Thursday, October 16, 2025
MODERATOR: Good afternoon and good morning to everybody, depending upon where you are. Welcome today to our media conference call to preview the 2025-26 NBA season.
In just a moment, we’ll be joined by NBC Sports executive producer, Sam Flood, and the three men calling the first game of the NBA season: play-by-play voice Mike Tirico and analysts Jamal Crawford and Reggie Miller. They’ll also be joined at that game by reporter Zora Stephenson.
Just to recap, Tuesday night is an NBA tip-off double-header on NBC and Peacock. The first game contains the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the Houston Rockets, and that’s followed by the Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Golden State Warriors. Thunder-Rockets will be the first NBA game on NBC in 23 years and the first-ever game on Peacock.
We’ll have opening statements from each of our speakers in just a moment, and then we’ll open it up for questions.
Just a reminder, a few hours after the call, we’ll have a transcript available of this call on our website, NBCSportspressbox.com.
SAM FLOOD: Thanks for joining us. We’re really excited for Tuesday night. We’ve been dreaming about this moment for a while now. It became a reality -- we had the contract in July in Paris at the Olympics, and now we’re ready to go for real.
We have a final tune-up for this trio -- Mike, Reggie, and Jamal -- tomorrow night. Nobody but three people get to listen to the most exclusive telecast of the year. Myself, Frank DeGraci and Rob Hyland will listen to these three call a Warriors game to no one but a final tune-up for the season.
Everyone is getting ready to go, and we can’t wait it get it launched, and no better group than these three to open the season in OKC with Mike at the helm. Mike, take it away.
MIKE TIRICO: Hi, everyone. So looking forward to this, as everyone who is on this call and all of us in the NBC Sports family. Personally, when I departed ESPN, I had enjoyed my run in the NBA, got to work with the great Hubie Brown for a decade, part of my 14 years of covering the NBA.
For me, it was so unique because as NBC lost the NBA contract, that came over to ESPN and ABC, and that’s where I got my association with the association going.
After leaving there, I didn’t know if I’d ever have the chance to get back court side and call an NBA game, but the opportunity to do that is just terrific, especially to work with our entire team -- Reggie and Jamal on opening night, Zora as well, but all of our analysts.
We had our group together in Connecticut last week, and the energy of the group, the camaraderie of the group, has us all ready to go, ready to get the ball in the air and get this going.
The NBA is like no other sport in terms of excitement, energy, the greatest athletes, front row seats for those of us who get to broadcast the games, and I could not be more excited for next Tuesday in Oklahoma City as they raise the banner and get this started.
Looking forward to that. Happy to answer any questions. I’ll turn it over to Reggie for his opening comments.
REGGIE MILLER: I’m also excited. I think Mike nailed it. The meeting that we had in Stamford was like the first day of school, and everyone was talking about what they did on summer break and having a chance to catch up.
I’m very fortunate and blessed; I had 19 great years on another network, and when this opportunity presented itself with NBC, I’d had some of my best moments on this network, and personally for a chance for myself to come home and be able to tell stories and hopefully create new moments for the next generation, personally for me, I’m a kid in a candy store.
I got a chance to work once again with Jamal a couple of years ago. We had a nice run in the Playoffs, where we saw some unbelievable games, some Game 7s, and it was fun working with him. And now I get a chance to do that again with the voice of NBC, Mike Tirico. It doesn’t get any better than that.
To have and be a part of a situation like this, I’m very excited. I think this is going to be one of those years again where we’re coming off -- I’ve always been a big advocate of small markets being able to compete with the big dogs, and we saw two small markets in the Finals just a year ago in OKC and my beloved Pacers.
I think this year in the Eastern Conference -- I will say this because people always think that I hate on the Knicks, which I do not; I love the Knicks. With Boston and Indiana, with those two teams and two players being down with Achilles injuries, though they’re saying Tatum may come back, who knows, but obviously, those two franchises won’t be at the same level.
This is the year for the New York Knicks. If the Knicks cannot get out of the Eastern Conference this year, something is wrong.
Again, I know Cleveland had the best record a year ago with 64 wins, and it looked like they hadn’t missed a beat in the game I did a few years ago, and they kept their core intact, but they’re still unproven in the Playoffs. To me, the Knicks, with the new coach in Mike Brown and the best clutch player from a year ago in Jalen Brunson, I think everything is set up for the Knicks to win the East.
Again, you’ve got to go out there and actually do this, but I think this is the year for the Knicks in the East, guys.
