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NEW YORK — There's a Christmas Day basketball game at Walt Disney World, featuring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Wemby. An animated game, anyway. The real game takes place at Madison Square Garden, where Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs face the New York Knicks in a game televised on ABC and ESPN and streamed on Disney+ and ESPN+. The special alt-cast, the first animated presentation of an NBA game, will be shown on ESPN2 and also stream on Disney+ and ESPN+. Madison Square Garden is a staple of the NBA's Christmas schedule. Now it merges with a bigger home of the holidays, because the "Dunk the Halls" game will be staged at Disney, on a court set up right smack in the middle of where countless families have posed for vacation photos. Why that location? Because it was Mickey Mouse's Christmas wish. "Basketball courts often have the ability to make a normal environment look special, but in Disney it can only turn out incredible," Wembanyama said in an ESPN video promoting his Christmas debut. The story — this is Disney, after all — begins with Mickey penning a letter to Santa Claus, asking if he and his pals can host a basketball game. They'll not only get to watch one with NBA players, but some of them will even get to play. Goofy and Donald Duck will sub in for a couple Knicks players, while Mickey and Minnie Mouse will come on to play for the Spurs. "It looks to me like Goofy and Jalen Brunson have a really good pick-and-roll at the elite level," said Phil Orlins, an ESPN vice president of production. Walt Disney World hosted real NBA games in 2020, when the league set up there to complete its season that had been suspended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those games were played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. The setting for the Christmas game will be Main Street USA, at the entrance of the Magic Kingdom. Viewers will recognize Cinderella's castle behind one baseline and the train station at the other end, and perhaps some shops they have visited in between. Previous alternate animated broadcasts included an NFL game taking place in Andy's room from "Toy Story;" the "NHL Big City Greens Classic" during a game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers; and earlier this month, another NFL matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys also taking place at Springfield's Atoms Stadium as part of "The Simpsons Funday Football." Unlike basketball, the players are helmeted in those sports. So, this telecast required an extra level of detail and cooperation with players and teams to create accurate appearances of their faces and hairstyles. "So, this is a level of detail that we've never gone, that we've never done on any other broadcast," said David Sparrgrove, the senior director of creative animation for ESPN. Wembanyama, the 7-foot-3 phenom from France who was last season's NBA Rookie of the Year, looks huge even among most NBA players. The creators of the alternate telecast had to design how he'd look not only among his teammates and rivals, but among mice, ducks and chipmunks. "Like, Victor Wembanyama, seeing him in person is insane. It's like seeing an alien descend on a basketball court, and I think we kind of captured that in his animated character," said Drew Carter, who will again handle play-by-play duties, as he had in the previous animated telecasts, and will get an assist from sideline reporter Daisy Duck. Wembanyama's presence is one reason the Spurs-Knicks matchup, the leadoff to the NBA's five-game Christmas slate, was the obvious choice to do the animated telecast. The noon EST start means it will begin in the early evening in France and should draw well there. Also, it comes after ABC televises the "Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade" for the previous two hours, providing more time to hype the broadcast. Recognizing that some viewers who then switch over to the animated game may be Disney experts but NBA novices, there will be 10 educational explainers to help with basketball lingo and rules. Beyond Sports' visualization technology and Sony's Hawk-Eye tracking allow the animated players to make the same movements and plays made moments earlier by the real ones at MSG. Carter and analyst Monica McNutt will be animated in the style of the telecast, donning VR headsets to experience the game from Main Street, USA. Other animated faces recognizable to some viewers include NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who will judge a halftime dunk contest among Mickey and his friends, and Santa himself, who will operate ESPN's "SkyCam" during the game. The players are curious how the production — and themselves — will look. "It's going to be so crazy to see the game animated," Spurs veteran Chris Paul said. "I think what's dope about it is it will give kids another opportunity to watch a game and to see us, basically, as characters." Get local news delivered to your inbox!Danville is next up for the undefeated TigersJimmy Carter: president, global mediator, Nobel laureateEye Tracking Sensors and Modules for AR and VR Market Set for Exceptional Growth from 2024 to 2032
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President of Ireland leads tributes to former government minister Gemma HusseyFormer New York Governor George Pataki is blasting the Empire’s State’s “ignorant” clean energy plans as “pie-in-the-sky” nonsense that will never happen. New York has passed unsustainable laws that would require “net-zero carbon emissions by 2040,” and “70 percent renewable electricity sources by 2030.” But Pataki is calling out these mandates as nonsense and says the state will never reach the mandated goals, the New York Post reported. “We have an enormous, looming gap between energy use and energy generation in New York State.” That gap stands at about 50 percent already, he said during an appearance Sunday on 770 WABC’s The Cats Roundtable show. Pointing out the obvious — that the renewable energy plans are absurd because the sun doesn’t always shine for solar, nor does the wind always blow to turn wind turbines — the Republican, who was New York’s governor from 1995 to 2006, excoriated the Democrat establishment’s “ignorant” long-term energy plans. The law, signed by former Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019, requires the state to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, and 85 percent by 2050. These plans, Pataki said, are “incredibly short-sighted and ignorant.” “That’s just not going to happen. We need to continue to have fossil fuel generation whether we like it or not,” he scoffed. And with the energy gap already as big as it is, the mandates will make matters worse. “We’re going to see the need for energy in New York State probably double between now and 2040. But we don’t have the ability right now, or the planning, to fill that gap in any way that is actually going to work,” he explained. “We have to start now planning to put new [energy] sources [into effect]. The most logical ones are small nuclear reactors that can generate power locally and fuel an entire community with zero emissions,” Pataki said, suggesting the nuclear energy is one solution. “I hope the state gets its act together and starts looking at that in an aggressive way very soon,” Pataki concluded. Sitting state Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has mentioned nuclear power as a solution to the state’s growing needs. But aside from releasing a “draft blueprint” for energy solutions, no actual move toward nuclear has come from Albany. But there are already warnings that the big switch away from oil and natural gas will cause New York homeowners to suffer under skyrocketing costs for heating and powering their homes, not to mention the strain on the power grid as more and more homes end up being forced to ditch gas and oil and rely completely on electricity. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston , or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston