Brunson & KAT send a message to Mitch Widmeier about his inspiring story 🙌 | NBA Today

0:00 Think about your sports fandom for a moment.

0:02 Being a fan, it's it's such a shared experience.

0:04 It was for me growing up watching basketball games.

0:06 That's how I connected with my dad.

0:08 And it's probably how you connected to someone you love, too.

0:10 Or maybe even to strangers, right?

0:12 Cheering on the highs, covering your eyes through some of the lows in an arena,

0:17 at a bar, on the couch.

0:19 But in the case of Mitch Whitmer and his sister Hannah,

0:21 being fans of the Knicks, it means something even more sacred.

0:25 It allows Mitch to communicate with Hannah even though she can no longer speak.

0:29 At its best, right?

0:30 A core tenant of fandom is love.

0:33 And this is a story about love for the Knicks, beyond the Knicks,

0:37 and the extent that someone will go to for the person that they love.

0:44 In a 13x8 room in Green Bay, Wisconsin,

0:47 a diehard Knicks fan named Mitch Whitmer gets ready to call another game.

0:52 Oneonone one.

0:54 Not for a station.

0:56 Throws it up from 15 ft.

0:57 He sinks it as the shot clock expires.

0:59 Not for a network.

1:01 Williams drives inside.

1:01 Contested floater and he splashes it.

1:04 Brunson starting to find a groove late in the first quarter.

1:07 But for one person, his sister Hannah.

1:11 No hesitation.

1:12 Triple try.

1:12 Lets it fly and he sticks it.

1:13 Hannah Robinson with the fab.

1:15 Hard up court.

1:16 Mickey Bridges reservations for two.

1:18 Hannah.

1:19 I do not view it through the prism of I'm broadcasting these games.

1:22 I view it through the prism of this is Hannah and I bonding.

1:30 Growing up in Debuke, Iowa, Mitch gravitated to an unlikely NBA team.

1:35 My uncle lived in Queens.

1:37 When I was five, he started sending me boxes

1:40 of apparel every few months and it was always Knicks.

1:42 Knicks hats, shirts, sweatshirts, pants, jerseys.

1:46 So at age five, I'm a New York Knicks fan.

1:49 the middle child between an older sister Haley and a younger one Hannah.

1:54 The three siblings, they were tight.

1:57 Hannah was the one who would always go to bat for friends.

2:00 It sounds weird cuz I was her older brother,

2:02 but I always would think like I wish I had her backbone.

2:09 This bond would be tested.

2:11 On December 31st, 2017, just after 11 in the morning, the phone rang.

2:20 21-year-old Hannah had been in a car accident.

2:24 My older sister called me in the morning,

2:26 said, "You need to get to the hospital."

2:29 They don't know if Hannah's going to make it.

2:31 She was in a car accident.

2:33 I'll never forget uh when I got to the hospital,

2:39 I was afraid to go in the room and see her.

2:43 Hannah suffered a traumatic brain injury.

2:46 Doctors told Mitch and Haley that she would never fully recover.

2:51 They said we can keep having Hannah fight or we can make her more comfortable.

2:56 Which basically told us like call it off.

2:59 So we said Hannah will keep fighting.

3:02 When they said, "Hannah will never be the same because of this accident."

3:05 You have no clue what that entails until it just slowly starts to unfold.

3:14 She gets medication six to seven times a day.

3:20 It's like clockwork now.

3:21 It's not like I'm ever forgetting anything.

3:34 After 16 months of rehab for Hannah, 25-year-old Mitch made a decision.

3:39 He walked away from his job as a content creator for FanDuel

3:43 Sports and relocated to Green Bay where he could be with his sister.

3:49 Medical decisions were still being made and she can't make them for herself.

3:53 I had dreams, goals that I wanted to accomplish,

3:56 but siblings, family takes priority.

3:59 Banana bread.

4:01 Hey.

4:03 Hi.

4:03 I need to get your shades on.

4:04 Okay.

4:05 I told Haley, "You're married.

4:07 You have three kids.

4:08 I'm single.

4:08 I just graduated college.

4:10 I'll stay with Hannah.

