TOM's Talks | Catching Up With Mike Breen and Lisa Salters

With the Sixers getting a number of games on ESPN of Blade, I caught up with Mike Breen and Lisasaulters, and with the recent Sixers Suns matchup, I got the opportunity to talk to Suns broadcaster Tim Kempton. I'm Tom McGinnis.

One of the things I missed most about the normal routine of covering an NBA game is the opportunity to chat with the different principles around the court, what I call basketball's version of baseballs around the batting cage, talking with reporters, coaches, scouts and players on the perimeter of the playing surface. We haven't been able to do that because of the health and safety protocols put in place

in arenas around the NBA this season. Mike Breen is a long time lead voice of the Knicks on MSG and the lead voice for ABC ESPN's package with the NBA. Here's our conversation that originally aired as a halftime interview. Mike, I know when you got here a little bit of a luster off the matchup tonight with some of the NETS players not playing Your thoughts there, well, Mac, we seem to have that every every time we do a game. It's, you know, it's just such an unpredictable season. It seems

there's there's one key player out. You know, you feel bad for the fans, you feel bad for the coaches. But we've also seen in this kind of situation where a team rallies, it's an opportunity for other guys and they play with such hunger that sometimes they go out and win. So we're hoping for still a great game. They had the Nets a little hiccup in your game the other night against the Lakers, but you've seen him with Harden, with your Knicks games and whatnot. It's incredible

the talent and the ability to score that they have. Yeah, I mean, if if they're healthy and they get a chance to play together, it's incredible. Their record. We're only having the I've been played together seven games is amazing, So I think they're certainly one of the favorites to win it all if they're healthy. But that's that's with everybody. I mean, say the same thing. If Joel Embiat is healthy the way he's playing, the Sixers are title contender.

You say the same thing for Milwaukee. Be honest, it's a Coopo's out now with a knee injury. But if they're healthy, they could get to the NBA Finals. So it's gonna make for an exciting playoffs. You just hope that it's exciting because everybody's healthy and everybody's kind of on the same level and we're going to have great games. You like what the Sixers dead bringing in Curry and Green with Joel and how they're playing under Doc Rivers. Yes,

you know, Curry was the perfect fit. And you know Danny Green, he takes grief sometimes because he looks there's some knights out there. He'll look like he's he's older, but he's one of the smartest players I've seen in all my years doing this. He can still hit big shots. He's got all the playoff experience. So I thought they were nice additions. I think George Hill, hopefully he'll get back soon. I think he's going to be an excellent addition,

make a huge difference in that second unit. Lastly, but Danny Green, like, you're right, Oh my god, he hasn't scared Bote me as port freeze. And he's the best player. You got right? I mean wait, and he still every single night he contributes defensively. You know again, he's not the athletic player that he never was a great athlete, but he's not as quick as he used to be, but he makes up for it and savvy. And it's not a coincidence that he's been a part of a

lot of winning teams and championship teams. You're traveling a little bit, You're doing some remote. It's been a bit of a hybrid. How's it going. You're like me, Mack and that we love the fans. I want the fans to be back. We want to be in the arena. It's been a little bit of a challenge for us. But as long as we're working, it's great. But I can't wait for tonight. I think this is of all the games I've done on site, this is the most amount of fans that are going to be in the

building of the game I've called. So I'm thrilled, especially to hear from the Philly fans drive away from home. Hyeah exactly. Thank you might appreciate it, okay, mac. Lisa Salters has been with ESPN for over two decades. Among other roles with the network, she's the lead sideline reporter of ESPN's coverage of the NBA on ABC. Salters grew up just outside Philadelphia and played point guard at Penn

State in college. I spoke to Lisa prior to the seventy six ers game with the Warriors, and Lisa, all of our jobs have been affected by the red zone, the yellow zone, and access. But boy, for a sideline report, I would imagine yours is as effected as anybody says that right, tell me about it. Yeah, it's hard. It's tough to, you know, talk to players and interact with players when you're not allowed to go around the players. So like, there are lots of things that you know,

you're just used to. Oh, I need to hit him up about such and such, And I know I can just hit him up pregame, after his workout, before his workout and just ask him quickly about something, but you can't do that anymore. So I feel like I'm constantly bugging. You know, guys like Patrick Leza and Raymond Ritter for the Warriors, PR guys who have been great, the p R men and women, they've just been great this season.

