John Tesh must be Scrooge McDuck on his way to early retirement.
The famous composer of “Roundball Rock,” the wormy jingle most associated with NBC’s NBA broadcasts in the ’90s, ignores his song exclusive to new age NBA on NBC broadcasts. It appears that Fox Sports will continue to use it for its college basketball coverage as well.
As the college hoops season kicked off Monday night, fans heard the familiar tune on FS1.
Fox Sports continues to use “Roundball Rock” for college basketball this season 🏀🎶
(h/t @Braylon_Breeze)pic.twitter.com/rLU9pR6cf5
– Awful Announcement (@awfulannouncing) November 3, 2025
This is nothing new. For years, Fox used “Roundball Rock” for its college basketball broadcasts, which wasn’t always a popular choice among basketball fans of a certain era. Tesh’s song is generally known as the soundtrack to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls dynasty. It’s not really the same when St. John’s plays Quinnipiac.
Some would argue that it was better to have the song around, in whatever capacity, during NBC’s 23-year absence from the NBA, rather than hearing it only in the form of nostalgia-baiting social media clips and famous Saturday evening live sketch.
Given that the song’s return to the NBA on NBC has been well documented, it’s an interesting editorial choice on Fox’s part to save it for college hoops. Typically, networks want to use a song that viewers will associate with their own broadcast of that sport. But no one hears “Roundball Rock” and thinks, “Oh my God, I can’t wait to watch that college basketball game on Fox!”
Perhaps “Roundball Rock” transcends that desire. If you have it, you use it. Period. End of debate.
You have to imagine that the person most excited about all of this is Tesh, who is laugh all the way to the bank as two separate networks continue to throw money at him.
