Sports announcer extraordinaire Kenny Albert — who calls Rangers and Knicks games along with other major sports — takes a time out to huddle with Post columnist Steve Serby for some NHL and NBA playoffs Q&A.
Q: Is it realistic for Rangers fans to dream of winning the Stanley Cup?
A: Definitely realistic. It’s not going to be easy. As Howie Rose said in ’94, “There’s one more hill to climb,” well the Rangers have three more hills to climb, but it should definitely be realistic. That’s their goal, and I think the fans who have watched the team all year long would certainly agree that the Cup is realistic. … The city and the Garden would just explode if it were to happen again this year 30 years later.
Q: You’ve said the Rangers have no holes.
A: Tremendous goaltending, in my opinion the best group of defensemen one through six in the league, two All-Star lines, great depth. Chris Drury’s done a terrific job, Peter Laviolette was the perfect coach for this team. I’ve been so impressed with the style that he implemented right from Game 1, and then throughout the season, the personnel changes, the tweaks, the in-game adjustments … the 30th anniversary of ’94, a lot of the stars are aligning with the Rangers, Knicks, the eclipse, O.J., etc. Carolina is well-coached. … All eight teams remaining in the playoffs feel like they all have a legitimate shot. I think the Rangers have the edge in goal, Carolina’s had some injury issues there, although Frederik Andersen played very well in the series against the Islanders. They have a lot of playoff experience. They have some star forwards, real good group of defensemen, they work hard, they throw everything at the net.
Q: What is the key to the Rangers advancing against the Hurricanes?
A: They just seem real focused on the common goal, and what the goal is. This team has meshed so well. They play for one another, and it’s a really good group. When you look at where they were at the start of the season, they certainly had a long playoff run as their focus after what they’d did two years ago by getting to the conference final and then followed up by the disappointing ending last year. I think as a collective unit they really wanted to prove a point this season.
Q: You were at the Garden when the Rangers won the Cup in ’94.
A: I’ll never forget how electric the Garden was that night, June 14, ’94. I was up right in front of the blue seats calling the games on the NHL Radio Network with Sherry Ross. Game 5 the Rangers had a three games to one lead. I wound up meeting my wife that night after the game. If the Rangers had won the Cup in Game 5 on June 9, ’94, we would not have met.
Q: And when the horn went off?
A: My call was, “Say goodbye to the ghosts of 1940, the New York Rangers have won the Stanley Cup!” That’s certainly at the top of my list as far as memorable games, memorable calls — along with the 2018 Olympics, the women’s gold medal game which went to a shootout in South Korea, the United States beat Canada. … Called the 2021 and ’23 Stanley Cup Final on TV in the U.S., the first one for NBC, the most recent for TNT. The Jose Bautista call that I get asked about more than any other, the home run and bat flip in 2015. … I’ve been lucky enough to be at the mic for the Victor Cruz 99-yard touchdown reception from Eli [Manning] which helped springboard the [2011] Giants to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. … Terrell Owens stomping on the star in Dallas when he was with the 49ers. … The crazy Raiders-Patriots ending with the laterals and the Chandler Jones interception …
Q: Describe these Rangers: Chris Kreider.
A: True pro. When he first came up and had success in the 2011 playoffs, one of the best I’ve ever seen deflecting the puck on the power play. He’ll go down as one of the greatest Rangers of all time.
Q: Artemi Panarin.
A: The Bread Man. I reminder seeing him score his first NHL goal in his first game against the Rangers against [Henrik] Lundqvist. Just so skilled, sees the ice as well as anybody, one of the great passers that I’ve ever had the pleasure of calling games in the NHL.
Q: Mika Zibanejad.
A: Does it all. Not only does he put up points, has great chemistry with Kreider, but he’s one of the top defensive centers in the league, and I think sometimes people don’t necessarily notice that.
Q: Adam Fox.
A: Local boy makes good. Also a great passer. Never thought anybody would come close to Brian Leetch among Ranger defensemen, but he’s certainly in the same category.
Q: Matt Rempe.
A: He’s taken New York City by storm. I worked a bunch of Tommy DeVito starts this year, and it kind of has that similar feel. Ironically, they both made their debuts at MetLife Stadium, Rempe in the outdoor game back in February.
