The History of the NBA on NBC: Everything to Know
Before the NBA returns to NBC, let's take a look back at its legendary previous run on the network.
This fall, after more than 20 years away at other networks, the NBA will return home to NBC. The renewed partnership between league and network has many basketball fans nostalgic for the 1990s, when NBA on NBC was appointment TV for sports lovers everywhere, and has new fans wondering just how important that programming bloc was to league history.
So, in anticipation of basketball action (and "Roundball Rock") hitting NBC's airwaves again this October, let's take a closer look at the history of NBA on NBC, its most iconic features, and what's next.
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The history of NBA on NBC
Though NBC also broadcast professional basketball in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, when most fans talk about NBA on NBC, they're talking about the 1990s. In the 1980s, though numerous stars were rising in the league, basketball didn't have the same high-profile as football or even baseball at the time. Nationally televised games were hard to come by, and some broadcasters were still airing games on a tape delay, which meant that fans could sometimes find out the score before they'd even tuned in.
The rise in NBA stars and sneakers and merch sales in the second half of the '80s meant that the league's profile was growing, and it needed a partner to help cement that rise. It got that partner when NBC signed on to broadcast NBA games, including playoffs, beginning with the 1990-1991 season. What happened next was a kind of a perfect storm that might never be seen again in sports broadcasting.
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“The confluence of circumstances can never be duplicated,” NBA on NBC broadcaster Bob Costas told Front Office Sports last year. “The Bulls’ dynasty with Michael Jordan at the center of it. The original Dream Team. All the biggest games on NBC when the media landscape was very different. Double- and triple-headers on weekends, prime-time games throughout the playoffs. The promos on Seinfeld, ER, Cheers, [Johnny] Carson, [Jay] Leno, the Olympics...”
The combination of new NBA stars and dynasties and the might of NBC's broadcast slate brought the NBA to greater heights than ever before, creating an environment in which new stars and new attitudes could flourish in front of a national audience. The run ended with the 2002 season, when the NBA signed a new agreement with different partners, but now it seems poised to enter a new era in 2025.
What Michael Jordan meant to the NBA on NBC
As Costas mentioned, the NBA on NBC partnership exploded in popularity in no small part because of its association with the rise of Michael Jordan. The basketball superstar won his first NBA Championship with the Chicago Bulls at the end of the 1990-1991 season, the first NBA Finals broadcast on NBC, and would go on to win five more over the course of the 1990s. Looking back on Jordan's career, many of his most memorable moments -- from his "Flu Game" during the 1997 NBA Finals to his return to basketball after taking time off to play professional baseball -- were broadcast on NBC, forever linking Jordan's exploits with NBC broadcasters like Marv Albert and Bob Costas.
But Jordan was not alone in the NBA on NBC spotlight. His visibility, and the elevation of the league that came with it, almost meant that a whole new generation of stars came alive on NBC's airwaves. Shaquille O'Neal, Reggie Miller (who's set to return to NBC as part of the broadcast team), Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, and many more all hit their prime during the NBC era, and many fans still remember discovering their game through NBA on NBC.
As for the greatest game ever played on NBA on NBC? Well, every fan has their own answer, but the most memorable might be Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, which saw Jordan hit the game-winning shot with seconds remaining to win his sixth and final NBA title.
But the games weren't the only selling point. NBA on NBC also drew its viewers in with the help of broadcasters like Costas, and through dramatic lead-in packages meant to capture the stakes of big games, all part of a larger broadcasting scheme that made it one of the highest-rated shows on TV.
"Roundball Rock" and NBA on NBC
For all its star power and broadcasting polish, though, NBA on NBC would not be the well-remembered institution it's become if not for John Tesh and "Roundball Rock." Composed specifically for the NBA on NBC and debuting during the 1990 season, Tesh's instrumental composition has become synonymous with basketball glory, so much so that it will return as the theme for the NBA on NBC revival this fall.
Tesh, a new age musician and broadcaster who'd done sports coverage before moving on to co-anchor Entertainment Tonight, was covering the Tour De France when he got the call that NBC wanted a new basketball theme. According to Tesh, after thinking about it for a while, the tune exploded into his head while sleeping in his hotel room, and he had to quickly find a way to get the melody out so he could work on it.
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"In the middle of the night, at 2 o’clock in the morning, I got a theme in my head," Tesh later told The Ringer. "I was awakened by the thought. And I knew if I went back to sleep, it would be gone. My synthesizers were in the production truck. I didn’t have any manuscript paper. But even if I did, with a musical theme, when you write down the notes, you don’t always capture its essence. I didn’t have a tape recorder with me. And no cellphone. I had nothing—nothing! The only way to record the idea was to call my Radio Shack answering machine back in Los Angeles. It took me two messages to get the whole thing out."
What followed was an iconic, synth-driven theme that still says "basketball is coming" to a whole generation of fans.
The return of NBA on NBC
More than 20 years after it went off the air, NBA on NBC will return to NBC in October of 2025, kicking off a new era with a broadcast team led by Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle. Tuesday night games will arrive weekly on NBC, while Mondays will bring exclusive streaming games on Peacock. In 2026, the whole agreement expands again with the introduction of Sunday Night Basketball, a new series adding even more NBA action to the NBC family.
For more NBA news, head to NBC Sports.
