The first game of the 2026 NBA finals was everything fans could want out of playoff basketball. The New York Knicks overcame an early 14-point deficit to bring themselves within spitting distance of the San Antonio Spurs by the third period, the orange and blue squad only pulling ahead in the final minutes. Courtside fans, unable to contain themselves, stormed the hardwood to take selfies with the stars in pure playoff ecstasy.
For those watching at home, things were pretty much just as exciting, except for one tiny little wrinkle: a seconds-long clip in ESPN’s presentation featuring an AI-generated likeness of Spurs legend Tony Parker.
As first reported by Awful Announcing, during the second half of the game ESPN cut to a routine commercial break. Before the true ad break begins, networks like to insert a little commercial bumper. In this particular bumper, a voice over announced that the broadcast was brought to viewers by Burger King and the upcoming Universal Pictures movie “Minions & Monsters.”
As ESPN displayed a little ad box for the Minion flick, the main image flashed to what looks like B-roll of Parker, slowly wagging his finger while he clutches a cigar. It’s a real blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but eagle-eyed basketball fans were quick to point out the bizarre decision to use generative AI on the landmark broadcast.
“Could ESPN really not find a genuine shot of Tony Parker as they cut to an ad break? Just had to use AI,” commented journalist Jon Healy on X-formerly-Twitter.
“AI sucks,” said sports anchor Jeff Dubrof. “This isn’t Tony Parker. Do better. Gross.”
After the AI clip started making the rounds on social media, fans observed that it doesn’t even particularly resemble the French-American NBA champ, who is currently 44 and not seemingly present at the game.
“I didn’t even know who this was supposed to be,” one fan groused.
Given that ESPN likely owns hundreds of hours of real footage of Parker — to say nothing of still images, which would be just as good — the fans make a compelling point: why on Earth was this animated with AI to begin with?
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