Q: Alexis Lafreniere.
A: Has come into his own this year. He’s a natural left wing, that’s the position he’s played primarily throughout his NHL career. He was third on the depth chart on the left side behind Kreider and Panarin. But Laviolette made the shrewd move of moving Lafreniere over to the right side, and he’s had his best season.
Q: Jacob Trouba.
A: Leadership. Steps up for teammates, hard hits, legal hits. The guy who wanted to play in New York, and the leadership skills have certainly lived up to the billing.
Q: Vincent Trocheck.
A: It’s ironic that he started the season on the third line when Filip Chytil was healthy, and then when Chytil was injured 10 games into the season they moved Trocheck up to play with Panarin and Lafreniere, and all three had their best seasons. He’s a rare hockey player that does it all. The Rangers can use him in any situation.
Q: Igor Shesterkin.
A: Another one in a long lineage of great Rangers goaltenders.
Q: Laviolette.
A: He has such a presence. He’s a winner. He’s the first coach in league history to take six different franchises to the playoffs. He brought structure, and he brought the winning pedigree.
Q: Mark Messier.
A: It was a team charter flight back in the late ’90s from Vancouver to Edmonton, it was delayed a couple of hours on an off day. And there were five or six Rangers who had played for the Oilers previously and they had dinner plans, So the flight was delayed for a couple of hours, and the Ranger staff arranged tickets on a commercial airline so the five or six guys who had friends and family waiting in Edmonton could get there in time. And Messier stood up in the front of the plane and he said, “Nope, we travel as a team, either we all go or nobody goes.”
Q: Describe the Messier Guarantee against the Devils before Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference final.
A: I’ll never forget watching that game in my apartment in Rockville, Md. I was so nervous because I was 26 years old and I knew that if the Rangers won the series I’m working the Stanley Cup Final. Howie Rose had called the Final for NHL radio in ’93. but his Rangers duties took priority.
Q: Did you think the Rangers could beat the Kings in 2014?
A: I thought they could because of Henrik Lundqvist. He kept them in every game.
Q: What do you think of Knicks-Pacers?
A: It’s remarkable what the Knicks were able to do without their entire starting front court for such a long period this year. Jalen Brunson, one of the great free-agent signings of all time, I think not only in the NBA but all sports. Tom Thibodeau’s done a masterful coaching job during his four seasons with the team. Leon Rose made some terrific deals. … Some great matchups, unbelievable storylines, Obi Toppin coming back to play against the Knicks. … When you look back to ’94, the Knicks played the Pacers that year as well, so just another one of those coincidences 30 years later.
Q: What is the key to the series?
A: Slowing down [Tyrese] Haliburton, [Pascal] Siakam’s a guy with a lot of playoff experience. … But from a Knicks standpoint, it’s just incredible to watch what Brunson’s been able to do, carry this team, Josh Hart playing just about every minute of every game, and I think OG Anunoby has certainly been that X factor. … Keeping an eye on that matchup, Anonoby and Siakam, they were teammates in Toronto for several years. That should be a lot of fun to watch.
Q: Will home-court be the deciding factor?
A: I think it will be a big factor. I was at the Garden for Game 5 of the Sixers series. Even though they lost the game, throughout the course of that evening, it was among the loudest I’ve heard the Garden in a long time. I think getting off to a good start of winning those first two games potentially at home will be a big factor.
Q: What makes Brunson, Brunson?
A: He’s one of those guys who really seemed to embrace coming to New York. He’s a student of the game. He was around it his entire life, his dad [Rick] was a player and a coach. It’s somewhat similar I think when you look at Adam Fox — he’s probably not the fastest skater, he doesn’t have the hardest shot, but he’s great at so many different things. So when you add it all up, it just leads to greatness on the court or on the ice.
Q: What do you like about Thibodeau?
A: He’s a basketball lifer. During the season, he’s consumed. He has such a tremendous pedigree when you look at some of the coaches that he’s worked with — Jeff Van Gundy here in New York in the late ’90s, he won a championship as an assistant with Doc Rivers in Boston. … I think just the hard work, the passion, the knowledge that he has. … At all of his media conferences, it’s almost like you’re listening to a coaching clinic.
Q: Can Deuce McBride be an X factor?
A: Yeah, absolutely. He was a quarterback in high school, and you can see the court sense that he has when he’s out there.
Q: Is there a better conditioned athlete than Josh Hart?
A: It’s really amazing when you look at the minutes he’s played, and diving on the floor, getting every rebound, leaping over the bench to get to a loose ball. … He’s one of those guys that just seems like the perfect fit for a Tom Thibodeau-coached team, and the perfect fit in New York, the fans love him.
Q: Describe the Anunoby trade.
A: He’s the perfect Tom Thibodeau-type player. It’s all about the team. It’s not about him. And you can say that about Brunson and Hart, and so many of the other guys on the roster. I know when he first came over, Clyde [Frazier] talked about the [Dave] DeBusschere trade and some of the similarities and how much that meant to his team and probably to a couple of championships, when you talk to some of the old Knicks from the ’70s, they do make that comparison to when their Knicks traded for DeBusschere.
Q: How was villain Reggie Miller received at the Garden?
A: He really did embrace it, and Spike [Lee] is such a passionate fan. I think it just adds to the mystique. Basketball, unlike hockey, there are no boards, there’s no boundary, the fans are right there.
Q: You were there when Reggie gave the choke sign.
A: I was up in the stands. … I just remember the intensity, the craziness of so many points being scored in such a short period of time.
Q: There hasn’t been a bigger Garden villain than Reggie Miller, right?
A: Michael Jordan took away a lot of championship dreams during those years from the Knicks. There was always so much buzz — “How many points is Michael going to score tonight, is he going to get 40, is he going to get 50?” But with Reggie, he definitely seemed like more of a villain.
Q: How did Denis Potvin as a villain compare with Reggie Miller?
A: Ha! I had the opportunity to work with Denis, we did Fox NHL games together. We would joke about it, he would always say that they were actually chanting “Potvin’s Cups.”
Q: Knicks fans haven’t forgotten losing the ’94 Finals to the Rockets.
A: That was an unbelievable couple of weeks at the Garden with the Rangers and Knicks alternating home games in the conference finals and the final. Messier bringing the Stanley Cup out to center court the day after the Rangers won the Cup. That was Game 4, and then obviously it was a disappointing ending for the Knicks losing the last two games in Houston. Again, it was an unbelievable time to be a New York sports fan.
Q: Has Clyde ever offered to loan you one of his outfits?
A: (Laugh). I always joke that I could be wearing a T-shirt and shorts during the game open because it wouldn’t matter, nobody’s looking at me, they’re all looking at Clyde. I’ve asked him about the rotation and he said he never wears the same suit twice during one season, he has about I think he said 125 suits. Now I refer to him as the Hall of Famer times two, he’s the only person in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a broadcaster. He’s such a healthy eater about 99 percent of the time, and he loves Snickers bars, so I make sure to bring him one before every broadcast. I feel like the games I work with I have to be always on my toes because you never know what he might ask.
Q: What made your father Marv Albert a legendary broadcaster/announcer?
A: The amount of time he put in, the preparation. I learned so much by osmosis. It wasn’t like he ever sat me down and gave a lesson plan, but I would watch, I would observe, I would pay attention to his interaction with his color analysts, which is also one of his big strengths, the chemistry that he had with his analysts through the years — whether it was John Andariese or Sal Messina or Mike Fratello or Ferdie Pacheco in boxing.
Q: What has it been like for you being the son of Marv Albert?
A: It’s been great. I never knew anything different, right? I would get to go to all these games, and I would bring friends, and then I started to do the stats for him. It was an unbelievable learning experience. I guess it’s somewhat poetic that when I was born, he was actually traveling back from a Rangers game in Montreal. I was three months premature, so they weren’t expecting me. He landed at LaGuardia, and was actually paged in the airport to go right to Lenox Hill Hospital. I was 1 pound, 15 ounces, and went down to 1 pound, 8 ounces after I was born. I had a twin brother that didn’t survive. I was in an incubator for over two months. I was born a week before the current MSG opened. It kind of came full circle, once my kids [daughters Amanda and Sydney] were born, I had somewhat of a similar schedule, traveling around the country, not being around that much on weekends.
Q: How would you compare your style with your father’s style?
