ESPN Cut to Commercial After Josh Hart Released a Potential Game-Winning Shot

A regular season Los Angeles Lakers-San Antonio Spurs game isn’t quite the Super Bowl, so ESPN’s blunder late last night isn’t in the same realm as the Heidi fiasco. On the other hand, there really isn’t a worst time for an unnecessary commercial break than when the potential game-winning shot is in the air and bouncing around the rim. Like, imagine if a sports movie ended that way — with a fade to black and credit roll but no resolution. People would rightly outraged.

But that’s what happened when Josh Hart released his attempt in the final nanoseconds. We got a shot of a dude talking on the phone. It was brief, but no less counterproductive to the goal of seeing the outcome. By the time the game came back, Mark Jones was telling us the shot was no good and overtime was coming.

Not ideal.

The Lakers went on to win in overtime, which was broadcast without incident.