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Mike Breen Reveals the Worst Call of His Career and Why Games Shouldn’t Be Talk Shows

Also in Traina Thoughts: A brand-new ‘SI Media’ podcast; trailer drops for Ben Affleck–Matt Damon Nike movie; trade reaction video and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. There isn’t a play-by-play person in any sport better than ESPN’s Mike Breen. There may be play-by-play folks who are just as good as Breen, but nobody is better.

So when someone like Breen pulls the curtain back on his broadcasting philosophy and shares his unique insight, it’s significant.

Breen appeared on JJ Redick’s excellent Old Man and the Three podcast this week and shared a few noteworthy stories.

Redick asked the longtime NBA broadcaster what the worst call of his career was and Breen cited a botch from last season.

In Game 1 of the Nets-Celtics first-round series, Jayson Tatum dropped in a game-winning shot at the buzzer. Instead of calling it a game-winner, Breen said, “The Celtics go up by one.” And because of that, Breen said he didn’t sleep for two nights. “I butchered the call as badly as I’ve ever butchered a big call at the end of the game,” Breen told Redick.

I can see why Breen would be upset with his call, but after seeing the play in the clip above, I didn’t think it was that bad.

The part of the interview that I found even more interesting, though, was Breen’s philosophy for how to handle blowouts. Redick was great here sharing a story about how Breen once shut him up (in the nicest way possible) when Redick wanted to discuss “big picture” story lines that could be used late in a game they were calling together if it got out of hand. According to Redick, Breen interjected and said, “Yeah, no, I don’t want this to turn into a talk show.”

Breen then explained how you still have to respect the game going on, because the only viewers tuning in at that point still care about their teams that are playing.

During the interview, Breen also revealed what he thinks makes a great broadcaster, what he hopes to accomplish during each game he calls and much more.

The entire interview was compelling, and I’d recommend it to anyone in the media world.

2. A new SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped today, and it features two interviews.

First up is Richard Deitsch of The Athletic to discuss the latest sports media news. Topics covered include Tom Brady’s taking a year off before joining Fox, the recent backlash against Tony Romo, expectations for Fox’s Super Bowl coverage, how Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen will fare calling the Super Bowl, Stephen A. Smith’s and Jay Williams’s getting into a nasty back-and-forth on First Take, Radio Row, the WWE’s hottest story line in a long time and much more.

Following Deitsch, Adam Pullen, an assistant director of trading at Caesars Sportsbook, joins the podcast to talk about sports betting and all things related to Super Bowl betting. How big is Super Bowl wagering going to be this year? What is the most popular prop bet? Should you bet unders more than overs? Is the public behind the Chiefs or Eagles?

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch the SI Media Podcast on YouTube.

3. Here's the trailer for Air, the Ben Affleck–Matt Damon movie about Nike and Michael Jordan, which comes out April 5.

4. Most times, the best shade is subtle shade. That was the approach Blake Griffin took last night when taking a shot at his old coach Doc Rivers after Griffin scored 15 points in 18 minutes in Boston’s win over Philly.

5. One piece of content I’d like to see more of is the reaction of players finding out in real time that their team has made a trade. Here’s Knicks guard Jalen Brunson finding out New York traded for Josh Hart last night. Great stuff.

6. Chris “Mad Dog” Russo had an all-time performance on Wednesday’s First Take.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 80th birthday to Joe Pesci. While everyone always focuses on the “How am I funny?” and “Go get your shinebox” scenes from Goodfellas, and rightfully so, we should never sleep on how good Pesci is in the scene when the fellas take a break from a casual murder to visit his mom and steal a knife to cut up the body.

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Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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