For basketball followers already mourning the potential lack of TNT’s Contained in the NBA, there could also be some small comfort: NBC could 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, based on the Wall Avenue 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 Contained in the NBA the gold normal of sports activities studio exhibits, 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 doubtless imply the tip of the Emmy-winning Contained in the NBA, a lot to the chagrin of sports activities followers. However when one door closes, one other opens.
Longtime hoops followers bear in mind fondly the music’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 successful six championships.
Tesh was requested right this moment on The Dan Le Batard Present with Stugotz whether or not NBC has contacted him about the opportunity of returning the theme to its rightful place on the forefront of NBA protection.
“They’ve, really,” Tesh advised Le Batard. “It’s nothing agency. However they stated, ‘Hey are you able to keep frosty on this? — like a Navy Seals factor — as a result of we’d love to speak to you about this.’ We’re really speaking proper now about licensing it to them for the Olympics in Paris.”
The tune was utilized in NBC’s Summer season 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.
“On the finish of June, we’re heading to Nashville and we’ve bought a full orchestra on maintain and we’re going to re-record it,” Tesh stated. “I believe it nonetheless sounds nice, however I wished to make a couple of adjustments.”
The music was such a cultural touchstone that Saturday Evening Reside 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.