With the NFL and with the NBA. Everyone is just kind of taking it, you know, taking that extra load on, and you know, the PR guys are giving us whatever whatever we need in the players as well. You know, when we ask usually we'll go to a facility to talk to a player, but we can't do that anymore.

So I've asked for several players to just give me a call on the phone, maybe if the PR guy can call and just hand them the phone, but many guys they want to leave as soon as they they're done with practice and before they might call you on their way home, they might not since they're doing it on their own. I haven't had one guy not call.

They all have just been so responsive, knowing that our access to them who's been restricted, and they've made themselves available by calling on their own time and letting me do my job, which I couldn't be more appreciative of that's great. So we visit about an hour before the game, and you're kind of already pre like working your hits right, like you're stories, your anecdote and something might come up

during the game. But tell us a little bit about that part of your storytelling, you know, just like you do. Like I read the papers and go online and get ideas from the PR guys and what they want to get out there, and then just try to do as much research reporting on my own as I can. Tonight a really cool stories that Steph Curry has a couple

of special guests coming to the game. But I don't want to just rely on what I read in the newspaper, so I made it a point of getting the information his guest information and calling the guy to find out a little bit about him and about the story. So that's something that your listeners can look out for if they happen to be watching the game. But it's that part of it has not changed during COVID, the preparation,

the work. I still am doing the same work. I'm just doing it a little bit differently, if that makes any sense. So you're an athlete, but you you know your salad days if you will were in Baltimore, but you covered you were in the Middle East covering a war. I started in news, so I've only been doing sports since two thousand when I went to UH when I left ABC News and switched over to ESPN, So the first twelve years of my career I did hard news.

So I've been. Yeah, I've been a lot of places that most sports journalists have not been, and I've been to some places even with the ESPN that a lot of sports journalists would not you wouldn't typically think of us going to, and you know, being in the war zone,

that was one of those places. ESPN thought it was important to send UH some of us over there to support the troops and to actually do Sports Center from the Middle East, and it was uplifting for the troops, it was uplifting for us, for the few of us that got to go over there. So yeah, I've been kind of all over the place, but it's been a

great ride. So preparing your pregame hits with loud music compared to a posiblet GUD missile over in ten degrees, it was like actually one hundred and ten hundred and fifteen hundred and twenty degrees over in Kuwait when I was there, So yeah, not a lot rattles me. The music is pretty loud in here, but but not a lot rattles me. Last thought, and we probably touched on this in years past, but growing up in King of Prussia in the eighties, I would assume you're a sixerst fan.

That was the glory of years with Doctor j Absolutely, Mo Cheeks, Bobby Jones, Doug Collins. I loved. I loved a world be free, like I loved all of it. And in fact, doc Rus was just saying pregame because he saw me hit the bell on Friday nine. He's like, I can know you from you were from King of Prussia and what is King of Prussia? And I was like, have you ever been to the mall? And he's like,

I have to say I haven't. But he said that Steph and Seth had told him like, oh yeah, you gotta get out, you gotta get out to the mall. So King of Prussia claimed to fame. I worked at the mall when I was a teenager, so I have found memories of the of the mall of King of Prussia. Well, thank you so much, we'll let you get back to work. We appreciate it, all right, thanks for having me. Tim

