Mike Breen Gets Emotional Over Knicks Title… and REVEALS the Triple BANG That Almost Happened!

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
The voice of the New York Knicks and of obviously way back in the day.
One of the big voices here on WFN during the IMAH show back in the early days of WFAN. The great Mike Breen joins us, I believe, from his home as he gets ready for tomorrow's festivities as well. Mike, it's Craig and Chris. Thank you so much for joining us today. How you doing, pal?

**Mike Breen** (0:21)
I'm good. I'm good, guys. Thanks for having me on.

**Craig Carton** (0:24)
That sounds like a tired man is what that sounds like.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:28)
Have you done a couple of these?

**Mike Breen** (0:31)
Well, I'm trying to recover. I had this, when I got back after the game, the next day, San Antonio, I left my hotel at 8 AM Sunday morning, and I walked into my house at one o'clock in the afternoon on Monday.

**Craig Carton** (0:43)
I'm sorry?

**Mike Breen** (0:45)
So it took me well about 28 hours to get home because of flight cancellations and diversions and a rental car ride. It was one of the most wild finishes, but I could care less because it was all good.

**Craig Carton** (0:58)
That's crazy to me. So Al Patagonia doesn't have a spot in an Apollo jet. The Knicks, you chose to stay in San Antonio. You like to barbecue?

**Mike Breen** (1:09)
No, I left the next morning. But after the game, our whole crew, it's the final game of the season for the ABC crew. So we spent the night together. And the next day we were going. And I spent part of the night sleeping on a couch in the lobby of a Marriott in Atlanta.

**Craig Carton** (1:26)
In the... Okay, so that means...

**Chris McMonigle** (1:29)
The exciting life of the voice of the NBA.

**Craig Carton** (1:30)
So I want to get this right. The voice of the NBA, Amanda's the voice of the New York Knicks for 30 plus years gets to celebrate the first championship since 1973
You know, something that we never thought was going to happen. Many of us had given up hope on it. And if I had walked into a Marriott hotel in Atlanta, I would have seen you sleeping on a couch in the lobby.

**Mike Breen** (1:52)
Yeah, it's not... This is the Sunday night. The game was obviously Saturday night, so we all and the crew went out afterwards. But Sunday night, I... My flight, my last flight, which was a 1 a.m. flight to LaGuardia through Atlanta, was canceled at midnight. Nowhere to go, so I went to the Marriott, asked if they had a room. They had no rooms. So there was a nice, very nice, comfortable couch.
I sat sleeping up because I didn't want to lie down. As I'm dozing off, a guy walks by and he said, he couldn't have been nicer. He goes, hey, Mike Breen, can I take a picture?

**Craig Carton** (2:27)
Oh, boy.

**Mike Breen** (2:27)
So I get up, I took a picture, and I heard another guy who was doing the same thing as me, and he's like, hey, I think they got rooms now. So I went and I got a room for a few hours, and I slept for two hours in a hotel before I got the flight back home.

**Craig Carton** (2:41)
Please tell me you didn't share a room with a stranger named Frank. I'll tell you what it shows you, Mike, is that with all the great success you've been blessed to have, it just reinforces to me that you were an original radio guy because those are the actions of a humble radio man, despite whatever amount of money you might have made, and accolades, and obviously, the Hall of Fame broadcasts, all the great things you've accomplished and had done, in the heart of heart, in your soul, you're that insecure radio guy that isn't quite sure if I should ask for a room, and sleeping in the lobby of a Marriott in Atlanta is not beneath me, and I respect the hell out of that.

**Mike Breen** (3:24)
Well, thank you. That's how I started, doing radio, doing a high school game of the week at a little radio station, at Kipsy, so that's still a big part.

**Craig Carton** (3:32)
So let me ask this, I was an intern here in the very first year of WFAN. So obviously, pre-IMAS, I worked for Pete Franklin when he did Afternoons here.
Jim Lampley was here, great gumbas, you know the history of FAN. I never heard the actual story. When you're on the air with IMS and you're doing a great job with him, and that show obviously saves FAN. I never heard the story of how you applied for, tried out for or actually got the Knicks play-by-play job when you got it. Do you mind sharing that with everybody?