4:11 You come visit when you want." In February of 2024, more devastating news.

4:19 older sister Haley was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer.

4:24 Six months later, Haley was gone.

4:28 Haley was the rock.

4:30 If I ever needed to vent, if I was ever just having a bad day,

4:32 needed to talk to someone outside of my friends, it was always Haley first.

4:36 They would talk every day for an hour or so, just talk about life,

4:42 talk about Hannah, talk about the kids, and mental as a person.

4:54 Mitch always dreamed of becoming a play-by-play

4:56 announcer calling games for the New York Knicks.

4:59 In October of 2025, he began living out that dream

5:04 in a room far from Madison Square Garden with Hannah by his side.

5:10 I realized in the last three and a half years

5:12 when Hannah and I are watching games in the living room,

5:15 she's watching me more than the TV, following me as I'm pacing and yelling

5:19 and screaming and getting all upset or celebrating.

5:21 And so I was like, I wonder if we sit back in my office.

5:24 I turn a Knicks game on if I start announcing

5:27 and literally the season opener it was Hannah looking at me smiling,

5:32 laughing out to Clarkson.

5:33 He's on a heater.

5:34 Flips a flush only in Vegas.

5:37 Hannah, come on.

5:38 Landry Sham wants to join the three-point festivities and it's target practice.

5:42 Hannah crossover dribble, a fadeaway.

5:44 HE WANTS TO BE THE HERO AND HE PUTS ON THE CAPE.

5:46 HANNAH,

5:48 when the game ends, he posts the clips online and slowly what

5:52 began as something so very private

5:54 became something the world couldn't stop watching.

5:58 Carl Anthony Towns from the left wing.

5:59 You bet on a triple try for the big

6:02 bodega Hannah working on E dribbling left into the paint.

6:06 Reverse slay.

6:07 More tide.

6:08 Come on, Hannah.

6:11 It gives him happiness and joy, and she enjoys it, too.

6:15 You can tell just by the look in her eyes.

6:18 If the Knicks lose tonight and we're dressed as Bears for Halloween,

6:20 I'm not going to be too thrilled.

6:22 How about you?

6:23 When she's smiling, laughing,

6:24 I know that's her way of getting joy, having fun, excitement.

6:28 I do it for my sister.

6:30 I do it for Hannah.

6:34 We are so lucky to be joined now by Mitch Whitmer.

6:37 Mitch, thank you so much for taking some time with us here on NBA Today.

6:41 Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me.

6:43 Absolutely.

6:43 Mitch, I was so touched.

6:45 I was so moved by the story of of you and your sister Hannah.

6:49 I I'm really close with my little sister.

6:51 Can you can you just tell us a little bit about your relationship?

6:55 Yeah, that sibling bond, as you know well,

6:57 Malikica, it's uh it's always super super tight.

7:00 So, I grew up with Hannah as my younger sister, Haley as my older sister.

7:04 So, um I I guess when things would go down

7:06 in the house once in a while and someone had to get blamed,

7:08 I I'd be outnumbered two to one.

7:10 But we we grew up very very close and it it stayed that way throughout.

7:15 And certainly it's that way as as we just saw now today.

7:18 And I I was watching your videos online on TikTok.

7:22 You've caught the attention of so many people of of so many fans as well.

7:26 What was it that that made you want to continue to share

7:29 this outside of of wanting your friends to be able to keep in touch?

7:33 Yeah, that was the main reason.

7:35 Um, when Hannah and I moved uh away from home three and a half years ago,

7:38 we had friends and family who were telling us like uh create an Instagram,

7:42 create a Tik Tok account.

7:43 We just want to keep up to date with Hannah.

7:45 And I didn't really post anything on the Tik Tok like ever.

7:48 And I started getting pressure like start posting stuff.

7:51 And um they were like just do like the trending dances on Tik Tok.

7:54 I was like, "You're never going to catch me doing that." Like, never ever.

7:57 So, I just was like, you know, when we watch games together, as I said,

8:02 she she's watching me more than the TV

8:04 and she just gets an immense joy out of it.

