- The network will air up to 100 regular-season games on NBC and its streaming service, Peacock.
- Sunday Night Basketball” or the moniker “Basketball Night in America” will broadcast each week from the game site.
- The on-air talent includes broadcasters Mike Tirico and Reggie Miller, with a studio team led by Maria Taylor, Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady.
STAMFORD, CT — When a media company loses the rights to broadcast an event, even in sports, it’s rare for that company to make another run at those same rights, especially after two decades.
That’s what happened to NBC when Disney took over and outbid the Peacock network for the NBA broadcast rights in 2002. This marked the end of a successful 12-year run that helped boost the league’s popularity to new heights, largely thanks to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls’ dominance in the 1990s.
When the NBA on NBC signed off for the final time on June 12, 2002, after the Los Angeles Lakers’ 113-107 victory over the New Jersey Nets in Game 4 of the Finals – completing the sweep and the last three-peat among the four major North American sports – the network didn’t go into panic mode..
They still had Grand Slam tennis, Notre Dame football, and the sure moneymakers that are the Winter and Summer Olympic Games. It wouldn’t be until 2006 when the network secured the rights to “Sunday Night Football,” the top-rated program in the United States in each of the last 14 years.
Now, NBCUniversal is back in the hoops game after paying about $2.5 billion a year, which is part of the record 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal the league struck with Amazon and Disney.
“I look back on my early days at the NBA, in the weekly meetings we would have in Dick Ebersol’s office, and he famously had a sign behind his desk that said storytelling,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “That was as a reminder of his people, and I think that storytelling is just as important today with all the technology. I’m really looking forward to this partnership.”
The company’s executives presented their plan at a press event Monday at NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, aiming for a significant return on that investment, and have already exceeded advertising expectations for the season.
“It’s an enormous investment by the company. The NBA came around, and we thought it made sense for us,” Rick Cordella, NBC Sports president, said. “As the NBA fills a time in the schedule in the spring, where the NBA offers a diverse audience, and it’s not often you can take on a big sport and start from scratch.”
Don’t call it a comeback
The theme of the day was not only nostalgia but also advancing the product. Of course, “Roundball Rock,” the iconic theme of the NBA on NBC, is back, but Grammy-winning musician Lenny Kravitz will perform the show open for “Sunday Night Basketball” when it premieres on Feb. 1.
“A global icon with unmatched style and passion, Lenny is the perfect artist to set the tone for coverage of the biggest game of the week every Sunday night,” NBC Sports Creative Director Tripp Dixon said. “As a fresh addition to our Sunday Night franchise, we’re excited for our Sunday Night Basketball anthem to capture the energy and spirit of the league, and with a superstar like Lenny at its foundation, we can’t wait for fans everywhere to see what we’ve cooked up.”
Up to 100 NBA regular-season games will air on NBC and Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights, with the latter games branded as “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday.’
Mike Tirico, the lead play-by-play broadcaster, Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, and Jamal Crawford will call the network’s first NBA game in over 23 years on Oct. 21 when the Houston Rockets face the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. The Golden State Warriors head to Los Angeles to play the Lakers to complete the Opening Night doubleheader; Noah Eagle and Grant Hill are set to broadcast the nightcap.
It will have been 8,532 days between NBC’s last NBA telecast and this year’s season opener.
“To be back with the league and associated with the league is just heaven for me. The cool part now is I covered Reg, Jamal, and Melo, and all these guys. And now to work with them, it just kind of doubles down on my excitement,” Tirico said to USA TODAY Sports.
‘Some of my best moments were on NBC. Some of the best calls, Tom Hammond, Bob Costas, Marv Albert,” added Miller, who noted that the league needs a villain like he was in the ’90s. “It’s all about the calls for me. Some of my best moments were on this network. Now we get a chance to deliver some of these calls for these younger players.’
Top talent should lure viewers
Besides the games themselves, NBC is banking on the chemistry of the talent they have assembled to broadcast the games.
Part of that job belongs to Maria Taylor, as the lead studio host, along with analysts Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady.
“Sunday Night Basketball” or the moniker “Basketball Night in America” will broadcast each week from the game site, and while studio shows can be hit or miss, it didn’t take long for Anthony, Carter and McGrady to disagree with just about everything, especially when Anthony said the New York Knicks will be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, which elicited hearty chuckles and negative head nods from his fellow retired coworkers. (Carter and McGrady both said that the Cleveland Cavaliers will rule the East.)
‘Sunday Night Basketball’ will take a break on Feb. 8 and 15, as the network broadcasts the Super Bowl, NBA All-Star Game and the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics from Italy.
There will also be an ‘on the bench’ portion of the game, where one sideline reporter or analyst will be assigned to each team, providing insight into their strategy.
Anthony acknowledged that he is taking it ‘day by day,’ as there will be a learning curve as a new studio analyst, but he assured viewers that he will approach the role with authenticity, teaching the game while entertaining, and moving the conversation forward.
He said his job was not to criticize players, but he also didn’t want to discuss the other companies that would be broadcasting the league and making any comparisons of content.
“We don’t talk about anyone else in this building,” Anthony said.