Underneath a brand new media rights deal, the NBA will return to NBC’s Peacock-branded airwaves for the primary time since 2002.
NBC will promote basketball, not paper, at its newest workplace.
“Roundball Rock” will ring throughout skilled basketball broadcasts as soon as extra because the “NBA on NBC” will return for a 3rd iteration set to tip off later this month.
In anticipation of its Oct. 22 debut, which is able to see the defending champion Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder host the Houston Rockets within the first half of a doubleheader on its broadcast community, NBC hosted a showcase of its basketball expertise and decision-makers at its sports activities headquarters in Stamford, CT.
Readily available have been a plethora of NBA All-Stars set to relate the motion: Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter, and Tracy McGrady make up the lead studio trio, whereas Jamal Crawford, Grant Hill, and Reggie Miller are the highest sport analysts subsequent to play-by-play man Mike Tirico.
“The NBA and NBC was iconic. What these 12 years have been have been the height of pleasure vitality,” NBC Sports activities govt Producer and President of manufacturing Sam Flood stated. “We’re going to convey again touches of nostalgia, however we’re going to maneuver the game ahead and transfer our broadcast ahead. You may see by the staff we’ve assembled right here, generational expertise throughout the board, able to have enjoyable, able to develop the sport, and able to interact the viewers in new methods.”
Amongst hoops followers, NBC is finest identified for its 13-year run of Affiliation broadcasts between 1990 and 2002, which featured a number of the most memorable moments within the sport on the flip of the century, together with each version of the NBA Finals throughout that span.
The NBA on NBC crew! https://t.co/govW6WyG0Q pic.twitter.com/6BSg6DiItx
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) Might 12, 2025
NBA on NBC Brings Again the Nostalgia
Such broadcasts have been watched by a number of of the incoming skills whereas others partook in them immediately. Sport analyst Derek Fisher, for instance, received three of his 5 championship rings on NBC airwaves as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. Although not current in Stamford, the legendary Michael Jordan is becoming a member of as a particular contributor.
Headlining the return of considered one of their favourite packages was all of the convincing it took for a number of of the most important skills to come back aboard.
“A few of my finest moments have been on this community, and once I bought the chance to interview with them, I instructed them that,” Miller recalled to Ballislife. “There have been a whole lot of ups and downs in the course of the 90s, a whole lot of cheering, however some grind as nicely. It’s these sort of feelings you wish to sort of feather in and sort of ship again out to the universe. Hopefully, being on this aspect of it, there’ll be some younger participant, 15, 20, 30 years down the highway, saying a few of my finest moments occurred when Reggie Miller was calling my video games. That’s sort of cool for me to be in these sort of sneakers.”
Nostalgia was maybe the theme and buzzword of the presentation, the place “Roundball Rock,” the famed theme penned by John Tesh, blared all through the audio system. Tesh’s tune isn’t the one factor getting back from the prior iteration, as NBC will use synthetic intelligence to breed the voice of the late Jim Fagan, who served as this system’s voiceover announcer.
However these gathered additionally burdened the improvements set to happen on NBC waves this season.
“Nostalgia for us is the baseline,” Anthony defined, hoping that he and his fellow new-century legends will assist present innovation. “You’ve gotten the baseline, which is nostalgia, you construct off of that. Then, we’re bringing only a recent take. I don’t wish to say a brand new take, however a recent tackle reporting, on reporting the sport of basketball and its storytelling.”
A great little bit of the technical improvements will seem on the video games that seem on NBC’s streaming service Peacock. The printed desk for Peacock’s Monday night time showings shall be metaphorically expanded this season, as sport analysts shall be positioned behind every staff’s bench somewhat than middle court docket. That showcase will make its debut on Oct. 27 when the Cleveland Cavaliers face the Detroit Pistons.
Additional Improvements
It’s a setup that considerably mirrors the “Contained in the Glass” state of affairs NBC had for its NHL choices, an idea that has since turn into a staple in hockey broadcasting.
“They’re telling the story of the sport via the lens of that staff, having one analyst assigned to the Celtics, one analyst assigned to the Knicks,” Flood defined. “It’s by no means been finished this manner earlier than. We thought it will be a singular technique to take you inside the sport that marries brilliantly with the tech that Peacock goes to have, and we’re enthusiastic about attempting one thing completely different.”
Additional improvements current on streaming will embrace “Peacock Efficiency View,” which is able to present real-time stats and shot charts for gamers on the ground, in addition to figuring out open males. Viewers can even have the ability to arrange alerts for his or her favourite gamers and meet up with the sport they’re viewing and different showings throughout the league in a single cease.
90s Vitality Meets Fashionable Sport
Peacock can even add “Courtside Stay” in the midst of the season, which is able to enable followers to curate their very own angles of the sport, meant to “join [viewers] to the tradition” across the displaying. Star gamers, bench reactions, celeb row, and “sport day trend” will take middle stage below such a setup.
“You by no means wish to take away individuals’s love, particularly the older era that grew up within the 90s and early 2000s, that model of basketball, but additionally, [we remember] the sneakerheads and the costume matches,” Miller instructed BIL. “It’s so much about leisure now as nicely, too, so that you need to have the ability to merge each. Will it’s straightforward? I imply, I’m positive we’re going to have our bumps within the roads, however it’s all a strategy of what works, what doesn’t work, what sticks, what doesn’t stick, and we’ll simply go from there.”
“We’re going to take some for the Nineties NBA protection, and take so much from ‘Sunday Evening Soccer’ and sort of marry the 2,” NBC Sports activities president Rick Cordella added. “The Peacock product shall be for the tech nerds on the market that wish to geek out … So it’s form of a wedding between these two issues. I do know nostalgia will get individuals to the TV units, however the developments and being a 2025, 2026 media firm will get them to remain.”
Underneath the brand new NBA media deal, which can even welcome Amazon into the fold, NBC and Peacock will broadcast 100 regular-season video games. That may embrace Tuesday night time doubleheaders all through the season in addition to vacation showcases on Veterans Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
As soon as the NFL season ends, NBC will take over the weekend-closing void with “Sunday Evening Basketball,” that includes marquee matchups on the Affiliation ledgers. These video games will function a stylized introduction from recording artist Lenny Kravitz, who has recorded a sequence at Philadelphia’s Xfinity Cellular Area that’s stated to be much like the “Ready All Day for Sunday Evening” showcase carried out by Carrie Underwood previous to NFL video games.
Each scorebug within the historical past of the NBA on NBC: pic.twitter.com/uDiSnp7Z6V
— Sports activities TV Information & Updates (@TVSportsUpdates) October 7, 2025
Playoffs on NBC
NBC can even broadcast and stream playoff video games, together with a full convention closing in even-numbered years.
February 2026 shall be significantly busy for NBC: the month opens with the opening chapter of “Sunday Evening Basketball” between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, 5 days earlier than the 2026 Winter Olympics open in Italy. “Sunday Evening Basketball” will take a two-week break for each Tremendous Bowl LX in Santa Clara, CA, and the 2026 NBA All-Star Sport in Inglewood, CA, earlier than resuming with the Celtics-Lakers rivalry on Feb. 22.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