A: You know it’s funny, some people tell me that I have a similar style and sound pretty similar, others say there’s really no similarity. I never really tried to base a style off of any one play-by-play broadcaster in particular. Never really have had a catch phrase so to speak. Obviously he’s so well known for the “Yes!” call on basketball,
Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I look at my job as I’m there to call the game, give the nuts and bolts, weave in some stories and anecdotes and statistics along the way, but I look at a huge part of my job as helping to set up the color analyst. No matter what the sport is, the color analyst is the expert. … I think I might hold the record, I’ve worked with over 200 color analysts (chuckle) in the four sports combined. But they’re the stars, I’m there to set them up and lead them into certain stories. I’ll also study the careers of my color analysts before I work with them for the first time, because I want to be able to reference a specific game they might have played in, or a similar player who plays the same position they did.
Q: How do you explain your versatility?
A: I think a big part of it was the Cox Cable experience, getting to do so many different sports at a young age — during 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, working six, eight different sports. My goal at that time was to do hockey on the radio. … Really a life-changing moment for many of us in the business who were in the right place at the right time when Rupert Murdoch makes this crazy bid for the [NFL] NFC package to steal it away from CBS [for Fox]. They wound up hiring four young play-by-play announcers — Joe Buck, Kevin Harlan, Thom Brennaman and I were all hired back in ’94. Just so hard to believe that now it’s 30 years later, people keep track of this, I’m about to hit 500 NFL games this coming season.
Q: What advice would you have for Tom Brady on Fox Sports?
A: I think he’ll do a great job. From all accounts, he’s a student of the game. I’ve worked with so many Hall of Fame players in the NFL who have gone on to become analysts. … They all have this tremendous knowledge of the game from the years that they’ve spent studying and watching film. I’m a big fan of the “ManningCast,” and I remember meeting with them during their playing days and the photographic memories that they both had of games and plays and situations that they went through, and I think Brady’s probably the same way. He was always terrific in the production meetings whenever we did a Patriots game or a Buccaneers.
Q: If you could go back in time and broadcast any game in history, which would it be?
A: I think the one that comes to mind first is the Miracle On Ice game in 1980. I remember watching that one in my house on a Friday night. It was on delayed tape, and my mother actually heard the score on the radio, so I knew the final score, I was 12 years old at the time. But I still watched it. … I heard so much during my childhood about the Don Larsen Perfect Game in 1956 … the Giants-Colts game in ’58, and the Willis Reed game in 1970.
Q: Who are announcers and broadcasters you’ve admired?
A: Aside from my three family members [Marv, Al and Steve, who were obviously huge influences, I actually worked for Howie Rose when I was in college, I was the associate producer when he first started doing “Mets Extra.” … Sam Rosen, Doc Emrick. … I would listen to everybody, Bob Murphy, Lindsay Nelson, Ralph Kiner … Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Bill White. … Among the national broadcasters, always been a huge fan of Al Michaels. … Among some of my contemporaries, again, there’s too many to name, but Joe Buck, Mike Tirico, Mike Breen, Ian Eagle.
Q: Describe Dave Maloney.
A: I’ve worked with Dave for 19 years. Always refer to him as “the Captain.” he was the Captain of the Rangers when they went to the Cup Final in ’79. Bleeds Ranger Blue and in my opinion one of the top analysts in hockey.
Q: What drove you as a young boy?
A: It’s really all that I ever wanted to do. My parents gave me a tape recorder for my fifth birthday, and I set up my room like a TV or radio studio, and I would call games in my room. I was never told, “You have to do this,” that, “You have to go into the family business,” it’s just something that I always loved.
Q: Describe meeting Taylor Swift at the Garden.
A: She was sitting two seats over, and it was 2014. … My statistician John Labombarda from Elias, he was sitting right next to her, and she went to get up, and he said to her, “My kids would kill me if I didn’t ask you to take a picture.” So she took a picture with John, and then that kind of left the door open, and I asked her if she would mind. The thing I remember is she was so gracious, she actually took each of our phones, I guess she had the angle that she liked being photographed at, so she actually took the phone from me and she took the selfie of the two of us together.
Q: What is the best baseball team you ever saw?
