Samuel L Jackson Upset With Broadcast of Iowa’s Championship Game

Oscar-winning actor Samuel L Jackson had a very loud complaint about ESPN's broadcasting of the South Carolina vs Iowa basketball game this past Sunday and there were a LOT of people who agreed with what he had to say on social media.

If you were unaware, two TV channels were broadcasting the NCAAW championship game, which totaled just under 19 million viewers between ESPN and ABC. This made this the most-watched basketball game since 2019. This number reflects men's, women's, and NBA games, according to NBC. Only the World Cup and the Olympics have had a bigger viewing audience since 2019.

It turns out that there were many of the millions of people watching the ESPN broadcast who weren't exactly thrilled with the broadcasters during the game.

Sue Bird, a former WNBA player, and Diana Taurasi, a current player for the Phoenix Mercury were the "commentators" for the ESPN broadcast. It appears they had good intentions for the style of commentary they wanted to provide but supposedly it missed the mark for fans. Football fans might be familiar with ESPN's ManningCasts.

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Super Bowl champions and brothers, Eli Manning and Peyton Manning will broadcast football games in a very relaxed, laid-back style. They'll interview guests, make fun of each other, plan bits to act out, and just hang out and talk about football during the game like regular NFL fans do from their couches. ESPN tried to do something similar with the NCAAW championship game but many viewers switched over to ABC instead.  

It wasn't all bad for ESPN as there were plenty of supporters on social media but the initial reaction appears to be pretty negative, at least on social media, for what ESPN was trying to accomplish.

Did you watch the game on ABC or were you tuned into ESPN? I watched the game on ABC and wasn't even aware of ESPN's broadcast until I found out on social media. If you watched the game on ESPN were the broadcasters as bad as social media has made it seem or do you think there is some overreaction? Let us know in the comments.