"He Ain't Been Late So Stop The Lies!" - You Have To Respect Well Known Knicks Fan Mike Breen For Doing His Part To Try And Fracture The Sixers From Within

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

Listen, when you're the defending NBA Champs, everyone is coming after you. They want what you have. You officially move from "the hunter" to "the hunted". Every single night you're getting the opposing team's best effort. Beating you carries more weight, your losses and drama gets amplified, it's all part of the journey back up the NBA mountain. In this current era, we've seen just how hard it is for a Champ to defend their title, something that hasn't happened in nearly a decade (since 2017-18). So when you find yourself in that position, you need everyone in the organization to be super locked in. Everyone has to do their part to help defend the Larry.

Enter Mike Breen.

On the surface, this seems like no big deal. You could make the case that it shows accountability and leadership by LeBron for trying to establish a standard. But that would be very naive in my opinion, as it's pretty clear what Breen is doing here. Whether you believe the story or not, Breen knows what he's doing in that moment. He knows that this can escalate into an "Embiid is lazy" or "Embiid is not committed" storyline. It can cause unnecessary drama and friction, it gets the media going who you know is itching to do their thing when it comes to the Sixers. 

It's the perfect way for a well-known Knicks fan to try and do his part to take out a new challenger to their crown. 

Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

and you know what? I love it. Hell yeah. This is exactly what Mike Breen should be doing. You may not like it or think it's fucked up, well too bad. All is fair in love and war last time I checked, and it clearly worked 

Advertisement

Maybe it was a lie, maybe it wasn't. That's not really the point. The point is the story/reaction/drama now exists, however big or small you think it may be. Was it the most impactful approach? Maybe not, but it is preseason after all. Perhaps Breen is just getting his reps in, but at the end of the day as the defending Champion you have to use every resource and defense you can think of over the course of the season. Mike Breen is so well respected and such a living legend that nobody will question anything he "reports", which is why I find this move to be so diabolical. Just ask yourself, who do you believe here? That Mike Breen was making it up and that it never happened, or LeBron, who loves to lie more than anything in the world? 

All I know is I respect the attempt by Breen to plant a seed of destruction that could then bloom during the regular season. Going back-to-back is nearly impossible in this current era, so I have no problem with a lifelong fan and Knicks play by play guy doing his part to try and gain whatever advantage they can. Time will tell if it works, but there's no shame in trying as far as I'm concerned.