For basketball followers already mourning the potential lack of TNT’s Inside the NBA, there could also be some small comfort: NBC might deliver again John Tesh‘s iconic “Roundball Rock.”
NBCU is reportedly set to bid $2.5 a yr for rights to NBA video games going ahead, in response to the Wall Street Journal. If the supply is profitable, the corporate would supplant media rival Warner Bros. Discovery, whose TBS and TNT cable networks started carrying NBA video games in 1988. TNT has been the flagship Turner community related to professional basketball, with its Inside the NBA the gold normal of sports activities studio reveals, since 1989.
The NBA’s different two companions in its subsequent contract are stated to be Disney and Amazon’s Prime Video.
If NBC is profitable in securing the third slot, it could seemingly imply the top of the Emmy-winning Inside the NBA, a lot to the chagrin of sports activities followers. But when one door closes, one other opens.
Longtime hoops followers bear in mind fondly the tune’s peppy intro alongside the community’s protection from 1990-2002, associating it with the NBA’s ascendance over that interval and Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls profitable six championships.
Tesh was requested immediately on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz whether or not NBC has contacted him about the potential of returning the theme to its rightful place on the forefront of NBA protection.
“They have, actually,” Tesh instructed Le Batard. “It’s nothing firm. But they said, ‘Hey can you stay frosty on this? — like a Navy Seals thing — because we’d love to talk to you about this.’ We’re actually talking right now about licensing it to them for the Olympics in Paris.”
The tune was utilized in NBC’s Summer Olympics basketball protection in 2008, 2016 and 2020 for business bumpers and beginning lineup bulletins. It’s additionally been utilized by Fox in that community’s faculty basketball protection since 2018.
“At the end of June, we’re heading to Nashville and we’ve got a full orchestra on hold and we’re going to re-record it,” Tesh stated. “I think it still sounds great, but I wanted to make a few changes.”
The tune was such a cultural touchstone that Saturday Night Live famously parodied the pitch assembly between Tesh and NBC execs in a skit with Vince Vaughn, Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon Jason Sudeikis and Tim Robinson.