The New York Knicks have won eight out of their last 10 games played, recently defeating the Orlando Magic to advance to the quarterfinals of the Emirates NBA Cup. As part of the final night of group stage play within the in-season tournament, TNT Sports was on hand to broadcast the game with a commentary team of Brian Anderson, Reggie Miller and Lauren Jbara.
The sports property within Warner Bros. Discovery is currently in its final season broadcasting live NBA games and will enter into a new, 11-year agreement with the league next year that includes select international rights and digital functionalities. Yet the matchup was not an exclusive national broadcast, meaning regional sports networks covering the Knicks and Magic were also on hand at Madison Square Garden for the proceedings.
Basketball fans who receive MSG Networks were able to watch the local broadcast of the game featuring play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, analyst Walt “Clyde” Frazier and reporter Alan Hahn. As a result, consumers in the New York metropolitan area effectively had a choice between the local and national feeds. When Peter Rosenberg posted a picture of new Washington Commanders gear he received as a gift, a television was visible in the background with the Knicks game on TNT. Although Rosenberg is a Celtics fan, he is a co-host of The Michael Kay Show on ESPN New York, the flagship radio station for Knicks games.
“I just need to understand something here,” Hahn said on Tuesday’s edition of the Bart & Hahn midday show. “How are you watching – Reggie Miller was on the call, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I want to hear that instead of Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier.’ Peter Rosenberg, what are you doing? How do you have that game on?”
Hahn presumably took umbrage towards Rosenberg viewing the game on TNT Sports because he was reporting for the matchup. At the end of the game, he interviewed Knicks guard Jalen Brunson on the court about the 121-106 victory. Hahn was also in the Knicks locker room collecting postgame sound from the rest of the team, which has a 13-8 record and sits fourth in the Eastern Conference standings. Rosenberg addressed the reasoning for watching the game on MSG Networks during Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Kay Show.
“I would like to apologize to my friend, Alan,” Rosenberg said as piano music played in the background. “It’s a bad job by me. I am a team player, I support my guy, I love the MSG broadcast. I wouldn’t describe Mike Breen as my best friend, but I certainly consider him someone I’m friendly with and also support, in addition to Alan and many others there. But with my DIRECTV streaming service, you turn on your [TV], and it will just throw suggestions at you, and in the case of this, there’s a TNT one, there’s an MSG one. I clicked on TNT, and that was it. It was thoughtless, it was wrong and I won’t do it again.”
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