All NBA postseason games this season are exclusive to national broadcasters, meaning for the first time local broadcasters will not call any of the playoff action, and Knicks TV voice Mike Breen “crushed the decision” during Sunday’s regular-season finale, according to Erich Richter of the N.Y. POST. Breen, who also is ESPN’s national NBA voice, toward the end of Sunday’s Hornets-Knicks game addressed his MSG Network partner Walt “Clyde” Frazier and said, “I think personally, Clyde, it’s a poor decision. Fans want to hear their home team announcers, at least in the first round. For so many of us, they become part of the family. I get it. The networks pay a fortune for exclusivity, and I work for one of the networks, but fans deserve to be thrown a bone once in a while in terms of letting the home team have a little bit of the first round.” Richter writes Breen would “like the league and its streaming partners to work out a deal to let the local broadcasters step back in,” but recognized that it is “unlikely” (N.Y. POST, 4/13).
FOND FAREWELL: In N.Y., Stefan Bondy wrote Knicks TV director Howie Singer is leaving MSG Network after 44 seasons, “shifting to a less labor-intensive schedule with Amazon Prime as a director.” His final MSG Network game was Sunday. Singer “planned to retire after the 2022-23 season,” but his replacement “decided against uprooting his family” to N.Y. and Singer “was asked to stay.” The Amazon job “allows Singer to work only about a dozen games plus playoffs” (N.Y. POST, 4/11).
