The NBA tried to bring its most iconic Finals moments to life during Game 1, and AI made a mess of every single one. It was an experiment filled with errors that undermined some great NBA Finals moments, with each image and video being worse than the last. The most embarrassing one came when the AI failed in something as simple as getting a franchise superstar’s face right.

The image in question was that of four-time NBA champion Tony Parker celebrating his first NBA title while holding a cigar as confetti fell from the sky. The league replicated the 2003 Finals image with the same jacket, pose, and surroundings, with one small problem. Fans watching at home couldn’t make out the significance of the image shown during the broadcast, as the person looked nothing like Parker. But that wasn’t the only lapse.

It started with a simple image of Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing dueling during the 1994 NBA Finals. The league tried to add some motion to the image, almost creating a live photograph. There wasn’t a case of mistaken identity here, but eagle-eyed viewers spotted that Artificial Intelligence put a current-day NBA Finals patch on Olajuwon’s jersey.

The next image saw the late Kobe Bryant and Ron Harper celebrating a Finals win during the Lakers’ three-peat era. The result was Bryant and Harper’s bodies moving unusually. In the corner of the screen, fans could see Harper’s hands randomly flailing.

Clips or images of the original moments with grainy quality may have served to evoke the nostalgia the video package aimed at. The league tried to spruce things up with AI to perhaps appeal to a younger audience, but missed out on an amazing opportunity to generate intrigue among fans who never saw these moments. Instead, they saw a few unnatural and incorrect motion images, and an artificially produced image of a person who doesn’t exist.

After a field day on social media with fans trolling the league, a spokesperson stepped in and clarified to Front Office Sports that they would be “evaluating” further use of the same.

The NFL and WNBA have also had embarrassing AI moments

The embarrassing blunder and ensuing backlash with AI is not restricted to the NBA itself, with the WNBA and the NFL also seeing such incidents.

The WNBA’s Indiana Fever faced backlash when they posted an AI-generated promotional image of Caitlin Clark that botched her hand. This incident took place a few days before the WNBA season when the Fever posted an image of Clark on social media. The player’s hands looked a little different, and she herself flagged the same.

“New hand alert,” wrote Clark.

NFL fans slammed Fox during the Week 2 broadcast for a video during Aaron Rodgers‘ first home game as a Steeler. In the first half of the game against the Seahawks, the network used a bizarre AI collage depicting Rodgers’ journey from the Green Bay Packers to the New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The errors included misspellings and inaccurate Roman numerals. Viewers also spotted incorrect NFL logos on his uniform in a picture with Brett Favre.

The WNBA and the NFL have steered clear or been alert about their promotional content after that. It remains to be seen how the NBA does following ESPN’s internal evaluation of its experiment.