The New York Knicks traded five first-round picks for starting wing Mikal Bridges in the offseason, and it took until Christmas Day for Bridges to put up a performance that the Madison Square Garden faithful could get excited about.
That’s a nice Christmas story for New Yorkers, but it was an even more fortuitous occasion for ESPN, which lucked into the perfect avatar for its experimental “Dunk the Halls” altcast of Knicks-Spurs with Donald Duck standing in for Bridges. While New York eked out a win over San Antonio to kick off ESPN’s day-long NBA Christmas broadcast, over on ESPN2, ESPN+ and Disney+, Mickey Mouse and friends were running the court in place of the hoopers at the Garden.
With 41 points on 6-9 shooting from behind the arc, Donald was on fire. Online, fans loved the animated figure bomb away. Donald even busted out Bridges’ signature three-point shot celebration after a big hit in the third quarter.
Donald Duck hittin’ the Mikal Bridges celly ๐
Dunk the Halls on ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/FVcYO3Q3Xz
โ NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 25, 2024
Far from just a jump-shooter, Donald soared in among the trees throughout his scoring explosion as well. Playing from his Orlando home of Main Street, USA at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, and in front of his wife and new ESPN sideline reporter Daisy Duck, Donald showed off his moves.
ESPN caught him with a pretty reverse layup over an animated version of San Antonio’s Stephon Castle.
Donald Duck hit the reverse so smooth ๐ฎโ๐จ
Dunk the Halls on ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/t7C1YBWrrN
โ SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 25, 2024
While ESPN surely lucked into a great game from Bridges that got to show off its technology, that was far from the only fun on “Dunk the Halls.”
Mickey Mouse stood in for future Hall of Famer Chris Paul and Minnie Mouse (who won the animated Dunk Contest at halftime) replaced Spurs forward Harrison Barnes, while Goofy was the stand-in for the Knicks’ other big offseason acquisition, Karl-Anthony Towns.
Sideline reporter Daisy even scored an interview with animated NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Micky Mouse was CP3
Donald Duck was Mikal
Daisy Duck interviewed Adam SilverVia @ESPNNBA on Christmas pic.twitter.com/0z4FEmnlCC
โ Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) December 26, 2024
Disney partnered with Sony on real-time visualization tech for the broadcast after the viral success of a similarย Simpons-themed altcast of Monday Night Football earlier in December. The network got lucky that night as well, as Bart Simpson (Joe Burrow) and Lisa Simpson (Tee Higgins) hooked up for several big plays in a Cincinnati Bengals win.
Just as impressive as ESPN and Sony animating classic characters in sports actions is the animation of the actual athletes. If you think Victor Wembanyama defies physics on Earth, imagine recreating his movements in real time with animation.
Nobody knows for sure what ESPN’s hopes are for these altcasts, but the technology is crazy impressive and the broadcasts are fun. Social media is littered with people praising them, and indicating their kids love it. Because the altcasts are only available to stream on Disney+ and ESPN+, viewership data (beyond the ESPN2 linear cast) is not public through Nielsen. That means we don’t know if they are “working” in the basic sense of the word.
For now, they are going viral thanks to a bit of luck, and injecting some fun into ESPN’s winter programming.
[@Ballislife on X]