Thursday night, Trail Blazers fans got to experience what it feels like to be a sports writer sometimes.
To the average spectator, a triple-overtime game is the pinnacle of drama and suspense. But to a writer, it often means a blown deadline.
And to Portland fans, it meant not being able to watch their team for an entire half.
Thursday night, the nation was treated to a triple-overtime contest between the Heat and the Hawks on TNT that featured all the emotional swings one would expect from such a prolonged event. However, because that game was so protracted, the Blazers-Lakers game did not reach the airwaves until halftime.
This left diehards in the region livid as they felt TNT had a responsibility to serve local audiences despite the nail-biting nature of the preceding game.
However, Christina Miller, Turner Sports senior vice president of strategy/marketing/programming, had a different perspective.
“The Hawks-Heat triple-overtime game was an exciting national telecast,” Miller said. “This was not a regional telecast and we would not leave our first game until its conclusion.”
Fans remain discontent.
Posts on local message boards include: “TNT — stands for Technically not Television,” “people in teams local markets want to watch their team it doesn’t really matter what other game is on,” and “This is a joke.”
When Blazers appear on ESPN, it can generally be broadcast simultaneously on a local network. However, TNT does not offer the same luxury to fans. And even if the preceding game does not go to overtime, there is still often an overlap that causes the opening minutes of the second game to be missed.
During the NCAA basketball tournament, tournaments, games are broadcast on TNT and TBS — another Turner network. However, commitments to other programs prevented TNT from showing the Blazers-Laker games on another channel.
The Blazers have three more games scheduled to run on TNT — Feb. 16 vs. the Clippers, Feb. 20 at the Lakers, and March 1 vs. the Heat.
