.
“I do think it’s important to remember that local broadcasts are enormous in terms of developing loyal fan bases that will last for generations, because that’s how most of us grow up,” said Breen. “It’s a big part of learning to love our local team.
“And the other reason is that you’ve got to warn them. It was our final telecast on MSG of the season. You do the ‘say goodbye, see you next season’ type of thing and thanks to everybody. I felt that a lot of the fans were not aware that this was going to be it for the local broadcast, so I felt like it needed to be said.”
Breen, along with analysts Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson, have the Lakers-Rockets series in the first round. But ESPN will exclusively have the Eastern Conference finals as well as the Finals, so there’s a reasonable chance the network’s top team calls some Celtics games this postseason.
Breen acknowledged that he’s already thought about what a Celtics-Knicks rematch in the second round would look like – New York eliminated the defending champs in six games last season — but said neither team can afford to look beyond its first-round opponent.
Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (left) deflects a pass by Knicks guard Jalen Brunson to force a turnover during the first quarter on Sunday. – Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
“It would be an unbelievable second-round rematch, but the Knicks certainly have their hands full with Atlanta,” he said. “In the second half of the season after they made the [Trae Young] trade, the Hawks just played so well, so they’re going to be a tough out. And Philadelphia, you can’t count them out either.
“But I’ll tell you, the Celtics are just so impressive. I thought they would be better than people expected just because of [Jaylen] Brown, [Derrick] White, [coach Joe] Mazzulla, and [Payton] Pritchard. Those four are four of the most competitive people at their jobs I’ve ever seen. But I never expected them to be this good, winning 56 games and earning the second seed. This sounds almost silly to say with the history of the Celtics, but I think it’s one of the great regular seasons in franchise history.”
Breen said he’s enjoyed working with Legler and Jefferson in their first season as a trio. Legler, who joined ESPN in 2000, was elevated to the No. 1 NBA broadcast team last August, while Jefferson is in his second season on the team that will call the Finals.
“I think Legs has been magnificent,” said Breen. “This guy, he loves the NBA as much as anybody I’ve ever come across. He just loves talking basketball, whether he’s on the air or off the air. And the chemistry and friendship just keeps growing with him and Richard. Richard likes to have fun. And I think he’s raising Legs’s fun level, and Legs’s analysis is off the charts, and he’s raising Richard’s analysis level. It’s been a really nice combination.”
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The latest reminder that sports radio hosts should never be confused with journalists occurred this week when 98.5 The Sports Hub midday host Scott Zolak acknowledged he was avoiding talking about the Mike Vrabel/Dianna Russini scandal because of his friendship with both, particularly the Patriots coach.
Zolak is usually not one to shy away from gossip, so he’s being hypocritical in that sense. But as the Patriots’ radio analyst, it’s understandable why he’d dodge a topic that his ownership overlords surely wish would go away.
Amusingly, co-host Marc Bertrand, knowing how uncomfortable it all makes Zolak, has brought the subject up early and often since the story became public more than a week ago.
Chad Finn
Chad Finn is a sports columnist for Boston.com. He has been voted Favorite Sports Writer in Boston in the annual Channel Media Market and Research Poll for the past four years. He also writes a weekly sports media column for the Globe and contributes to Globe Magazine.
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