As part of the NBA’s media rights deal with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon, beginning this year, there will no longer be first-round playoff games televised on regional sports networks (RSNs) with local television announcers. All playoff games are now exclusive to the national TV partners.
The decision has frustrated many NBA fans, including the voice of the NBA Finals.
Mike Breen, the lead NBA play-by-play announcer for ESPN and ABC, went off about local announcers no longer being able to call playoff games in the first round during a New York Knicks broadcast Sunday on MSG.
While promoting Knicks postgame and pregame playoff coverage for MSG during Sunday’s Knicks game against the Charlotte Hornets, Breen took the opportunity to criticize the NBA’s “poor decision.”
Mike Breen: “1st time ever…entire playoffs exclusive to national TV…poor decision…fans want to hear their home team announcers, at least 1st round…part of the family. I get networks pay a fortune…but fans deserve to be thrown a bone…This is our final telecast of the season” pic.twitter.com/knsUysK261
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) April 12, 2026
“Of course, this is the first time ever that no longer can the home team announcers and broadcasters televise the first round,” Breen, the longtime lead play-by-play announcer for the Knicks, said. “The entire playoffs exclusive to the national TV partners.”
“I mentioned this earlier this season; I personally think, [Walt “Clyde” Frazier], it’s a poor decision,” Breen explained. “Fans want to hear their teams’ announcers, at least in the first round. Because, for so many of us, and all of my favorite teams growing up, the home team announcers, they become part of the family, such a big part of why you root for the team.”
“Now, I get it, that the networks pay a fortune to get exclusivity,” Breen continued. “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. Because this is our final telecast of the season. As is Eric Collins and Dell Curry doing it for the Hornets.”
As Breen alluded to, he’s voiced his frustration about this in the past.
Last April, Breen called it “really sad” and “a bad decision from the league.”
And last November, Breen urged the NBA to value local broadcasts.
“I think we have to be careful not to lose the RSNs because, for fans, that’s your connection to the team… I just think that we can’t lose sight of the fact that the regional networks are important to the fans, and I hope that they don’t keep becoming less of a less and less of a presence for the basketball fans,” Breen said last November.
It would be notable for any NBA broadcaster to be so honest with such comments, but especially when it’s the top voice in the league who will be calling the biggest playoff games on national TV.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.