Reporter gets fired after Gary Bettman joke turns sour, but there's a twist

Twist’s broadcasting career with ESPN was short, but this one clip has aged into a sharp reminder of how thin the line can be between TV banter and losing the job.

The former St. Louis Blues heavyweight said on Nashcast that he asked Bettman to stand on a milk crate before a live interview.

Then Twist delivered the line that set off the panic: Bettman was "really not this tall" because he was standing on a stool.

Twist knew right away the joke had gone somewhere bigger than the segment.

He said he went back to the trailer and was told he had been fired.

The video shows Bettman standing beside Twist as the joke lands, with the commissioner forced to react in real time instead of from a protected podium.

That’s where the story gets interesting. Bettman, according to Twist, picked up the phone and shut it down with five words.

For fans who only see Bettman through boos, lockout scars, and podium appearances, that detail matters.

It doesn’t rewrite his NHL legacy. It does show a more practical side of the commissioner: he understood the joke, read the room, and stopped a needless overreaction.

Twist also comes out of it looking exactly like Twist. He didn’t polish the story, soften the edge, or frame himself as a victim.

The bigger takeaway is how different hockey television used to feel. Former players were often dropped into broadcasts with raw personality, not media-school caution.

Today, that same joke would probably get clipped, debated, and stretched across every platform before the second intermission.

Twist nearly lost the gig because he treated the commissioner like a teammate at the rink. Bettman saved it because he didn’t treat the moment like a crisis.