With the full 16-team field set, the NBA Playoffs began on Saturday afternoon. But while fans were ready for the postseason festivities, it seems ESPN’s broadcast team was not.
During the second game of the day, a Game 1 contest between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Memphis Grizzlies, some technical difficulties midway through the first quarter treated viewers to a cacophonous chorus.
The problem was not fixed expeditiously, and ESPN ultimately was forced to outsource the commentary to the studio in Los Angeles. Mike Greenberg, Stephen A. Smith and Jalen Rose took over the call, and there was no crowd noise.
Warning: You may want to turn the volume down if you’re using headphones.
ESPN has gone several minutes having the studio crew calling the Grizzlies Timberwolves game after things went VERY wrong with the normal audio feed. pic.twitter.com/OKfXI6srBZ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 16, 2022
It was certainly a rough way for ESPN to start its coverage of the playoffs, and fans chimed in on Twitter with jokes about the incident. Here were some of the best.
