Legendary NBA broadcaster Mike Breen says Michael Jordan's 'mystique' was so rare he could intimidate anyone in his path

• Legendary NBA broadcaster Mike Breen said on the "Lowe Post" podcast that he has never seen another player with the "mystique" of Michael Jordan, saying he was in "awe" of Jordan.
• Breen said Jordan could intimidate everyone around him, from opponents to teammates, to referees, recalling a time he appeared to intimidate an official into not giving him a technical foul.
• Breen said that while players like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Allen Iverson had similar auras about them, nobody had it like Jordan.
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NBA play-by-play broadcaster Mike Breen has been covering games since 1992 and hasn't seen another player like Michael Jordan.

While speaking to ESPN's Zach Lowe on the "Lowe Post" podcast, Breen said he was "in awe" of Jordan the first time he saw him.

"There's only been a handful of players where — you hear the phrase, 'I'm in awe of somebody.' You were in awe when you saw him in person," Breen said. "As great as he was on television, when you saw the way he carried himself, you saw the way he stared at an opponent, it was intimidating. There's only been a handful of players that have this mystique for me, in almost 30 years doing this."

Breen said while Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Allen Iverson also stood out for similar reasons, "nobody had it like Jordan."

Breen told Lowe that Jordan was also capable of intimidating everyone, from opponents to teammates to referees.

"When he was around, I would take off one of the headphones ... just so I could catch a glimpse of his conversation. He was so, he could be so intimidating and mean, obviously to his opponent, but to his teammates, too. He would give his teammates a stare or his teammates instructions, and it was intimidating as a teammate. And then, of course, there's the referees. He could be so intimidating to the referees."

Breen recalled being courtside for a game when Jordan confronted a referee over a no-call, using explicit language.

"He is in the official's face, and he is dropping one F-bomb after another, after another, after another. And you could see the official was like, it was intimidating."

Breen said on the next play, former New York Knicks guard Chris Childs got called for a foul and walked over to the ref and said, "That's BS." The referee gave Childs a technical foul.

"I had just watched Michael Jordan drop maybe 40 F-bombs in two sentences, and the official was intimidated. Chris Childs says that's BS — technical foul."

Breen grew up a Knicks fan and began broadcasting Knicks games in the '90s when they often faced Jordan and the Bulls in the playoffs. Breen said while he appreciated Jordan, he also had a love-hate relationship with him because he often broke the hearts of the Knicks and their fans. Breen said Jordan seemed to revel in it.

"He broke my heart, and he broke Knicks' fans hearts time and time again," Breen said. "You hated him. You couldn't fully embrace this spectacular player, one of the greats of all-time, because of how he time and time again deflated you with his play. And you could see the way he delighted in it whenever he threw that final dagger, whenever he had that big game. The way he walked, it just made it harder to take."

Jordan has been back in the spotlight ahead of the release of ESPN's 10-part docuseries, "The Last Dance," about Jordan and the 1997-98 Bulls. The series captured the entirety of the '97-98 season, with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, plus more on Jordan's career with the Bulls.

Director Jason Hehir told The Athletic's Richard Deitsch that Jordan said the documentary was going to make him look like a "horrible person" because of his intensity and competitiveness.

The first two episodes of "The Last Dance" air on ESPN on Sunday, April 19.

"He had this mystique about him ... He had this presence about him," Breen said. "I sound like a little kid — but I was in awe when I first saw him."

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