Mike Breen had been out of Fordham University for what, to a young guy bursting with talent and passion, must have seemed like forever.
He already had spent 2-1/2 years working at a small radio station in Poughkeepsie, where his salary was so low he occasionally had to ask his parents for help paying his rent.
“I wouldn’t ask a lot, but enough that I was tired of doing it,” Breen said. “I said, ‘I can’t keep doing this.’ ’’
And after being passed over for a play-by-play job at Villanova he thought was his, Breen had had enough.
“I remember saying to my father, ‘Get me the steamfitter’s application,’ ’’ he said. “It’s time to start making some money.’’’
But then Breen, who never wanted to do anything other than be a sportscaster, remembered a promise he made to himself upon graduating from Fordham in 1983.
“I was going to give it five years and see how I’d progressed,” he said. “So, after talking it over with my parents, I said, ‘It’s only been 2 ½ years. Give it some more time before you become a steamfitter,’ which is what my dad was.’’
That’s how close Mike Breen came to giving up his dream.
Tonight, he will be at AmericanAirlines Arena for Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and Thunder. It’s the seventh Finals for ABC/ESPN’s top NBA play-by-play man.
Not getting that union card turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to the 51-year-old Breen.
“It’s such an honor, and it’s still hard for me to believe I get to do this,” he said by phone on the eve of the Finals. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams, and I do think I’m the luckiest guy in the business.’’
After deciding his steamfitting career could wait, things began to fall into place for Breen — who was raised in Yonkers, the fourth of five boys, all with a passion for sports.
“That’s all we watched on TV. That’s all we wanted to do,” he said. “They made fun of our lawn in our neighborhood because there was no lawn. It was all dirt because that was the Wiffle Ball field for the neighborhood. That’s all we did — play sports.’’
There was also a radio station of sorts in the neighborhood.
“There was a guy who had his own little radio station in his basement,” Breen said. “So after a hot day of Wiffle Ball, we would go hang out in his basement.
“The radio station would only [transmit] from the corner of his basement into [another part] of his basement, and we were the only people listening. It caught my interest and he let me — I’m 13 or 14 at the time — be the fill-in DJ.
“I loved the idea of broadcasting. So between enjoying that and wanting to play sports, that’s when I think it started to formulate that maybe sportscasting could be a career.’’
Breen, who parked cars at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck to help pay for college, called Fordham “the perfect place’’ to go to school.
“I had more air time when I got out of college than some people have in the first few years of their jobs,” he said. “It was the perfect experience, the perfect learning curve.’’
Not long after Breen renewed his five-year vow, WNBC Radio started a nightly sports talk show, hosted by legendary disc jockey Jack Spector. Breen, still working six days a week in Poughkeepsie, noticed the show was being produced by a Chris Doyle. He had gone to school with a Chris Doyle.
“I didn’t know if it was the same guy,” Breen said.
It was and a couple of months later, Doyle offered Breen a job producing Spector’s show one night a week. Things snowballed from there. Two nights a week, then three. Finally, Breen could put Poughkeepsie in his rear-view mirror for good.
A gig as Don Criqui’s fill-in on “Imus in the Morning’’ opened more doors. Breen’s work eventually caught the attention of the folks at Madison Square Garden. The network would acquire the Knicks radio and TV rights and Breen was named the host of the radio pregame, halftime and postgame shows. After one season, he became the radio play-by-play guy.
But it wasn’t an easy sell. Breen’s often-irreverent role on the Imus show was a source of concern to some in MSG’s hierarchy.
“The late, great Chet Simmons, who was one of the founders of ESPN, was a consultant for us and he would ask, ‘Do we really want the voice of the Knicks doing penis jokes [with Imus]?’ ” said Mike McCarthy, the former MSG executive producer who pushed for Breen’s hiring. “And it was a fair question.
“There were definitely mornings when I would listen and shudder. There were a few gags that we had meetings about. But most of it was just cross-promoting the Knicks. Ninety percent of it was harmless.’’
“Mike had to fight for me,” Breen said. “I really didn’t have any name. I was inexperienced. But he fought for me. He said, ‘We want a young guy who we can grow with.’ ”
Grow Breen has. He moved to Knicks TV when Marv Albert was forced out following his 1997 sex scandal. Breen admitted he initially felt awkward about the way he ascended to the job, which he still holds.
“But I was OK when, about a week before the season, I got a card from Marv that said, ‘Good luck. I know you’re going to be great,’ ’’ Breen said. “Two or three years later, MSG brought Marv back and I went back to radio, which I had no problems with.’’
Albert would leave again following the 2004 season when his pointed criticism of the Knicks rankled MSG chairman James Dolan. Breen again would fill the void.
A few years later, Breen was doing a slate of NBA games for ABC/ESPN when lead play-by-play man Al Michaels bolted to join NBC’s new “Sunday Night Football’’ package. Suddenly, Breen was the network’s No.1 NBA announcer.
“I’ve been so lucky,” he said. “I hesitate to use the word lucky, but the Marv thing was such a big break for me. Even the Al Michaels thing, with NBC getting back football. … Some of my great breaks have come because legendary announcers had something occur. And that changed things.’’
McCarthy, part of a group that recently sold its stake in the St. Louis Blues where he had been the team’s CEO, has been a fan since Breen’s days on Fordham’s WFUV. He would listen on Sunday nights as Breen and others hosted what was then the only sports talk show on New York City radio. To him, it’s more than luck that has brought Breen to the peak of his profession.
“He was born to do this,” McCarthy said.
dburke@nypost.com