JAMAL CRAWFORD: Reg, I’m shocked to hear you give the Knicks this much love. Being here with this squad and this team, like I literally, literally remember NBC coming on and the production and the event status that it was and seeing the opening and just hearing Bob Costas, and after the commercial break going outside to see how many dribbles I can get in before coming back in, it lit a fire in me, and never in a million years did I think I would be working with this great team.
This is beyond my wildest dreams. You go through it chasing the dream, playing basketball, trying to make it to the ultimate level, and then it’s like, look at chapter 2, look at the people you’re working with. Like Reggie said, I had the opportunity to work with him, and I was working with him, but also watching him.
I was working with Reg, had the pleasure of working with Reg, and I don’t know if you guys have seen that picture of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson looking over his shoulder. So I was working with him, but also learning from him at the same time. He was unbelievable and gracious, and showed me pointers and showed me things. It was an honor to work with him and the great Mike Tirico. There’s nobody better.
Q. Two questions, one for Sam Flood and one for Jamal Crawford. Sam, obviously, opening night is next Tuesday. There’s still been some speculation around the role Michael Jordan is going to play, but we do know that he’s going to be on opening night. Wondering if you can shed any light as to what he’ll be involved with. For you, Jamal, you said you were watching “NBA on NBC” from the time it came on the air. What does it mean for you to be a part of this property and to have an analyst role, potentially being part of the Western Conference Finals broadcast?
JAMAL CRAWFORD: It’s unreal, it really is. It’s just a blessing. Like I said before, you grow up letting them play a soundtrack to your childhood, and how it can inspire you, and then having an opportunity to play a small part in that going forward. Obviously, the nostalgia is there, but we’re also looking towards the future.
SAM FLOOD: As for my question, stay tuned Tuesday night.
REGGIE MILLER: Way to leave them hanging there, Sam Flood. I love it!
Q. For Sam Flood, if I were to talk to you at the end of this NBA season, how would you define success for your studio broadcast?
SAM FLOOD: Success is getting better every night. Our job is to improve every night, build to the point -- each night we’re going to work hard to improve. If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. So the job is to improve every day, just like a basketball player gets better every day. That’s the job the group in the studio has.
Q. Two questions. First one for Sam Flood. What was the process like for you and your team recreating an iconic “NBA on NBC” intro when you’re trying to combine nostalgia with this new era? And for Reggie, for an entire generation of fans, the “NBA on NBC” theme song takes them right back to your era in the league. When you hear that music, how does that make you feel?
REGGIE MILLER: My hand starts to tremble because at some point, I know I’m going to have to lace them up and go against M.J., which I wasn’t looking forward to.
Look, Jamal touched upon it; so much of the younger generation -- and that’s going to be our job, is to merge the old with the new, but also still continue to be innovative as we go forward but not alienate the people who were around in the ‘90s that are used to what NBC and what they brought to the game of basketball.
Again, as a player, I mentioned this in my open, I had some of my best moments, and it was because of NBC and how they formatted and how they really brought the game of basketball to life, the personal stories.
You can talk about all the X’s and O’s you want, but they did very human-type elements in their production, and I think we’re going to bring that back, and I’m excited to be a part of it.
But yeah, my hand still gets sweaty, my friend.
SAM FLOOD: We’re obviously going to lean into the past, but we’re going to build forward and grow the game and grow with the game. If we went all the way back and did our old-school telecast, you wouldn’t see the scoreboard in full-time. You wouldn’t see a lot of things that are common in sports now. The scoreboard would come in after every score on the old “NBA on NBC.” There was no permanent clock.
It’s a different expectation from an audience, so we’re going to make sure we meet those expectations as best we can. And then clearly, between Tesh and Jim Fagan and the laser Peacock and some other elements, you will feel that connection. And those who watched the “NBA on NBC” during those glory years, from ’90 to 2012, they’ll feel that familiar beat and that familiar look that made the “NBA on NBC” so special.
Add to that our graphics team, led by Tripp Dixon and Chad Hudson, has put together a fun package that engages on a lot of different levels, never forgetting what we were.
Q. Reggie and Jamal, I wanted to get your thoughts on where the Celtics go this year, what they do, and how they try to transition from Tatum’s injury. And if you are Jayson Tatum, do you try to come back this season and play? Do you just take the year off? Have Achilles injuries and the treatments advanced that much that it can only be an eight- or nine-month injury?
JAMAL CRAWFORD: For me, and I hope I don’t cut off -- it seems every time I start talking it goes off. But if I’m Tatum, I’m playing the long game. I don’t think the risk is worth the reward right now. I think he has a long career ahead of him, and I wouldn’t risk it by coming back early just because he’s feeling good and his love of the game.
