Speaker 1: This podcast is part of the seventy Sixers Podcast network
Speaker 1: search seventy Sixers Podcast wherever you get your pods. This
Speaker 1: week's edition of Tom's Talks is a little bit different
Speaker 1: from the other episodes. It centers around not a singular
Speaker 1: athlete or personality, but at trio of the game's top
Speaker 1: notch broadcasters, a sports smorgasport, a basketball buffet, if you will.
Speaker 1: With the Sixers getting a number of games on ESPN
Speaker 1: of Blade, I caught up with Mike Breen and Lisasaulters,
Speaker 1: and with the recent Sixers Suns matchup, I got the
Speaker 1: opportunity to talk to Suns broadcaster Tim Kempton. I'm Tom McGinnis.
Speaker 1: One of the things I missed most about the normal
Speaker 1: routine of covering an NBA game is the opportunity to
Speaker 1: chat with the different principles around the court, what I
Speaker 1: call basketball's version of baseballs around the batting cage, talking
Speaker 1: with reporters, coaches, scouts and players on the perimeter of
Speaker 1: the playing surface. We haven't been able to do that
Speaker 1: because of the health and safety protocols put in place
Speaker 1: in arenas around the NBA this season. Mike Breen is
Speaker 1: a long time lead voice of the Knicks on MSG
Speaker 1: and the lead voice for ABC ESPN's package with the NBA.
Speaker 1: Here's our conversation that originally aired as a halftime interview. Mike,
Speaker 1: I know when you got here a little bit of
Speaker 1: a luster off the matchup tonight with some of the
Speaker 1: NETS players not playing Your thoughts there, well, Mac, we
Speaker 1: seem to have that every every time we do a game. It's,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just such an unpredictable season. It seems
Speaker 1: there's there's one key player out. You know, you feel
Speaker 1: bad for the fans, you feel bad for the coaches.
Speaker 1: But we've also seen in this kind of situation where
Speaker 1: a team rallies, it's an opportunity for other guys and
Speaker 1: they play with such hunger that sometimes they go out
Speaker 1: and win. So we're hoping for still a great game.
Speaker 1: They had the Nets a little hiccup in your game
Speaker 1: the other night against the Lakers, but you've seen him
Speaker 1: with Harden, with your Knicks games and whatnot. It's incredible
Speaker 1: the talent and the ability to score that they have. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, if if they're healthy and they get a
Speaker 1: chance to play together, it's incredible. Their record. We're only
Speaker 1: having the I've been played together seven games is amazing,
Speaker 1: So I think they're certainly one of the favorites to
Speaker 1: win it all if they're healthy. But that's that's with everybody.
Speaker 1: I mean, say the same thing. If Joel Embiat is
Speaker 1: healthy the way he's playing, the Sixers are title contender.
Speaker 1: You say the same thing for Milwaukee. Be honest, it's
Speaker 1: a Coopo's out now with a knee injury. But if
Speaker 1: they're healthy, they could get to the NBA Finals. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna make for an exciting playoffs. You just hope
Speaker 1: that it's exciting because everybody's healthy and everybody's kind of
Speaker 1: on the same level and we're going to have great games.
Speaker 1: You like what the Sixers dead bringing in Curry and
Speaker 1: Green with Joel and how they're playing under Doc Rivers. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, Curry was the perfect fit. And you know
Speaker 1: Danny Green, he takes grief sometimes because he looks there's
Speaker 1: some knights out there. He'll look like he's he's older,
Speaker 1: but he's one of the smartest players I've seen in
Speaker 1: all my years doing this. He can still hit big shots.
Speaker 1: He's got all the playoff experience. So I thought they
Speaker 1: were nice additions. I think George Hill, hopefully he'll get
Speaker 1: back soon. I think he's going to be an excellent addition,
Speaker 1: make a huge difference in that second unit. Lastly, but
Speaker 1: Danny Green, like, you're right, Oh my god, he hasn't
Speaker 1: scared Bote me as port freeze. And he's the best player.
Speaker 1: You got right? I mean wait, and he still every
Speaker 1: single night he contributes defensively. You know again, he's not
Speaker 1: the athletic player that he never was a great athlete,
Speaker 1: but he's not as quick as he used to be,
Speaker 1: but he makes up for it and savvy. And it's
Speaker 1: not a coincidence that he's been a part of a
Speaker 1: lot of winning teams and championship teams. You're traveling a
Speaker 1: little bit, You're doing some remote. It's been a bit
Speaker 1: of a hybrid. How's it going. You're like me, Mack
Speaker 1: and that we love the fans. I want the fans
Speaker 1: to be back. We want to be in the arena.