8:06 And so, I decided, all right, we'll start posting on your TikTok.

8:10 And we just started with the the regular season opener this year,

8:12 and it it kind of took off from there.

8:14 And you said that you had aspirations, right,

8:16 to do some playbyplay and this is a version of that.

8:19 And I got to tell you, you're you're really talented.

8:22 What does Hannah think of of of your calls here?

8:26 Uh, you know, Hannah probably gets annoyed at me every once in a while,

8:29 but those two and a half hours that we spend together,

8:32 multiple weeks watching Knicks games, um, yeah,

8:34 that's it's it's just a true bond we have.

8:36 But yeah, a lot of people ask me in DMs

8:40 and in the comments like about the the broadcasting element of it.

8:44 I I went to school for radio TV broadcasting and my dream,

8:47 my goal growing up was always to be the radio voice of the New York Knicks.

8:50 Um, so that's not why we do the videos, but it's an element of it for me that I

8:55 kind of get to just scratch the itch a little bit.

8:57 But if Hannah didn't enjoy it this way, we wouldn't be doing it.

9:00 And this is how she gets the most joy

9:02 out of having to sit and watch games with me.

9:04 Well, and the laughter that we saw from your how animated you get.

9:08 You have a catchphrase, right?

9:09 What's the catchphrase?

9:11 There's a couple.

9:12 Well, pass the sugar is the big one.

9:13 So, when the Knicks get that that final

9:14 dagger and it looks like they're going to win, we always pass the sugar.

9:17 and her comments and DMs are always flooded

9:20 with people just reciprocating that back to us, which is which is pretty cool.

9:24 Pass the sugar target practice, right?

9:27 That's another one.

9:28 Yeah, Mike Mike Breen liked that one.

9:30 Uh target practice when they make a three.

9:32 Three up, three down.

9:34 Uh we we've got a few that we use, but the one that definitely is uh it

9:38 trends in the comments is uh past the sugar.

9:40 Mike Breen liked that one so much that actually

9:43 in in one of the the third quarters of a game,

9:45 it was Hawks Knicks last time around,

9:48 he used that as a bit of a homage to you

9:51 and your story and you you actually spoke to him.

9:54 What was what was that experience like?

9:57 Yeah.

9:57 Again, as someone who wanted to be like

9:58 the radio voice of the Knicks growing up,

10:01 obviously Mike being the TV side of that.

10:03 Uh growing up, I Mike Brain was a fixture for me watching Knicks games.

10:07 So to have him be aware of the videos, you know,

10:10 narrate the story for Hannah and then to get

10:13 a call from him a week ago was unbelievable.

10:15 And he said he was going to borrow the target practice line.

10:17 And so I had posted on Hannah's Instagram

10:19 story like we have it on good authority.

10:22 I didn't want to completely throw out that it was directly

10:24 from Mike in case he forgot or couldn't fit it into the broadcast.

10:28 Um, but I I said we have it under good authority

10:30 that Mike Green's going to use its target practice line at some point.

10:33 when he did again.

10:34 It was just a bunch of people sending

10:36 me the clip and it's just it's unbelievable.

10:38 It's one of those kind of like pinch

10:39 me moments uh where your one of your broadcasting

10:41 heroes is using a line that you say

10:44 in social media videos with your little sister.

10:46 Well, it's social media videos with your little sister in one sense,

10:49 but I think it's also giving hope to a lot of people,

10:52 Mitch, in in another sense.

10:54 But you got a busy day.

10:55 You got another game to call coming up here in a in a couple of hours.

10:58 The New York Knicks, they're up 200 on the Philadelphia 76ers.

11:01 What do you I mean, is this is this the year they get it done?

11:03 We see the Knicks hat.

11:05 I I hope so.

11:06 Uh I'm always glass half full with the Knicks.

11:09 I will say some of these margins of victories

11:11 that they've had in games this postseason and the way

11:14 the defense grew throughout the regular season makes me believe

11:17 that this year could be different uh for New York.

11:20 I'm hoping they take one of the next two in Philly

11:23 and you go up 3-1 back to the Garden for game five.

11:25 So, that's the hope.

