NBA on NBC

NBA on NBC was a weekly presentation of National Basketball Association games on the National Broadcasting Company television network from 1955 to 1962, and again from 1990 to 2002. The NBA on NBC succeeded the NBA on CBS. During NBC's partnership with the NBA in the 1990s, the league rose to unprecedented popularity for the sport, with ratings surpassing the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the mid-eighties.

Overview

Background

The program started on November 9, 1989 when the NBA and NBC reached an agreement on a four-year, $600 million contract. On April 28, 1993, NBC extended their exclusive broadcast rights to the NBA with a four-year, $750 million contract.

Music

NBC's theme music, "Roundball Rock" was composed by New Ager John Tesh. The song, which NBC used for every telecast in the network's twelve-year history with the NBA, is today often used by NBA TV for their live game coverage. After briefly considering using the theme for its NBA coverage, ABC decided against it, and has used several theme songs in its first four years of covering the NBA. In the early days of the WNBA, NBC used a variant of the theme music for the new league's games.

Until 1997, NBC would play the rock song "Winning It All", by The Outfield during its end of the season montage. From 1997 to 2001, several contemporary music pieces were used for the end of season montage (including, in 1997, the...
Read More