Speaker 1: It's been a little bit of a challenge for us.
Speaker 1: But as long as we're working, it's great. But I
Speaker 1: can't wait for tonight. I think this is of all
Speaker 1: the games I've done on site, this is the most
Speaker 1: amount of fans that are going to be in the
Speaker 1: building of the game I've called. So I'm thrilled, especially
Speaker 1: to hear from the Philly fans drive away from home.
Speaker 1: Hyeah exactly. Thank you might appreciate it, okay, mac. Lisa
Speaker 1: Salters has been with ESPN for over two decades. Among
Speaker 1: other roles with the network, she's the lead sideline reporter
Speaker 1: of ESPN's coverage of the NBA on ABC. Salters grew
Speaker 1: up just outside Philadelphia and played point guard at Penn
Speaker 1: State in college. I spoke to Lisa prior to the
Speaker 1: seventy six ers game with the Warriors, and Lisa, all
Speaker 1: of our jobs have been affected by the red zone,
Speaker 1: the yellow zone, and access. But boy, for a sideline report,
Speaker 1: I would imagine yours is as effected as anybody says
Speaker 1: that right, tell me about it. Yeah, it's hard. It's
Speaker 1: tough to, you know, talk to players and interact with
Speaker 1: players when you're not allowed to go around the players.
Speaker 1: So like, there are lots of things that you know,
Speaker 1: you're just used to. Oh, I need to hit him
Speaker 1: up about such and such, And I know I can
Speaker 1: just hit him up pregame, after his workout, before his
Speaker 1: workout and just ask him quickly about something, but you
Speaker 1: can't do that anymore. So I feel like I'm constantly bugging.
Speaker 1: You know, guys like Patrick Leza and Raymond Ritter for
Speaker 1: the Warriors, PR guys who have been great, the p
Speaker 1: R men and women, they've just been great this season.
Speaker 1: With the NFL and with the NBA. Everyone is just
Speaker 1: kind of taking it, you know, taking that extra load on,
Speaker 1: and you know, the PR guys are giving us whatever
Speaker 1: whatever we need in the players as well. You know,
Speaker 1: when we ask usually we'll go to a facility to
Speaker 1: talk to a player, but we can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: So I've asked for several players to just give me
Speaker 1: a call on the phone, maybe if the PR guy
Speaker 1: can call and just hand them the phone, but many
Speaker 1: guys they want to leave as soon as they they're
Speaker 1: done with practice and before they might call you on
Speaker 1: their way home, they might not since they're doing it
Speaker 1: on their own. I haven't had one guy not call.
Speaker 1: They all have just been so responsive, knowing that our
Speaker 1: access to them who's been restricted, and they've made themselves
Speaker 1: available by calling on their own time and letting me
Speaker 1: do my job, which I couldn't be more appreciative of
Speaker 1: that's great. So we visit about an hour before the game,
Speaker 1: and you're kind of already pre like working your hits right,
Speaker 1: like you're stories, your anecdote and something might come up
Speaker 1: during the game. But tell us a little bit about
Speaker 1: that part of your storytelling, you know, just like you do.
Speaker 1: Like I read the papers and go online and get
Speaker 1: ideas from the PR guys and what they want to
Speaker 1: get out there, and then just try to do as
Speaker 1: much research reporting on my own as I can. Tonight
Speaker 1: a really cool stories that Steph Curry has a couple
Speaker 1: of special guests coming to the game. But I don't
Speaker 1: want to just rely on what I read in the newspaper,
Speaker 1: so I made it a point of getting the information
Speaker 1: his guest information and calling the guy to find out
Speaker 1: a little bit about him and about the story. So
Speaker 1: that's something that your listeners can look out for if
Speaker 1: they happen to be watching the game. But it's that
Speaker 1: part of it has not changed during COVID, the preparation,
Speaker 1: the work. I still am doing the same work. I'm
Speaker 1: just doing it a little bit differently, if that makes
Speaker 1: any sense. So you're an athlete, but you you know
Speaker 1: your salad days if you will were in Baltimore, but
Speaker 1: you covered you were in the Middle East covering a war.
