ABC Cut Away From The NBA Finals With A Minute Left In The Pacers Game, And It's Actually Even More Infuriating Than You'd Guess
To me, the best sports movies of all time can't even measure up to the Indiana Pacers' current playoff run, as the team continues to pull off impossible wins that feel reminiscent of the true story behind Hoosiers. Despite that, people still continue to doubt the team, including those in Indiana, as a news station switched away from the game with just a minute to go.
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In what might be one of the most infuriating things to see if you saw the miraculous comeback by the Pacers, who took their first lead of the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with .3 seconds remaining in the game, a Fort Wayne news station cut away from it in its final minute. Watch the clip, which even mentions a local watch party for the game, below:
How this happens, in Indiana no less, after the historical playoff run the Pacers have had is unbelievable. Even setting aside this is the first time the franchise has been to the NBA Finals in 25 years, last night marked the third time that Tyrese Haliburton had won a game in the 2025 playoffs in the final five seconds. It's not just unbelievable, it's something no other player has done in decades:
This doesn't even include the game-tying shot he hit at the buzzer against the New York Knicks, which ultimately led to a big feud between Pat McAfee and Ben Stiller, and somehow John Mellencamp even got in the mix.
All this to say that this Indiana news station should've known better than to cut away from the game in the final minute. That's because this team is doing things that feel improbable in even the best underdog sports movies.
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In fairness to WPTA Fort Wayne, I noticed they have control of multiple stations, including a CW affiliate in addition to an ABC feed. It's also worth noting that the game abruptly cut back to the Finals in the midst of the news intro. So this could've been an instance where the 11 p.m. news was running on the other channels, and someone mistakenly had it take over the ABC feed.
As impressive as it is, the Indiana Pacers are still underdogs to the overwhelming favorite, the Oklahoma City Thunder. This playoff series is about to be cinematic, especially if you have a Netflix subscription. Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton and Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have had the Starting Five Season 2 crew following them all season long. At this point, I think it's almost worth a spinoff series just following these two players, though I'm certainly biased, being from Indiana.
The NBA Finals kick off Game 2 on ABC on Sunday, June 8th at 8:00 p.m. ET.
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