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ESPN and ABC\u2019s NBA<\/a> playoff broadcast briefly collided with major national news on Saturday night.<\/p>\n During the network\u2019s coverage of the Timberwolves-Nuggets playoff game, longtime play-by-play voice Mike Breen told viewers that ABC could cut away from the basketball broadcast for a news report following a shooting\/security incident at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner.<\/p>\n Viewers wanting to see the rest of the game were instructed to switch over to ESPN if ABC\u2019s broadcast were interrupted.<\/p>\n \u201cABC News may have to come on and update you on that,\u201d Breen said on the broadcast, while acknowledging the developing situation.<\/p>\n The moment came as multiple major news organizations reported that President Donald Trump was unharmed<\/a> after a security incident at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner in Washington, D.C. The Associated Press reported that the dinner was disrupted by a shooting outside the ballroom, with law enforcement and Secret Service officials responding quickly. Reuters also reported that a shooter was in custody and that Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other senior officials were safe.<\/p>\n The timing created an unusual scene for NBA viewers, as Breen and the ABC broadcast crew were left to balance live playoff coverage with a possible national news cut-in.<\/p>\n Mike Breen Alerts Viewers During NBA Playoff Game<\/p>\n Breen, one of the most recognizable voices in basketball, did not linger on the subject but made clear that ABC\u2019s news division could interrupt the game if necessary.<\/p>\n That kind of moment is rare during a playoff broadcast, but not unprecedented when major breaking news unfolds during a live sporting event. ABC is carrying both NBA playoff coverage and national news programming, creating the possibility that the network could briefly shift away from the game or provide a special report.<\/p>\n The game continued after Breen\u2019s comment, but his on-air note signaled the seriousness of the developing news.<\/p>\n For viewers watching the basketball game live, it was also one of the first mainstream sports-broadcast acknowledgments of the incident.<\/p>\n WHCD Shooting Draws Reaction From Sports Figures<\/p>\n The incident also quickly reached the sports world because several sports-adjacent figures were either at the dinner or posting about it in real time.<\/p>\n Former U.S. gymnast Jennifer Sey,<\/a> who attended the event, described the scene as \u201cterrifying\u201d in an interview with Fox News Sports. Sey, the 1986 U.S. national all-around gymnastics champion, said she hid \u201cunder table\u201d as the situation unfolded.<\/p>\n OutKick founder and sports-media personality Clay Travis<\/a> also appeared to post from inside the event, writing on X that the scene was \u201cpure chaos\u201d after officials were rushed out.<\/p>\n The White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner is traditionally a major media and political event, drawing journalists, politicians, celebrities and public figures from across industries. This year\u2019s event took on a much more serious tone after the reported shooting and law enforcement response.<\/p>\n NBA Playoff Broadcast Continues Amid Breaking News<\/p>\n The Timberwolves-Nuggets broadcast continued while ABC monitored the developing situation.<\/p>\n Breen\u2019s comment served as a brief but notable crossover between the sports and news worlds, especially with ABC carrying a high-profile NBA playoff game at the same time as one of the biggest national news stories of the night.<\/p>\n The situation remains developing, and ABC News or ESPN could provide additional updates as more details are confirmed.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tErik Anderson<\/a> is an award-winning sports journalist covering the NBA, MLB and NFL for Heavy.com. He also focuses on the trading card market. His work has appeared in nationally-recognized outlets including The New York Times, Associated Press , USA Today, and ESPN. More about Erik Anderson<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty ESPN and ABC\u2019s NBA playoff broadcast briefly collided with major national news on Saturday night. During the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-411287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}