Knicks Broadcaster Pays Tribute to Late ‘Dean’ Al McCoy

New York Knicks announcer Mike Breen remarked that his “Bang!” had nothing on “Shazam!”

Breen, the Knicks’ longtime voice on MSG Network, paid tribute to the late Al McCoy, who passed away at the age of 91 last week. McCoy had been the Suns’ radio narrator for 51 years, the longest stretch in NBA history, before retiring after the 2022-23 campaign.

Appearing on KMVP-FM in Phoenix, Breen saluted McCoy and his impact on the basketball narration game, calling the Voice of the Suns the “dean of all NBA broadcasters.” Though Breen has built a significant following, especially among Knicks fans for his call alongside Walt “Clyde” Frazier, he claimed to hold not a candle to McCoy.

“We all looked up to him, all of us,” Breen said on “The Burns & Gambo Show” earlier this week. “We looked up to him too because of the way he carried himself and the way you would learn by not just listening to him on the air, but how he interacted with people. He showed us how to do the job in every aspect, from on-air to off-air.”

To that point, Breen recalled that McCoy treated him like an equal when he descended upon the “Purple Palace,” his nickname for the Suns’ home of American West Arena, now known as Footprint Center to call the Knicks’ annual visit for the first time.

“For a man who had so much skill and play-by-play talent and personality, the thing that I remember most is that he just had so much kindness to him,” Breen said. “He didn’t go into any complicated strategic thing, he just, in a plain simple way that anybody could understand … he told you exactly what was going on with the Suns and with your team. He knew the game, and he loved the game.”

New York is set to make its annual return to the desert on Nov. 20 at Footprint Center, where the Breen and other broadcasters will work from the Al McCoy Media Center dedicated in 2007.

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