Sunday was one of the biggest days of the season so far for the NBA on TNT, but it was marred by technical issues while fans tried to watch high-stakes playoff basketball.
TNT, which is in its final season as an NBA broadcast rights holder, had the responsibility of broadcasting a doubleheader of NBA playoff games Sunday evening.
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At 6 p.m. ET, the Cleveland Cavaliers hosted the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal. The nightcap at 8:30 p.m. ET featured a mouthwatering Game 7 between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Detailed view of a TNT Sports courtside broadcast camera before the game between the Boston Celtics against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena.Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
During the first game of the doubleheader, Indiana’s 121-112 win silenced an electric crowd in Cleveland, but audio issues became a major problem inside the noisy Rocket Arena.
Specifically, the sound quality of TNT color analyst Greg Anthony’s microphone had fans at home thinking something was seriously wrong.
“Someone on TNT needs to fix the microphones,” a viewer wrote on X. “Greg Anthony sounds mumbled, the crowd and the rims sound terrible.”
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“Why does TNT sound like Greg Anthony is commentating via Zoom,” said one fan.
“TNT is so garbage for letting one of their mics sound like this for a playoff game,” complained another X user.
“So glad TNT is gone next year,” said one fan. “Audio is so bad.”
The sound issue seemed to be fixed when they sent it to the Toyota Center in Houston for the Warriors-Rockets Game 7, but it was still an embarrassing night for the network overall.
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