Speaker 1: I started in news, so I've only been doing sports
Speaker 1: since two thousand when I went to UH when I
Speaker 1: left ABC News and switched over to ESPN, So the
Speaker 1: first twelve years of my career I did hard news.
Speaker 1: So I've been. Yeah, I've been a lot of places
Speaker 1: that most sports journalists have not been, and I've been
Speaker 1: to some places even with the ESPN that a lot
Speaker 1: of sports journalists would not you wouldn't typically think of
Speaker 1: us going to, and you know, being in the war zone,
Speaker 1: that was one of those places. ESPN thought it was
Speaker 1: important to send UH some of us over there to
Speaker 1: support the troops and to actually do Sports Center from
Speaker 1: the Middle East, and it was uplifting for the troops,
Speaker 1: it was uplifting for us, for the few of us
Speaker 1: that got to go over there. So yeah, I've been
Speaker 1: kind of all over the place, but it's been a
Speaker 1: great ride. So preparing your pregame hits with loud music
Speaker 1: compared to a posiblet GUD missile over in ten degrees,
Speaker 1: it was like actually one hundred and ten hundred and
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred and twenty degrees over in Kuwait when I
Speaker 1: was there, So yeah, not a lot rattles me. The
Speaker 1: music is pretty loud in here, but but not a
Speaker 1: lot rattles me. Last thought, and we probably touched on
Speaker 1: this in years past, but growing up in King of
Speaker 1: Prussia in the eighties, I would assume you're a sixerst fan.
Speaker 1: That was the glory of years with Doctor j Absolutely,
Speaker 1: Mo Cheeks, Bobby Jones, Doug Collins. I loved. I loved
Speaker 1: a world be free, like I loved all of it.
Speaker 1: And in fact, doc Rus was just saying pregame because
Speaker 1: he saw me hit the bell on Friday nine. He's like,
Speaker 1: I can know you from you were from King of
Speaker 1: Prussia and what is King of Prussia? And I was like,
Speaker 1: have you ever been to the mall? And he's like,
Speaker 1: I have to say I haven't. But he said that
Speaker 1: Steph and Seth had told him like, oh yeah, you
Speaker 1: gotta get out, you gotta get out to the mall.
Speaker 1: So King of Prussia claimed to fame. I worked at
Speaker 1: the mall when I was a teenager, so I have
Speaker 1: found memories of the of the mall of King of Prussia. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, we'll let you get back to work.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it, all right, thanks for having me. Tim
Speaker 1: Kempton is a native New Yorker. He played college basketball
Speaker 1: at Notre Dame and forged a fourteen year professional career.
Speaker 1: He's been a fixture with the Phoenix Suns radio broadcast,
Speaker 1: and with the recent matchup with the Sons, I spoke
Speaker 1: to him about the incredible season the Sons are experiencing
Speaker 1: and the impact of Sons guard Chris Paul. Well, Jim,
Speaker 1: let's just talk about the Sons like from afar and
Speaker 1: I know you guys are really good, but a little
Speaker 1: surprise that they've taken off the way they have. But
Speaker 1: certainly I would imagine Chris Paul has a lot to
Speaker 1: do with that, and Monnie Williams and book is playing
Speaker 1: great as well. Yeah, you really almost have to put
Speaker 1: it all on Chris Paul. And you know, you never
Speaker 1: want to give one guy too much credit. This team
Speaker 1: did to wait to know in the bubble without Chris
Speaker 1: is that next level consistently night in and night out
Speaker 1: in the FBA. I think it's where Chris Paul has
Speaker 1: made a huge different Obviously, you know, a short season
Speaker 1: in the bubble um, you know, some teams were arresting
Speaker 1: their players in the playoffs, but the Suns didn't know.
