The Ryen Russillo Podcast
Julius Randle’s Playoff Turnaround. Plus, Mike Breen on Where Brunson Ranks as a Knick, His Favorite Broadcasting Moments, and Being the Voice of the NBA.
15 May 2025
Russillo starts the show by looking back at the Julius Randle trade and explaining his importance to the Timberwolves down the stretch (1:19). Then, he’s joined by Mike Breen to discuss watching Jalen Brunson play, his early broadcasting career, and the best moments he’s called (19:07). Plus, Life Advice with Kyle (53:58)! Is it weird to wear my friend’s clothes? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Mike Breen Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Get anything delivered on Uber Eats. www.ubereats.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
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On today's episode of the podcast, one of the boldest trades in NBA history. No, we're not talking about Dallas. We're talking about Julius Randle coming into Minnesota, Cat going out, and Minnesota is back in the Western Conference Finals. We'll take a look at that. And we've got Mike Breen, the voice of the NBA Finals for ABC and ESPN.
We'll do some basketball stuff, but I also want to talk about his career and his background. And just look, he's the man. He's awesome at it. And we've got life advice. Wargon's awesome at that, too. Minnesota is back in the Western Conference Finals. Our guy John Krasinski from The Athletic, who's been on, does a great job covering the NBA and the Timberwolves.
He noted that this is the first time for a Minnesota pro team to to be in the final four of their playoffs of the major sports in back-to-back years since the Minnesota North Stars in 1981. If you remember, the North Stars left for Dallas in 93. If you played the video game, you remember how challenging that was at the time. And if you were wondering if 80-81 was Dino Cicerelli's first season...
So we talked about the closing stages of an NBA regular season. I brought it up with Bill. I've touched on it a little bit. As we were gearing up for the playoffs, kind of being like, all right, what do we have, right? As an aside, obviously, with the Steph injury and him not being able to get back out there, I still don't know that I would have picked Golden State throughout all of this.
And just another aside, it's just... I don't know how many more Steph playoff runs we're even going to get. So, just awful. Like, it sucks that we didn't get to see him at least out there competing. But I still probably would have picked Minnesota in this series. So...
Those closing stages that I've referenced a lot, as I try to, as I'm sure you do if you're really into it, and you're like, all right, who's been better since the All-Star break? What have you looked like your last 20 games? Is this stuff real? Is it fake? What are they doing as far as their schedule? Are they playing all tanking teams?
Is it a nice close in the East against 80% of the teams that don't want to win games for those last weird stretches of the regular season? Can I be fooled by some of this stuff? Well, I'll get to Minnesota here in a second because we know that they close at 17-4. They close on the 17-4 run, and there's some really good stats in there as well. Well, the Clippers are 18-5 with a No.
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