confirmed it used AI tools to create moving portraits during Game 1 of the NBA Finals, including an altered Tony Parker image that aired at the 6:50 mark of the third quarter and drew heavy online criticism.
An spokesperson told a sports outlet that the network used AI to help produce the Tony Parker portrait and two other moving portraits during the broadcast, and that it is "evaluating" whether to continue the approach in Game 2. One of the other altered images shown during Wednesday’s telecast was an updated Bill Russell photo that ran at the 8:03 mark of the second quarter.
The Tony Parker moving portrait was based on a photo from NBA.com taken after the Spurs won the 2003 NBA championship; the Bill Russell image originated as a black-and-white Getty Images photo from the 1960 NBA Finals. ’s use included multiple historical NBA images, not a single isolated graphic.
Platform reaction quickly became the broadcast’s friction point: the Parker portrait was widely mocked on social media, prompting the network to describe the on-air technique as "an experiment" even as it weighed whether to deploy the same material again. The incident lands amid a broader rise in AI-generated graphics across sports broadcasts and team content.
The immediate question now is whether will repeat the AI-generated portraits in Game 2 or abandon the experiment entirely; the network says it is evaluating the option and has not announced a decision. The choice will determine whether a high-profile Finals broadcast keeps AI-assisted visuals in its toolkit or pulls back under public pressure.
