ESPN touted Friday night’s broadcast of the game between the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers as “Cavaliers-Pistons All-Access,” meant to provide immersive coverage of the NBA game.
They had no idea how immersive they’d get.
Donovan Mitchell was chatting with Ryan Ruocco, Tim Legler, and Michael Malone from the bench when the buzzer at Little Caesars Arena started blaring. And it didn’t stop.
The arena horn won’t turn off in Detroit 😭 pic.twitter.com/wRrWg3uCtQ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 28, 2026
The issue was, according to ESPN’s Jorge Sedano, “a complete malfunction” that had impacted all of the arena’s electric systems.
As bad as everyone else felt, the guy tasked with turning the horn off felt worse.
Pistons tech guy is getting pissed
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) February 27, 2026 at 5:50 PM
When he and the arena staff finally turned the buzzer off, it elicited what was no doubt the loudest cheer of the evening.
They stopped the horn after about 12.5 minutes but they had to shut the scoreboard off to do it
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) February 27, 2026 at 5:54 PM
The area horn ended up going off for 12 and a half minutes, leaving the ESPN broadcasters fearing it could start buzzing again at any moment.
The area horn went off for 12.5 minutes during Cavs-Pistons 😅 pic.twitter.com/ZqXA1MmJqB
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 28, 2026
As a precaution, the scorer’s table went old-school for the rest of the game, using a handheld air horn. For the best, really.
Scoreboard has been rebooted but they don’t want the horn to get stuck again so we’re going old school
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) February 27, 2026 at 6:00 PM
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.