More than nostalgia: How NBC thrived and how ESPN failed with the NBA!

[CarolinaKing]

Would anybody say ESPN covers any sport better than other networks? There's a better option in every sport.

 

[MikelArteta]

I remember you'd wake up a saturday watch your one saturday morning then you'd get NBA Action



then NBa Inside stuff




then you'd get like a half hour pregame then like bulls vs knicks, then like heat vs pacers and then like lakers vs blazers

 

[Rell84shots]

I remember you'd wake up a saturday watch your one saturday morning then you'd get NBA Action



then NBa Inside stuff




then you'd get like a half hour pregame then like bulls vs knicks, then like heat vs pacers and then like lakers vs blazers

And you had to get a couple of games in of this classic

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

I remember you'd wake up a saturday watch your one saturday morning then you'd get NBA Action



then NBa Inside stuff




then you'd get like a half hour pregame then like bulls vs knicks, then like heat vs pacers and then like lakers vs blazers

Then after the games around 6 you go outside
Come back for dinner and watch world most amazing videos
Then dateline nbc or x files or who wants to be a millionaire

Then midnight showtime for soft porn


Then sleep around 12

lol

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

Even their news fire
Meet the press at 10am

Tim grilling politicians ..rip

 

[boskey]

I remember you'd wake up a saturday watch your one saturday morning then you'd get NBA Action then NBa Inside stuff then you'd get like a half hour pregame then like bulls vs knicks, then like heat vs pacers and then like lakers vs blazers

Inside Stuff was the first sports talk show that most kids watched back then. Crazy that ESPN never tried to replicate that. Has ESPN ever even have kids programming?

 

[MikelArteta]

Even their news fire
Meet the press at 10am

Tim grilling politicians ..rip

thats my bills fan

 

[Malcolmxxx_23]

Remember this

Inside Stuff was the first sports talk show that most kids watched back then. Crazy that ESPN never tried to replicate that. Has ESPN ever even have kids programming?

 

[NYC Rebel]

thats my bills fan

Show went to complete shyt the day he died

 

[Bar Razor]

Before reading the obvious would be

-ESPN took a "hot-takes" approach, focused on LeBron too much
-Stephen A Smith was a cartoon character

NBC had icons like Bob Costas, dikk Enberg, Steve Snapper Jones, Bill Walton, Marv Albert, etc.
NBC had the goat production

and lets be real.. 1990s was a far superior product and brand than the current NBA.

We not done with the 90s!

Also tldr on the article: SAS is a clown.

 

[FTBS]

Beyond MJ, they knew how to tease a game with their intro montages and dialogues.

They elevated the profiles of Hakeem, Ewing, Miller, Malone, Robinson, Drexler, Barkley, etc.

CBS also knew how to tell a story about the NBA.

Yet the ratings dropped and they didnt feel it was worth it to keep it. And now they want that old thing back after 20 yrs of ESPN doing such a piss poor job?


Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. I know we can manufacture a million other reasons but its all about nostalgia. You were a kid, there was nothing to do on the internet but learn and it wasnt easily accessed 24/7, you couldnt just stream what you wanted. You got hero worship in a time when that wasn't corny. Let ESPN had tried that melodramatic ass shyt . nikkas would been at that shyt...accusing them of dikkriding and trying to hard and of course not being original. We not going back brehs. We cant recreate what used to be. It used to be exciting to see a chick in a low cut top or some daisy dukes (I waaaant you to look at that girl) but now you can see straight p*ssy with one click. Its a different world and its only gonna keep changing. We can scapegoat whoever we want but thats all it comes down too..."it aint the same as it used to be and I dont like it."

 

[boskey]

Remember this

No. I didn't have cable from 95-2000

 

[Marlow Stanfield]

Inside Stuff was the first sports talk show that most kids watched back then. Crazy that ESPN never tried to replicate that. Has ESPN ever even have kids programming?

Nope.

These days its sports betting in the morning. That's what I want to wake up to... some dikkhead telling me to gamble today.

 

[tremonthustler1]

Inside Stuff was the first sports talk show that most kids watched back then. Crazy that ESPN never tried to replicate that. Has ESPN ever even have kids programming?

when would they have kids programming? ESPN safely assumes if a kid tunes in at all it's for sports highlights.

Inside Stuff worked because that was a time when networks NEEDED kids programming on the weekends. Now that E/I stuff is still necessary but not as much time needs to be devoted. Before inside stuff they had TNBC (which was INCREDIBLE. You really didn't need to leave your house unless they had golf on and you didn't need to change the channel unless you wanted cartoons or Soul Train).

 

[StatUS]

when would they have kids programming? ESPN safely assumes if a kid tunes in at all it's for sports highlights.

Inside Stuff worked because that was a time when networks NEEDED kids programming on the weekends. Now that E/I stuff is still necessary but not as much time needs to be devoted. Before inside stuff they had TNBC (which was INCREDIBLE. You really didn't need to leave your house unless they had golf on and you didn't need to change the channel unless you wanted cartoons or Soul Train).

If you were a kid you were pretty much sitting around watching SportsCenter all day. Baseball Tonight, PTI, Around the Horn, etc.