Social media was running wild over this past weekend about the way ESPN provided lopsided coverage of the Knicks-Pacers Game 7 in their second round. Earlier this week, Dan Patrick addressed the subject on The Dan Patrick Show, clips of which were played by Ken Carman and Anthony Lima on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland.
Patrick said he was “embarrassed for ESPN” about the slanted coverage. He added, “I don’t need a Stephen A. Smith arrival video, I don’t need a pep talk with him and Spike Lee. He doesn’t work for the Knicks; he works for ESPN. I was really surprised, and I didn’t care who won but after that I was rooting for the Pacers.”
Adding to what Patrick said Lima commented, “I saw Stephen A. Smith arriving like he was a wing for the New York Knicks. I mean that’s the only way I can say it. To me it was typical Stephen A. Smith stuff. I’m entertained by Stephen A. Smith”
As it related to the unbalanced coverage between the larger market Knicks and the smaller market Pacers, Lima said, “I think they’ve gone too far with the Knicks thing.”
He then wondered if the coverage was actually something ESPN might have wanted, trying to generate more interest in keeping people around to watch the game. “I do wonder though…Dan Patrick said, ‘I didn’t have any rooting interest until I saw that and then I was rooting for the Pacers,’ Lima said. “…Do you think that’s maybe how ESPN could sleep at night, knowing that they might be building up interest in the game? … Now, after seeing Stephen A. and that song and dance and him do the clown show and him play this character, that it made people more interested in watching the game and having that kind of buy in? … Now all of a sudden you have Pacers fans that weren’t Pacers fans before the broadcast. That is what the networks want to do, they do want to generate some emotional tie in.”
Lima continued, “Showing Stephen A. before the game, I thought was hilarious. But then, on the set, it was halftime, the Knicks were getting steamrolled…they go to the halftime show and Stephen A. is apoplectic, and then Michael Wilbon…it almost sounded like he was rooting for the Knicks. You just can’t have everybody rooting for the Knicks on your show.”