Speaker 1: But but again, Tom, it's just that night end, night out,
Speaker 1: not losing back to back situations, sits back in January,
Speaker 1: the overall consistency to play on the both ends of
Speaker 1: the court, and then just the growth of some other
Speaker 1: players with Chris Paul's here, and that would be most
Speaker 1: notably would be DeAndre Ayton. Although he's made strides himself,
Speaker 1: I think Chris Paul b here has helped him immensely
Speaker 1: as well. So you've seen the Sixers and Phoenix won
Speaker 1: the game out there, But what do you make of
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers and what he's done here in Philadelphia, the
Speaker 1: Simmons and Harrison and the Bible commentor to in the
Speaker 1: East and potentially get to the NBA Finals. Yeah, Tom,
Speaker 1: you know, any any time you add something that you
Speaker 1: didn't have, and that's no no, you know, this credit
Speaker 1: to anybody that with Doc Rivers being in the in
Speaker 1: the trenches with guys in difficult situations before. You know,
Speaker 1: we talk about experience, and I think having been there
Speaker 1: and we always talked about those young teams that that's
Speaker 1: never really all those supremely talented never win in the
Speaker 1: first or second go round. They have to go through
Speaker 1: the riggers of a playoff series of a playoff, you know,
Speaker 1: two or three series to gain that experience to understand
Speaker 1: what is necessary. So docs Doc Rivers brings that coaching
Speaker 1: experience and expectation and just the way he used the
Speaker 1: players that he has there a little bit differently uh
Speaker 1: than uh than Coach Brown before him. So it's all
Speaker 1: those little things. You can't really point to one huge
Speaker 1: thing because basketball, at the end of the day, it
Speaker 1: is still the same. And it may be a quirked
Speaker 1: and taking the guy off the ball a little bit
Speaker 1: where he's s ten shots a game, but ten shots
Speaker 1: come in a different different scenario. You know. It may
Speaker 1: be positioning as to where the player gets the ball,
Speaker 1: and then just those little quirks. So you know, you
Speaker 1: have Joel Mby, you have you have Ben Simmons, who
Speaker 1: supremely talented. But and I don't know if we really
Speaker 1: know what Ben Simmons is in the league yet. At
Speaker 1: times he looks phenomenal at the point guard position because
Speaker 1: of his size and his ball handling ability. Then he
Speaker 1: looks good at other positions as well. But you know,
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris is another guy that that that I think
Speaker 1: is supremely talented, one of those guys that can score
Speaker 1: the ball in just another ad and dimension. When you
Speaker 1: get into a playoff series that you have to you
Speaker 1: have to coach against, you have to, you know, definitely
Speaker 1: bring him up in the scouting report every night. Tim
Speaker 1: you've played the position of center both that Notre Dame
Speaker 1: and in the NBA and a little bit in Europe.
Speaker 1: Just to go back to and beat a little bit.
Speaker 1: Steve Kerry the other night was saying that he's like
Speaker 1: an old school center from the eighties with all of
Speaker 1: those skills and then he has today's euro step and
Speaker 1: one leggage shot and the step backs that all the
Speaker 1: modern players have and to have that beat in that
Speaker 1: size of a body. And there are some great centers
Speaker 1: Yokich And as you say you're young player eighton, people
Speaker 1: say the big man is dead, but not when they
Speaker 1: come with this skill set. Trying to talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about in beads, Yeah that's what so so you know,
Speaker 1: just bed morizing when you're watching it's sheer physical size. Um,
Speaker 1: I've seen it, and we only get to see him
Speaker 1: twice a year. So I see highlights thereout the year,
Speaker 1: but when you stand next to DeAndre, the size different.
Speaker 1: Just I mean, it's it's it's glaring. It's glaring. I
Speaker 1: mean the physical size of Joel mb uh for him
Speaker 1: to be able to you know, he goes down the
Speaker 1: low posts and just overpowers people similar to what Shaquille
Speaker 1: O'Neil did. He goes down and and has moves of
Speaker 1: a Keimolajwa because of his quickness and his footwork. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then you add those to mentions where he goes
Speaker 1: down to you know, to the literally the three point line,
Speaker 1: knockdown three point Jepson has, euro Step has the ball
Speaker 1: handling ability. It's just a continued progress of the skill
Speaker 1: level of the MBA players today. And now we're saying
Speaker 1: it's at the center position and everybody every night, but
Speaker 1: don't mb talent wise, it is probably the most talented
Speaker 1: player for everything that we've just talked about his size
Speaker 1: and his skill level. Don't just size at his skill
Speaker 1: level but doesn't have the quickness, does an athleticism of that, Joel,
Speaker 1: and he does. I mean, and I think there's a
Speaker 1: separation point with Joe every night, and that's what's so
Speaker 1: special about him? He really is amazing fun to watch
Speaker 1: because he does have that old ability, but he has
Speaker 1: to bother say skills as well. If you like what
Speaker 1: you're hearing, consider subscribing to the seventy six ers podcast
Speaker 1: network feed or giving us a follow wherever you get
Speaker 1: your pods and if that happens to be on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: we'd love for you to give us a radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Tom McGinnis, talk to you down the road.