The Reviews are in for NBA on NBC's Opening Night Coverage

[Cladyclad]

This is literally not true and I'm sure multiple people in this thread can confirm it. Every weekend there was a big national NBA game on NBC or ABC. I used to schedule my days around that shyt as a kid. Cut the grass, do chores etc just to ensure I could watch the game(s). Worst thing was going to church on Sundays and missing the games.

Nbc start airing hoops after Christmas. Thats how little value the opening months of the nba was.

Now in 2025 live programing is king. The mass public not dvr games. You would never see regular season game during the week on nbc

So by the time we got games on nbc a couple months after the season started. We had storylines and saw who was good or not.

 

[I AM WARHOL]

The production was dope but I think nostalgia is working overtime with the reactions. The commentary teams and the discussions were still mid imo

 

[10bandz]

This is literally not true and I'm sure multiple people in this thread can confirm it. Every weekend there was a big national NBA game on NBC or ABC. I used to schedule my days around that shyt as a kid. Cut the grass, do chores etc just to ensure I could watch the game(s). Worst thing was going to church on Sundays and missing the games.

Nah, over the air TV games always started on Christmas. There was no NBC or ABC games this early in the season except for a few exceptions. Opening night was never on over the air TV. It was always ESPN or TNT.

NBA on NBC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

NBC's coverage of the NBA[18] began on Christmas Day each season, with the exception of the inaugural season in 1990 (which featured a game on November 3, 1990[19] between the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs), the 1997–98 season (which included a preseason tournament featuring the Chicago Bulls), the 1998–99 season (as no Christmas games were played due to the 1998–99 NBA lockout), and the final season of NBC's contract in 2001–02 (which included two early season games featuring the return of Michael Jordan with the Washington Wizards).

NBA on ABC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

ABC's NBA regular season coverage has typically begun with Christmas Day games, followed by NBA Saturday Primetime and NBA Sunday Showcase on selected weekends starting in mid-January and February, respectively. In 2021–22 and 2022–23, ABC's schedule instead began with a Saturday Primetime game on the second Saturday in December. In 2023–24 and 2024–25, ABC's NBA coverage began with the In-Season Tournament/NBA Cup, knockout rounds also during the second Saturday of December.

Y'all letting the nostalgia give yall revisionist history.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Nah, over the air TV games always started on Christmas. There was no NBC or ABC games this early in the season except for a few exceptions. Opening night was never on over the air TV. It was always ESPN or TNT.

NBA on NBC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

NBA on ABC - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Y'all letting the nostalgia give yall revisionist history.

My bad then.

 

[NZA]

No they didnt. Nba games would not even get broadcast on opening night nationally unless you had cable. Nbc would start to ramp in January after xmas. Its 82 games. You cant make games matter like that outside of legendary matchups or storyline games early on because there is no stakes at all.thats why i love the play in. The last 30 games of the nba season got those bottom teams caring way more

Edit: no one ever cared about the Spurs outside of Texas

people kinda cared about timmy and the admiral

 

[areohbee824]

It's a whole lot better then anything ESPN puts out, that's for sure

 

[Cladyclad]

people kinda cared about timmy and the admiral

Only time I heard someone say did u see a regular season spurs game was when Tmac went in gawwwd mode

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Nothing gets people like nostalgia. But it will wear off soon. All that matters is the game.

It will wear off and cats will go back to complaining about something.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

Put sports back on regular tv. NBC should’ve been had the nba back. People aren’t watching tv like that, stop giving shyt to streaming and put it on regular tv. NBC has the best presentation, CBS is 2, Fox is 3, ABC/ESpn gets dragged to last because of espn

 

[David_TheMan]

ESPN's under the umbrella of Disney, right? Them muthafukkuhs sabotage everything they touch.They'd be better off replacing their Chairman/Board Of Directors/CEO with Chatgpt.

I believe this is Iger's last year and he has to go per age limit on Board members and CEO. So it will be interesting to see who they pick and what direction they go in.

ESPN is probably going to have to eat another wave of job loses though they are closing Hulu, a 40 bill investment soon. Supposedly they are reinvesting into the parks, but the movie and streaming side is taking massive losses.

 

[L $ C]

Refreshing to hear people actually talk about basketball. Not narratives. Not hosts making themselves the story of the night. Not endless LeBron talk whether he's playing tonight or not. Just basketball. I haven't really been into the NBA in a long time, besides watching some of the playoffs. I got to see the second game last night and was impressed.

Part of the NFL's dominance boils down to the way they protect the product. There are narratives and fukkery but overall, coverage is about football. And there are multiple games on regular TV that people can watch. That's important. Especially in an era where a lot of people aren't even watching television, there has to be more value in broadcasting a sport on NBC than whatever bullshyt reality tv or game show program they usually run. If I was NBC, I'd be doing basketball in prime time and then leading into a major show that usually streams on Peacock. Or a noteworthy movie. Doesn't seem hard to get people to watch more TV if they have a reason not to switch back to Hulu/Netflix/etc immediately after a game ends.

1000% facts. another great post from the piffster

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

NBC did what they do. They are always top of the line in sports presentation. ESPN ain't gonna be forced to do shyt, Disney is perfectly content with being complete ass at everything they do.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

People who are like "I only watch for the game.." Well, ESPN fukking sucks at all of it. Their fukking picture quality is 720p. Their audio is a lot worse then everyone else too. Their announcers are worse. The halftime show is nonexistent. shyt, they even miss plays sometimes because they are still in a commercial.

IF you are in here defending ESPN that tells me that you don't actually watch basketball. If you did, you'd notice how terrible they are.

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

How is ESPN bad at everything?
from College Football, to MLB, to the NFL, to the NBA...

Sometimes I think it's some kind of psychological warfare where they're just out to vandalize & annihilate shyt on purpose.

 

[Saysumthinfunnymike]

I don't think ESPN's coverage of college football is that bad, it's good enough. The picture quality isn't great but the coverage is pretty good otherwise. But NBA, NFL and MLB is all complete ass...