Television often comes with some tricky timing, including around going to commercial breaks. That was illustrated with the ESPN/ABC halftime show during ABC’s coverage of Game 7 of the NBA Finals Sunday night.
There, Malika Andrews set up the end of the show with a line that the Oklahoma City Thunder “have to put on their cape and bring this one home,” leading to music and graphics signifying a shift to break. But Stephen A. Smith chimed in in support of Andrews’ point, but his own point ran right into the cut to commercial:
There, Smith says “That’s right. It’s going to have to be SG [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander]. I’m wondering where the hell the rest of them, the rest of OKC is at. Give Indiana credit, but OKC should have bounced them, and they didn’t,” with the last five words or so coming rushed as the music intensified for the shift to commercial.
Smith did manage to finish his sentence here, but this particular transition to break still came out quite awkward and obviously not quite as initially planned. Of course, that happens not irregularly on a variety of broadcasts. But this one is perhaps worth some extra scrutiny considering the spotlight of a NBA Finals Game 7 (and the significant audience watching), and considering all the criticism ESPN’s NBA coverage (especially the pregame/halftime studio show, and especially Smith) has been taking of late. And it certainly made for an unusual moment on Sunday’s coverage.