A simple onomatopoeia, nothing intellectually grandiose, yet it has become one of the coolest elements available to a commentator to excite his audience. At the origin of these four letters, a man, Mike Breen, or perhaps several.
Exchange posted by @TheKnicksWall Twitter account
Interviewer : Everyone wants to know, how did you start with the coolest onomatopoeia ever, “BLAST” ?
Mike Breen : I’m not the original and I don’t know when the story started. Johnny Most, did it in his Boston days. For my part, I started doing it in college. I went to study at Fordham. I watched Fordham games with the other students in the stands. If a Fordham player hit a big shot, then there was no 3-point line, I was yelling in the stands. I tried doing that again on the radio, when I was on Student Broadcast, and then I was like, “Mmmm, I don’t think that’s going to work.” So I gave up and started doing television. And there I did it again because in a big moment where the crowd goes crazy, the human voice doesn’t have the ability to dominate that of the crowd. I thought it was a quick and concise way of saying, “That’s a big shot.”
Interviewer : I’m surprised you didn’t take advantage of it by setting up a business and making money at the stage where the expression came. But you said that expression wasn’t yours, so you can’t…
Mike Breen : Yes, I’ve always rejected it. Jay Howard, who was the Spurs’ radio voice for several years, also used it. We have not created anything. It is a set of four words that serve me well.
Interviewer : One last thing, when I grew up as a Nuggets fan in Denver, we had Al Albert, Marv’s brother… He used the term ” On fire “. See his face ” On fire “ ? It was amazing…
Mike Breen : Of course, because his brother Marv used it all the time too. I was a kid when Marv was the Knicks commentator: he used it very well. And I think Steve Albert, who was also a great case-by-case stock commentator, used that very well as well.
Interviewer : Ah, so he stole it from his brothers!
Mike Breen on the origins of one of the greatest calling phrases: “BANG” pic.twitter.com/PRNZPfkIim
— The Knicks Wall (@TheKnicksWall) November 17, 2022
