NBA on CBS

The NBA on CBS was a weekly presentation of National Basketball Association games on CBS Sports. The NBA on CBS ran from the 1973-1974 NBA season (when CBS succeeded ABC Sports as the national broadcaster of the NBA) until the 1989-90 NBA season (when CBS was succeeded by NBC Sports).

History

Early presentation

<!-- Deleted image removed: -->During CBS' first few years at covering the NBA, CBS was accused of mishandling their NBA telecasts instead of teams, and devoting too much attention to the slam dunk in instant replays. Regular features included a pregame show that consisted of mini-teams of celebrities and active and former NBA players competing against each other, and a halftime show called Horse.

The NBA eventually took notice of the criticisms and managed to persuade CBS to eliminate its original halftime show. In its place, came human-interest shows about the players (similar to the ones seen on the NFL Today program on CBS). There also was a possibility that CBS would start televising a single national game on Sunday afternoons.

Other adjustments that CBS made in hopes of improving their coverage included hiring reporter Sonny Hill to cover the...
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