Breen: Worst broadcaster in network sports
During the Laker-Nugget game Saturday night, ESPN showed banners hanging from the Pepsi Center rafters with names and numbers. Thompson (David) 33. Issel (Dan) 44. Moe (Doug) 432 (coaching wins). And Beck 40, with the years 1967-77.
I immediately thought of Byron Beck. I have no idea who Byron Beck was, but I had a vague recollection of someone named Byron Beck, and it seemed like he was connected to the old ABA. That would make sense. Denver was in the ABA, and 1967-77 would have been from ABA days.
Then Mike Breen, ABC/ESPN’s lead NBA broadcaster, said the Beck was in reference to hockey player Bubba Beck. OK, I thought. I guess I was imagining some of that Byron Beck stuff. Denver and hockey? Made sense. Except Denver didn’t have a National Hockey League franchise in 1967-77; I was sure of that. Maybe at some point in the 1970s, but not in the 1960s. No way. So I was confused.
A couple of minutes later, Beck corrected himself. The Beck in question indeed was Byron Beck, from the old Denver Rockets of the ABA.
I know, anybody can make a mistake. But how can ESPN’s lead NBA broadcaster make that mistake? How do you produce a name like Bubba Beck?
I googled Bubba Beck. I found a stock car driver by that name. And a sportscaster. And a water skiing writer. And a horse trainer. But no hockey player.
Barry Beck was a hockey player, drafted by the Colorado Rockies in 1977. He played two-plus seasons for the Rockies, who eventually became the New Jersey Devils. But I can find no evidence Barry Beck ever was Bubba Beck.
Sorry, but Mike Breen is the worst play-by-play man in network sports. This wasn’t even his biggest crime of the playoffs. The other night, when ESPN showed Jerry West’s quote about LeBron James having overtaken Kobe Bryant as the NBA’s best player, and analysts Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy were discussing the subject, Breen asked something like, “Why does someone have to be No. 1?”
Oh, I don’t know. Why do fans have to even watch the games? What kind of nonsense is that? That’s a smug, elitist attitude. That kind of talk hacks me off.
I love Van Gundy on the air, and Jackson is solid. But Breen is awful. TNT, which is doing the Eastern Conference Finals, has Marv Albert and Doug Collins, which is a potent combo. What is ESPN thinking, trying to make Breen the voice of the NBA?
The voice of Major League Baseball is Joe Buck. When you hear Buck’s voice, you think, it must be October. The voices of the NFL are Buck and Al Michaels and Jim Nantz. Authoritative, respected voices that tell you this is a big, big football game. The voice of the NBA is Mike Breen, who will call the Finals in June. You hear Breen’s voice and you think, is this a Charlotte-Milwaukee local broadcast?
Breen actually is a Knickerbocker broadcaster for New York’s MSG Network, and that’s even hard to believe. The Knicks once had Albert, who at one time also was the voice of the NBA and frankly should be again.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
Oh, my, gosh, there’s someone worse than Brent Musberger out there?? Well, Brent isn’t so much bad as he is annoying. No one gives the \nails on a chalkboard\ kind of feeling that Brent can when he’s making a comment. I’ve never seen him yet without thinking, \Oh, Lord, not him again\…
Come on, your article makes me think you are the worst journalist in sports. How about this mistake from your article:
“A couple of minutes later, Beck corrected himself.”
Wasn’t Breen the one who corrected himself? If you are going to write about someone’s mistake, you should probably hire an editor to correct your mistakes. At least he corrected his.
And then then more nonsense from you: “The voice of Major League Baseball is Joe Buck. When you hear Buck’s voice, you think, it must be October. The voices of the NFL are Buck and Al Michaels and Jim Nantz”. So, if I hear Buck’s voice how can I “think it must be October” if he is also the voice of the NFL? Might it not be December in that case?
One more error – you couldn’t find any evidence Barry Beck was called Bubba? I googled Bubba Beck and found this article. Hint: Look at the last paragraph!
http://nyrangerslegends.blogspot.com/2006/06/barry-beck.html
Tramel critiques Breen for information unrelated to the game being televised and misses the general failing of TV broadcasters to actually report the game. I beleive that the TV viewer should receive no less than the same information provided to the fan at the game by the public address announcer; that includes actually reporting the name of the players who score or commit fouls.
All too often the broadcasters go off on tangents and fail to report the name of the fouling player at all, often even getting the official’s calls wrong. Is it really too much trouble for the broadasters to have one spotter for officials’ signals that can relay them to the broadcaster? It would be a lot more useful than the often silly sidleline interviews they show.
Berry, did it ever occur to you that Breen was reading something an assistant to the network gave to him? Beck is an unknown to most people so you can’t think Breen would have caught that right away. At least Breen didn’t called the Thunder, the Boomers? You know now that’s not their nickname, correct?
Colorado Rockies should be always competitive enough to keep pace with the others. I really like them; they’ve always been my favourite teams in MLB. Just read about them here:
defuncthockeyteams.blogspot.com/ this link has a page that refers to him as barry \bubba\ beck, found it on my first search. Why don’t you be a little more critical Berry. Maybe you are the worst journalist in sports? Actualy I don’t care and totally agree it was a dumb mistake and insulting to the former ABA player. What’s more important is who is going to get all the bad calls when it’s Kobe vs. LeBron. The officiating in the conference finals has been terrible. It took so much for the ref to call that first charge on LeBron. He thought about it for 5 seconds before signaling a charge. Not that this is anything new, we saw Jordan get all the calls every game. His last game as a Bull he hacked Karl Malone for a steal and then pushed off on Byron Russell for the game winner. What can you do?