Marv Albert called the nationally televised broadcast between the Knicks and the Celtics in Boston on Thursday, and believes there may have been some funny business going on in terms of the sound he heard from inside the arena while the game was in progress.
Albert essentially said during the telecast that he believes the Celtics were pumping in artificial crowd noise during the game. While it’s unclear if league rules specifically prohibit teams from doing that, if true, it could be viewed as an embarrassment by the home town fans.
From Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald:Based on what Albert has heard, he believes Celtics management pumps in extra noise.
“It seems that way, but they say no,” Albert said after the Celtics’ 89-86 loss to the Knicks. “There’s times when it seems like there is suddenly a bump in the sound. But I really don’t want to make a big deal out of it.”
The Celtics responded to Albert’s claim with the following tweet: “Regarding comments on tonight’s (broadcast), the Celtics have never used artificial crowd noise.”
Albert is one of the most tenured broadcasters out there, and has been in every one of the NBA’s arenas. So he would be among the most qualified to determine whether or not a team was guilty of the offense.
Honestly, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Celtics or any other team chose to do this at times. There’s a constant din played over the sound system during NBA games now, to the point where any additional noise -- even some geared toward making the fans in the building sound louder and more passionate than they actually are -- would be very hard to notice.
