Sixers

“Are We Still Live?”

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 21st, 2021 · 9:42 AM EDT

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Wednesday night, we had a laugh out loud moment before the double-overtime Celtics vs. Knicks barn burner.

ESPN’s NBA crew was down on the court and had no idea they were still on the air:

""We still here, Greeny, we still here…we're live!" pic.twitter.com/tgivMJ3Z5K

— Andrew Bucholtz (@AndrewBucholtz) October 21, 2021

lol

Luckily they didn’t say anything that was bad. Hot mic incidents can be dangerous. They go sideways quickly, like when that CNN reporter was in the White House bathroom.

This is where the show producer has to be on their toes. You’ve gotta have somebody in the production room in Mike Greenberg’s ear yelling “you’re live! you’re live! go go!” Sometimes the IFB (ear piece) isn’t working and communication is broken, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. They’re just sort of standing around, and anything more than 10 seconds is pretty chunky dead air time for a broadcast.

Usually these national remotes have professional setups, which includes a floor monitor near the cameras. That way the talent can see what’s being broadcasted, and there you see Mike Wilbon glance down at something toward the end of the clip. I’d assume he’s looking at the monitor to see what’s currently being shown on television, but that’s just a guess.

A little bit of unintentional comedy on a Thursday morning. Greenberg is new to this gig, having recently replaced Maria Taylor, so that’s probably the main reason for the hiccup.