Anthony Rieber: Knicks' playoff success an 'out-of-body experience' for ESPN and MSG's Alan Hahn
Alan Hahn on the set of ESPN's "Get Up" Credit: ESPN Images/Ben Solomon
Alan Hahn has been reporting and commenting on the Knicks for various outlets — Newsday, MSG, ESPN New York Radio, ESPN TV — for more than 20 years.
In his current job as an MSG analyst and co-co-host of the “Don, Hahn and Rosenberg” afternoon show on ESPN NY Radio, Hahn talks a lot about the Knicks.
And right now there’s a lot to talk about.
As in . . . could this be the year? Could the Knicks actually win their first NBA title since 1973?
Sorry to skip ahead a round. But on the eve of the Knicks’ Eastern Conference Finals opener with Cleveland, that question has to be going through Knicks fans’ minds.
“I think this is the best I’ve ever seen them,” said Hahn, 54, who grew up in Ronkonkoma and on Thursday will be inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame. “I’ve been covering them for over 20 years in various ways. I’ve never seen them play an offense like this consistently.
“What they’ve done in the playoffs in this transformation with how they played, it’s remarkable. Of course, you need to see more proof of it as a series gets deeper. As you go deeper, it gets harder, right? But when in the playoffs do you see teams consistently blowing out their opponents in the first two rounds and not say that’s a championship-level team?”
The Knicks go into the series with a seven-game playoff winning streak after taking the final three against Atlanta and manhandling Philadelphia.
Again, sorry, but let’s skip ahead, this time two series. What will the Garden sound like if the Knicks win it all?
“I’ve heard that building so loud so many times in various ways,” Hahn said. “Last year was a great example. That Game 6 win over Boston was as loud as you could imagine. I can’t even imagine how much louder it could get, how much more intense it could get. All I know is for me personally, it’s something I have never seen in my lifetime.
“So for me, in all the years that I’ve put in around this team and all the things I’ve seen, it might be an out-of-body experience.
“I text [SNY Mets reporter] Steve Gelbs and I text [YES reporter] Meredith Marakovits all the time, because they’re the ones that have experienced champagne in the locker room and all that stuff. I just want to see what that’s like. I want to know what that burn feels like in your eyes.
“Just being able to interview players right out of the moment, I would love to see it, and I think this is probably the best chance I might get personally.
“I wasn’t there for Game 5 in ’94. I wasn’t there for Larry Johnson’s four-point play and I certainly wasn’t there for Willis Reed [in 1970]. But I’m curious to see if there is another decibel that building can get to that rivals those moments.”
While the Knicks rested, the Cavaliers ousted the Pistons in a seven-game series that ended on Sunday. The Knicks were 2-1 vs. Cleveland and 0-3 against Detroit in the regular season after beating the Pistons in six games in the first round of last year’s playoffs. Cleveland seems like the better matchup for the Knicks.
“That’s the one thing,” Hahn said. “It’s hard not to look at their struggles against Detroit and Detroit seems to just have a different kind of level [against the Knicks].
“They really didn’t get over losing to the Knicks in the first round and you could see that in every game they played this year. They just had a different type of intensity, almost to a point where even the Knicks were like, ‘Whoa, whoa, it’s January. What are you guys doing?’
“I would never say that Cleveland’s easier. But I think matchup-wise, it’s way more intriguing because it’s two really good offensive teams. So how do you solve them defensively is going to be the biggest story in this series.”
Hahn is still a Long Islander, which means he had to navigate the LIRR strike. On Monday, he was allowed to work remotely on the radio. He will be at MSG on Tuesday as “Don, Hahn and Rosenberg” is scheduled to do the show live from outside the Garden. He then will be part of MSG’s expanded 60-minute pre- and postgame shows.
Fortunately, the strike was settled on Monday night. Even if it hadn’t been, nothing was going to stop Hahn from making it to the Garden for Game 1. “Being there in person,” he said, “is a priority.”
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.