11:27 I mean, certainly the Knicks right now,

11:28 as we were chatting about before we came on, it it looks like the the path is

11:33 clear for them to go back to the NBA

11:35 finals for the first time since the '9s here.

11:37 Mitch, I'm wondering,

11:39 what is it that you hope that when people are watching you,

11:42 watching Hannah, watching your story?

11:45 Um, what are you hoping that people walk away or or take

11:48 from from your relationship and what you're trying to do here?

11:52 Uh, just the bond that we have that there's

11:54 different ways you can bond and find happiness.

11:56 You know, obviously Hannah's non-verbal.

11:58 She's 100% dependent, but I have found throughout the years taking care

12:01 of her, there are certain things that bring out her happiness.

12:03 And I will say, uh, Malikica, the one part that people don't see,

12:07 um, I get an immense amount of, uh,

12:10 I would say happiness, joy, when I get DMs from people who say,

12:15 I've had a parent who had a traumatic brain injury.

12:17 I have a cousin who had a traumatic brain injury, and they might say, you know,

12:19 it's not to the level of Hannah, but these videos bring me so much happiness.

12:23 We have people who send us DMs of their little kids yelling,

12:27 "Pass the sugar, Hannah.

12:28 Pass the sugar, Hannah." And it's just um again,

12:30 if Hannah didn't get enjoyment out of this, we wouldn't be doing the videos.

12:34 But the most enjoyment I get out of it,

12:36 outside of seeing her smile and laugh throughout,

12:38 is those personal messages you get from people

12:41 that you don't even know who um just

12:43 can find that that glimpse of joy when it's easy to doom scroll on social media.

12:48 We hope for those couple minutes that we provide a video

12:50 every Knicks game that they get a little bit of joy.

12:52 It's so true.

12:53 There's so many It's so easy to sometimes focus on the negative

12:56 things that exist in the world and how we relate to each other.

12:59 But when you look hard enough, joy is what connects us all in sports, right?

13:03 Is another piece of of what connects us all.

13:05 And for you all, that's the New York Knicks.

13:07 And and Mitch, it's not just us here

13:09 at ESPN that were so very touched by your story.

13:12 The New York Knicks are as well.

13:13 So before we let you go, we got something for you.

13:16 What's up, Mitch and Hannah?

13:17 It's Shaylen Brunson here for the Knicks.

13:19 Just wanted to say thank you for your support.

13:21 Um, seeing your videos has been very inspiring and your story is incredible.

13:25 Just want to say thank you for always doing for us training for us.

13:28 Your Nick's spirit is immaculate.

13:30 So, go Knicks.

13:31 Hope all is well.

13:32 See you soon.

13:34 Mitch and Hannah just got back from shoe round getting ready for game three,

13:37 but really wanted to send my love and say thank you so much for the content.

13:42 Uh, me and Jordan love watching your analysis

13:45 and watching you guys watch the game every single game.

13:48 Um, and it brings us such joy to see

13:50 uh how much Hannah really enjoys loving her next.

13:53 So, really appreciate you, Mitch doing what you do, Hannah.

13:56 Keep being a trooper.

13:56 Keep being the best in the game.

14:01 That's unbelievable.

14:02 You guys got me there at the end.

14:04 I wasn't expecting that.

14:07 I got to tell you, Mitch,

14:08 when I reached out to them uh for those videos, they already knew your story.

14:12 They follow along.

14:14 They watch your videos.

14:15 Both Jaylen and Carl said that they have

14:17 been following along for the last several months.

14:20 So, there is a lot of people who are rooting for you,

14:23 who are rooting for Hannah, and we so very much appreciate the time.

14:26 We're deeply, deeply grateful.

14:29 I can't thank you guys enough.

14:30 Uh truly, immensely, like from the bottom of my heart,

14:32 thank you for telling Hannah's story.

14:35 Um any spotlight she can get, she deserves it.

14:38 It is so very clear, Mitch.

14:40 And and you do you deserve that spotlight as well.

14:42 So, thank you and uh good luck with your broadcast tonight.

14:45 Go rest that voice.

14:48 Thank you, Malikica.