Daisy Duck Hits Sidelines When ESPN Shows Animated Knicks Vs. Spurs NBA Game on Christmas Day

Brian Steinberg
·3-min read

ESPN’s latest hire: Daisy Duck.

The animated waterfowl has been a part of the sports giant’s parent company for more than 80 years, but on Christmas Day, she’ll take a shot at something completely different, working as a sideline reporter while the New York Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs in an animated version of an NBA game playing in real time. The cartoon game will run on ESPN2, Disney+ and ESPN+, the latest attempt by ESPN to devise new sports formats that are more attractive to young children and their families, perhaps, than the real thing.

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The game will look as if it taking place on the iconic Main Street USA of Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park. As the teams play — each movement by every Spurs and Knicks player will be captured by optical tracking and real-time tracking — Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Chip and Dale will cheer them on.

They will also take part in action around the contest. At halftime, the Disney characters will compete in a special slam dunk contest. Santa’s Elves will operate the cameras for the game. And the characters will deliver pregame and halftime speeches to the players and decorate a large Christmas tree while the players compete on the court. Meanwhile, Daisy will work with Drew Carter and Monica McNutt,, two ESPN mainstays who will call the game and be animated in the style of the telecast while wearing special virtual-reality headgear so they can watch the contest as viewers are.

ESPN has for years experimented with concepts that executives hope will bring the young viewers who might not ordinarily watch big-league sports to versions of the games designed just for them. The rationale for doing so is pretty straightforward. The leagues are eager to grow their audiences even as their games are increasingly distributed by a broader array of media partners. The networks, meanwhile, are more conscious of the sky-high rights fees they pay for the games and are turning more of their programming inventory over to content that is related to them — and want a return on their investment.

Disney and ESPN have already dispatched characters from “The Simpsons” to take part in an animated NFL game slated to air December 9.

Other famous faces have participated in ambitious experiments. Paramount Global earlier this year offered a separate broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII on the kid-centric Nickelodeon, complete with its own sportscasters, some separate TV commercials and the network’s signature green slime. Disney and ESPN, meanwhile, have aired a broadcast of an NHL match-up that used animated figures from “Big City Greens,” and in 2021 tested a game using Marvel characters that kids could play as they watched an NBA contest between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans. An animated version of a Sunday-morning game between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars broadcast from Wembley Stadium in London last year utilized “Toy Story” characters such as Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, Bullseye and Slinky Dog.

The new Christmas Day NBA game marks the first time a league contest has been presented in animated style and will mark the first time an NBA game has streamed on Disney+.

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