Broadcaster Kevin Harlan went viral when video of his call of the craziness that transpired at the end of a first round NCAA tournament game last week circulated social media.
Harlan’s vocal reaction to 13-seed Furman scoring a late bucket to beat 4th-seeded Virginia will be one of the calls of the tournament. But Harlan apparently took issue with video of the moment being released.
Harlan said in an interview with Richard Deitsch that he was actually unaware that he was being videotaped. So when he saw that he was trending on social media because of the video he was a little taken aback.
“I’m not comfortable with it. I understand why CBS would want to use that, and I guess I trust my bosses more than I trust myself in this situation,” Harlan said. “At the same time, if they asked me my preference, I would have said, ‘Please don’t put that up there.’ And I still feel the same way.”
“I think I join a chorus of other announcers who do not like the camera,” he added.
Kevin said he gets why the camera is there, but at the same time he felt like it’s also kind of invasive.
“It’s like if we put a camera on you if you’re writing one of your stories for The Athletic,” he said. “This is kind of a personal space, and I have voiced my concern to both CBS and Turner.”
Harlan will be on the call for Sweet 16 and Elite 8 coverage in Las Vegas. He’ll have Arkansas/UConn at 7:15 p.m. tonight and then Gonzaga/UCLA thereafter. Both games will air on CBS.
