ESPN technician apparently to blame for Toronto's shot clock malfunction
The Toronto Raptors, and Canada for that matter, were on the receiving end of all the jokes after the shot clocks at the Air Canada Centre stopped working during Game 1 of their series against the Brooklyn Nets.
However, a Raptors official confirmed that the blame lies with American sports broadcaster ESPN, as one of the network's technicians apparently fried the power system by plugging into the same power source that's used for the shot clocks.
"Let's just put it this way, they're not the worldwide leader in electricians," the Raptors official joked.
After the shot clocks malfunctioned in the third quarter, players were forced to rely on the public address announcer to inform them of how much time was left on the clock. Herbie Kuhn, who has served as the arena voice of the Raptors since the team's inception in 1995, announced "24" when the clock reset and counted down the final five seconds before yelling "horn" once time was up.
It was obvious that the incident distracted both teams.
"Aw man, I heard Herbie counting down '5... 4... 3... 2... 1," said Kyle Lowry after the game. "It really is different when you can't see it, and you've got somebody saying '5...' and he's counting down."
New cables were run at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday to ensure there's no repeat of the debacle.