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For basketball fans already mourning the potential loss of TNT Inside of NBAthere is perhaps a small consolation: BNC can bring back John Teshthe iconic “Roundball Rock”.
NBCU is reportedly close to making a $2.5 per year bid for the rights to NBA games in the future, according to the Wall Street Journal. If the bid is successful, the company will supplant its media rival Warner Bros. Discovery, whose cable networks TBS and TNT began broadcasting NBA games in 1988. TNT is Turner’s flagship network associated with professional basketball, with its Inside the NBA the benchmark for sports studio shows since 1989.
The NBA’s other two partners in its next contract are they say Disney and Amazon Prime Video.
If NBC succeeds in obtaining the third slot, it this probably means the end from the Emmy winner Inside the NBA, much to the dismay of sports fans. But when one door closes, another opens.
Longtime basketball fans fondly remember the song’s bouncy intro as well as the network’s coverage from 1990 to 2002, associating it with the rise of the NBA during that period and to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls winning six championships.
Tesh was asked today about The Dan Le Batard show with Stugotz if NBC contacted him about the possibility of returning the theme to its rightful place at the forefront of NBA coverage.
“Actually, they did,” Tesh said. The bastard. “There is nothing firm. But they said, “Hey, can you stay cool about this?” – like a Navy Seals thing – because we’d love to tell you about it. We are currently talking about granting them a license for the Paris Olympics.
The tune was used in NBC’s Summer Olympics basketball coverage in 2008, 2016 and 2020 for commercial bumpers and starting lineup announcements. It has also been used by Fox in that network’s college basketball coverage since 2018.
“At the end of June, we’re heading to Nashville and we have a full orchestra lined up and we’re going to re-record it,” Tesh said. “I think it still sounds good, but I wanted to make some changes.”
The song was such a cultural reference that Saturday Night Live parodied the pitch meeting between Tesh and NBC executives in a sketch with Vince Vaughn, Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon, Jason Sudeikis and Tim Robinson.
