After Trevor Ariza pulled the trigger at the buzzer Wednesday night, I admittedly got distracted by Jose Calderon throwing his arms in the air before I could see the result of the shot. My thinking was, Calderon has his arms in the air? He's probably not drying out his armpits, so that's enough for me. Pistons win!
I was watching the Wizards feed, but I've conditioned myself to tune out opposing announcers for the most part. I happened to tune back in when Steve Buckhantz exclaimed, "what a miraculous comeback by the Wizards!" Needless to say, I was confused. I rewound and had a good laugh at Buckhantz's expense.
Of course, as it was pointed out plenty following the game, Buckhantz wasn't the only one to get it wrong. Blaha was fooled, too, and nobody fools Blaha. Blaha thought Ariza hit the shot and then convinced himself that he didn't get it off in time before finally seeing a replay with a different angle showing the shot fall short. Blaha's voice barely varied from the start of the play, though.
Buckhantz's call was funny. Blaha's call was depressing. Buckhantz got all excited only to realize the love of his life was actually some dude he went to high school with. It's not funny to make fun of someone's sadness and then have to build them up; it's always at least kind of funny to bring someone down from their pedestal. I guess?
So, it doesn't really matter that Buckhantz and Blaha both got it wrong and both didn't realize it for an equal 40 seconds, Dan Steinberg; it matters that Buckhantz screamed "DAGGER" and then went on to call the Wizards' unsurprising comeback "miraculous," only to realize he would have to come back down to Earth and call it like it was: another Wizards loss. C'mon, that's funny! Right? Right?
(By the way, what the hell is Calderon running to tell John Wall? Words of encouragement? That's my guess, but I think this is the funniest part of this video of the Pistons broadcast getting the final shot wrong. First, my amateur lip-reading instincts tell me Calderon is calling him "Joe." Second, John Wall couldn't look less interested to be touched and coached by Calderon. What do you think Calderon is telling John Wall?)