During James Harden’s home debut for the Philadelphia 76ers, JJ Redick also made his debut in the broadcasting booth for ESPN. Redick received a standing ovation from Sixers fans and from what I’m seeing, did a pretty fantastic job with the commentary.

Not to brag, but I was in attendance at the game so I missed the broadcast.

Unfortunately, I can’t sit here and praise JJ Redick completely. During the broadcast, JJ Redick put a piece of a hand sanitizing wipe in his ear to help deal with the loud noise inside the Wells Fargo Center.

Redick posted on his Instagram story about the noise inside the Wells Fargo Center and how his cameraman gave him a piece of a sanitizer wipe to put in his ear to block out the noise.

What a psychotic move. Apparently his camera man “uses that trick” all the time to help with noise? That’s gotta be painful and can’t be good long term.

I can think of like five options off the top of my head that would’ve been far better. A wet paper towel or tissue, an Air Pod or other earbud, or just you know, an actual earplug? For the biggest sports production company in the world, nobody had an earplug on hand when going to what was expected to be a loud crowd going in?

Kudos to Redick for fighting through it and still doing a great job, but shame on that ESPN cameraman for choking in the clutch. The arena was definitely louder than usual and carried somewhat of a playoff atmosphere since it was the debut of Harden. However, I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was anything out of the ordinary.

Maybe we just chalk it up to Redick making his broadcast debut and not being used to the noise of an arena while trying to hear through an earpiece. Not everyone can be instant professionals. I pulled it off like a veteran inside a loud factory with a million machines going off and Fox29 screaming into my ear but again, not everyone can be INSTANT professionals.

At the end of the day, you live, and you learn. I’m sure Redick will always have an earplug on hand for any of his broadcasts for the remainder of the season after this, assuming he can still hear.

Mandatory Credit: Getty Images