With the media facing accusations of holding a Knicks bias during their NBA Playoffs series against the Indiana Pacers, New York’s NBC affiliate did little to change the narrative.
Shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, NBC New York returned from commercial with a “Breaking News” alert followed by a graphic that read “KNICKS ADVANCE,” insinuating the Knicks won their Game 7 matchup with the Pacers and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. If you can’t will the Knicks to win with bias, maybe you should just report they won and hope for the best. Despite the blunder, NBC New York anchor Gus Rosendale was there to correctly report the Knicks lost to the Pacers.
Whoops pic.twitter.com/IIjEp2Orqn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 20, 2024
“We’re back with some breaking news,” Rosendale said during the grim breaking news alert. “And, unfortunately, we can now confirm the Knicks’ playoff run is over.”
Rosendale shouldn’t have had to “confirm” the Game 7 outcome as if the final score was unconfirmed elsewhere. However, with conflicting reports from their graphic, the loss needed to be confirmed. Rosendale then threw it to sports anchor John Chandler back in the newsroom, who double-confirmed the Knicks was “not advancing here” despite what the on-screen graphic read.
Maybe there were a few Knicks fans who could not watch the Sunday afternoon game or others who shut it off in disgust with a few minutes remaining. Imagine them now watching the Sunday evening news on NBC in New York. What a rush for those few Knicks fans who saw NBC’s graphic and briefly assumed they won Game 7. Hopefully, they also didn’t have the TV on mute.