A: Those Yankee teams from ’96 to 2000, but in particular the ’98 team.
Q: Best football team?
A: You’d probably have to say the Patriots the year they went undefeated in the [2007] regular season, even though they didn’t win it all.
Q: Best hockey team?
A: The last three dynasties — the late ’70s Canadiens, the early ’80s Islanders and the mid-’80s Oilers.
Q: Best basketball team?
A: I’d have to say those Bulls teams during the Jordan years.
Q: Who did you root for as a kid?
A: I was Knicks in basketball, I was Canucks and Rangers, and then I was sort of a frontrunner in baseball (chuckle). I rooted for the Yankees in the late ’70s, and then switched over to the Mets in the mid-’80s. And in football I was Giants and Jets.
Q: Where were you when Mookie Wilson’s roller went through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the ’86 Series?
A: (Laugh) I was in the press room at Madison Square Garden. I had tickets to the game, I could have gone, but I felt obligated, I was 18 years old, my father had hired me to keep stats for him at the Knick games on the TV broadcast. He was actually at Shea working for NBC as part of the pre- and postgame show. But I felt obligated to do my job [with Greg Gumbel]. It was a preseason doubleheader, and the Knicks played in the second game, and watched the Buckner play on television up the press room after the basketball game had ended.
Q: What do you think of Aaron Rodgers?
A: If he stays healthy, I think he can still play at a high level, and potentially lead the Jets to the playoffs.
Q: Doc Gooden?
A: Just electric.
Q: Darryl Strawberry?
A: I was at his first game against Mario Soto and the Reds.
Q: Lawrence Taylor?
A: A menace on the football field.
Q: Is Eli Manning a Hall of Famer?
A: Absolutely. You lead a team to two Super Bowls, the David Tyree play, the Mario Manningham play — you’re a first-ballot Hall of Famer in my mind.
Q: Juan Soto?
A: Generational talent. Like Darryl Strawberry, a guy that every time he’s up at the plate, you feel like he could knock it out of the ballpark.
Q: Wayne Gretzky?
A: Not only the greatest player of all time, he’s an even better person.
Q: Describe your hockey career.
A I scored the first goal believe it or not in NYU hockey history. I was a third-line winger.
Q: Your wife Barbara.
A: Really could not have found a better spouse, nobody understands my schedule better than she does. She’s had to play the role of both parents whenever I was on the road.
Q: Your mother Benita.
A: She taught me how to keep score. She sat five rows behind the visiting bench at Knicks games, coaches would often ask who the lady was keeping track of the points and fouls. And she graduated from law school just after turning 50!
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Would love to have one more with my close friends Tony Siragusa and Richard Lewis … together. They were both so quick-witted, they were the life of every party.
Q: A third dinner guest?
A: Vin Scully, to narrate the dinner conversation.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: I was actually in two: I’m not sure “Game Day” or “Juwanna Mann” would make anybody’s list as far as favorite movie. I always enjoyed watching “Miracle” with my kids.
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Larry David.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Susie Essman.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Billy Joel.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Never turn down pizza, sushi, a good steak.
Q: Favorite restaurants?
A: Prime 112 in South Beach; any Nobu; the River Palm in Edgewater, N.J.
Q: Clyde and Gretzky wrote the forewords for your book “A Mic For All Seasons.”
A: Surreal that their names appear on the cover of my book. I would up doing it myself, no ghost writer. I wanted it to be in my voice, my words. Also wanted to pay it forward, so I have a lot in there that’s geared towards the up-and-coming broadcasters, and advice.
Q: Some terrific stories in your book: a Barry Trotz prank where you thought you would be arrested …
A: I tell a story about the Aaron Boone game when Boone hit the home run to put the Yankees in the World Series. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver are up in the booth, they throw it down to me for the interviews, the trophy presentation, so we get through all that. Now it’s like 1 in the morning, and we have to get to the late local news, so I’m done, I’m off. I spot Mayor Bloomberg standing off to the side of the podium, and I can tell he probably wants to be interviewed. And his PR guy comes over to me and whispers, “Can you interview the Mayor next?” And I said, “Well, we’re off the air.” And the guy says, “Can you fake it?” So I proceeded to do a five-minute fake interview with Mayor Bloomberg.