Kempton is a native New Yorker. He played college basketball at Notre Dame and forged a fourteen year professional career. He's been a fixture with the Phoenix Suns radio broadcast, and with the recent matchup with the Sons, I spoke to him about the incredible season the Sons are experiencing and the impact of Sons guard Chris Paul. Well, Jim, let's just talk about the Sons like from afar and I know you guys are really good, but a little

surprise that they've taken off the way they have. But certainly I would imagine Chris Paul has a lot to do with that, and Monnie Williams and book is playing great as well. Yeah, you really almost have to put it all on Chris Paul. And you know, you never want to give one guy too much credit. This team did to wait to know in the bubble without Chris is that next level consistently night in and night out

in the FBA. I think it's where Chris Paul has made a huge different Obviously, you know, a short season in the bubble um, you know, some teams were arresting their players in the playoffs, but the Suns didn't know. But but again, Tom, it's just that night end, night out, not losing back to back situations, sits back in January, the overall consistency to play on the both ends of the court, and then just the growth of some other players with Chris Paul's here, and that would be most

notably would be DeAndre Ayton. Although he's made strides himself, I think Chris Paul b here has helped him immensely as well. So you've seen the Sixers and Phoenix won the game out there, But what do you make of Doc Rivers and what he's done here in Philadelphia, the Simmons and Harrison and the Bible commentor to in the

East and potentially get to the NBA Finals. Yeah, Tom, you know, any any time you add something that you didn't have, and that's no no, you know, this credit to anybody that with Doc Rivers being in the in the trenches with guys in difficult situations before. You know, we talk about experience, and I think having been there and we always talked about those young teams that that's never really all those supremely talented never win in the

first or second go round. They have to go through the riggers of a playoff series of a playoff, you know, two or three series to gain that experience to understand what is necessary. So docs Doc Rivers brings that coaching experience and expectation and just the way he used the players that he has there a little bit differently uh than uh than Coach Brown before him. So it's all those little things. You can't really point to one huge thing because basketball, at the end of the day, it

is still the same. And it may be a quirked and taking the guy off the ball a little bit where he's s ten shots a game, but ten shots come in a different different scenario. You know. It may be positioning as to where the player gets the ball, and then just those little quirks. So you know, you have Joel Mby, you have you have Ben Simmons, who supremely talented. But and I don't know if we really

know what Ben Simmons is in the league yet. At times he looks phenomenal at the point guard position because of his size and his ball handling ability. Then he looks good at other positions as well. But you know, Tobias Harris is another guy that that that I think is supremely talented, one of those guys that can score the ball in just another ad and dimension. When you get into a playoff series that you have to you have to coach against, you have to, you know, definitely

bring him up in the scouting report every night. Tim you've played the position of center both that Notre Dame and in the NBA and a little bit in Europe. Just to go back to and beat a little bit. Steve Kerry the other night was saying that he's like an old school center from the eighties with all of those skills and then he has today's euro step and one leggage shot and the step backs that all the modern players have and to have that beat in that

size of a body. And there are some great centers Yokich And as you say you're young player eighton, people say the big man is dead, but not when they come with this skill set. Trying to talk a little bit about in beads, Yeah that's what so so you know, just bed morizing when you're watching it's sheer physical size. Um, I've seen it, and we only get to see him twice a year. So I see highlights thereout the year, but when you stand next to DeAndre, the size different.

Just I mean, it's it's it's glaring. It's glaring. I mean the physical size of Joel mb uh for him to be able to you know, he goes down the low posts and just overpowers people similar to what Shaquille O'Neil did. He goes down and and has moves of a Keimolajwa because of his quickness and his footwork. Uh. And then you add those to mentions where he goes down to you know, to the literally the three point line, knockdown three point Jepson has, euro Step has the ball

handling ability. It's just a continued progress of the skill level of the MBA players today. And now we're saying it's at the center position and everybody every night, but don't mb talent wise, it is probably the most talented player for everything that we've just talked about his size and his skill level. Don't just size at his skill level but doesn't have the quickness, does an athleticism of that, Joel,

and he does. I mean, and I think there's a separation point with Joe every night, and that's what's so special about him? He really is amazing fun to watch because he does have that old ability, but he has to bother say skills as well. If you like what you're hearing, consider subscribing to the seventy six ers podcast network feed or giving us a follow wherever you get your pods and if that happens to be on Apple Podcasts,

we'd love for you to give us a radio. I'm Tom McGinnis, talk to you down the road.