Marv Albert on Knicks' run to the NBA Finals: 'Amazing how they've done it'
TNT announcer Marv Albert watches the Heat vs. Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 27, 2011. Credit: Christopher Pasatieri
Is Marv Albert excited about the Knicks being in the NBA Finals?
Yes!
“It's pretty amazing how they've done it,” Albert, 84, told Newsday on Tuesday in a telephone interview. “I mean, they obviously had a solid regular season, but what they've done now, incredibly, they've won 11 straight postseason games, and I think they've got it by about a margin of 24 points per game. It was unheard of.
“It's also unusual because the regular season is usually so different than the playoffs, but this is incredibly different. And we are now seeing a Knicks team that is actually eight, nine, 10 deep, which is unheard of. In most cases, it's the starting five plus maybe three dependable players off the bench.
“But what it has meant to the city of New York and what the reaction has been . . . I did the Finals on radio in 1970 — I’m dating myself — and in 1973. It was a tremendous reaction, particularly in ’70, but not like this. What's going on now is just amazing with the team.”
Mike Breen, the Knicks play-by-play man who is announcing the Finals for ABC, has called Albert “the greatest basketball play-by-play voice of all time.”
That voice has been mostly silent on the air since 2021, when Albert retired from a 55-year career that included 37 years calling Knicks games.
NBC, which returned to broadcasting the NBA this season, had Albert tape some openings for their broadcasts and even invited him to call a game with his old sparring partner Mike Fratello. Albert declined, for now, although he didn’t rule it out for the future if he’s able.
“I've had a voice problem,” he said. “I've always had a voice doctor — even my days doing the games — so if I had any problems, he would make sure I'd be ready to go. It was more the voice problem, because I did a couple of openings for them. I was able to do that. I wasn't going to come in with a hoarse voice just to do one game. It was awfully nice of them to offer me to do the game and I would have enjoyed it because it would have been with The Czar, Mike Fratello, although maybe that's not the good part.”
Other than returning the praise to Breen (“I just think Mike does a superb job”), Albert didn’t have much to say about today’s NBA broadcasts, which for the early rounds of the Knicks postseason were on several different stations and streaming platforms.
Plus, as an old Brooklyn Dodgers fan, Albert is really enjoying watching baseball these days.
“I don't watch every [NBA] playoff game,” he said. “I watched most of the Knicks and San Antonio, I must say, and I did watch OKC quite a bit. I'm a big baseball fan, so I watch a lot of baseball. It's kind of a background as I'm reading.”
Still, Albert is excited about tuning in to the Finals.
“San Antonio's going to give them a really good series and we're all anxious to see [Victor] Wembanyama,” he said. “I have never seen a player like this.”
Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.