Personally, I hope that he takes his time and for the Celtics to get a chance to develop Pritchard. You get a chance to see how he does in that starting role and some other elements there where you can see how guys grow, and you can see what they do when he actually does come back.
REGGIE MILLER: This is championship DNA. They’re only a few years removed from hoisting the Larry O’Brien. I’m sure that will be tested. Joe Mazzulla, one thing we know is this Celtics team will be overprepared, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think you still have Jaylen Brown, a guy who was a Finals MVP, Payton Pritchard, Sixth Man of the Year.
They still have pieces and championship DNA to compete on a nightly basis. Is it a loss? Obviously, it’s a huge loss not having Jayson Tatum, and if I’m Tatum, I’m going to listen to my body.
The only person who can really definitively say should I be coming back is Jayson himself. I’m on the same bandwagon as Jamal in terms of playing the long game because this is a -- it’s not like he’s in his 30s. He’s in his mid-20s.
One thing we do know is from these Achilles injuries -- I believe Kobe may have been the only player to come back in less than 12 months, if memory serves me right. He’s the only one who can make this decision.
I hope he’s not feeling any external pressures elsewhere to come back this season. If his body and his mind are right, that’s his decision to make.
MIKE TIRICO: I’m just going in with jump in with zero basketball expertise on this but somewhat of a recent expert in Achilles. I tore mine ten and a half months ago. I’m just going to tell you, you think about it every single step you take. The physical is one part, but the mental is also big. And obviously, a world-class athlete with world-class treatment is a lot different from a guy in his 50s who just talks for a living.
But I do know from talking to other athletes who have done it, the mental part of this is also really big. So it only amplifies what -- as Reg and Jamal were saying that, I was just sitting here feeling exactly what they were saying. Only your body knows when things feel right to take the next step.
I think it’s going to be patience with how Jayson personally feels about it and where his head is at each level of the recovery, which is certainly a bunch of different levels. Some days you feel great, and some days you’re like, I don’t know if I’m ready to do this. The mental part is going to be the huge, huge part of the equation for him going forward.
Q. This is for Reggie and Jamal. A couple of Cooper Flagg questions. First off, what have you seen from him that’s impressed you in his early NBA action so far? Does he remind you of anybody? He’s going to an unusual situation for a No. 1 overall pick. There’s a lot of veteran talent there, a lot of All-Stars there. How do you think that -- how big might that be for an 18-year-old rookie being welcomed into the league?
JAMAL CRAWFORD: For me, I see him play, and then when I see the things he says after a game, it backs up what I thought I saw. What I mean by that is he says: You know what, I’m just taking what the defense gives me. If it calls for me to make three passes in a row, I’ll do that. If it calls for me to get three scores in a row, I’ll do that.
REGGIE MILLER: I’ll take over for Jamal. He could not have asked for a better situation to be drafted in because he does not have to be the man, and he’s coming into a situation where there are former champions that can help show him the way, in Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis. So he doesn’t have to come in and be a savior for a franchise.
What I have loved, and this is even dating back to his high school days and the one year at Duke, there is no substitute for hard work. There is no substitute for a positive attitude.
If you can bring those two things to any workforce, to whatever job life you have, you are going to be successful.
How hard he works will separate him from a lot of other rookies. Now, some rookies are going into situations where they’re going to have to be the savior, where their franchise is looking to them to get out of the gutter. It’s not the case for Cooper.
So he is in the right situation under Jason Kidd, another champion, where there won’t be as many demands on his shoulders, and he can learn the game and grow by being around some of these veterans. That’s why I’m always a big proponent of having veterans on some of these younger teams, to help them develop growth.
Perfect situation, perfect type of veteran leadership, and I think he will clearly -- knock on wood, he stays healthy, he’s going to win the Rookie of the Year because he’s going to be in a situation where the Mavericks are expected to win, which they should with that roster, but he’s also going to have a chance to thrive and grow in this situation because they are going to put him in positive situations that will accentuate his skill set. He doesn’t have to go out and score 20-plus points a game. They have other guys to do that.
So perfect situation for Mr. Flagg.
Q. Two-part question for Reggie. First off, what was it like for you personally last year to be able to watch the Finals kind of from a fan’s perspective? Obviously, you’ll be back in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. It’s been several years now since we’ve seen a repeat champion. What do you think of the Thunder’s chances of repeating?
REGGIE MILLER: More so, watching the game as a fan, it was a chance for my kids -- I have a son who’s twelve and a daughter who’s nine who never saw me play. They only see the YouTubes and the -- they only know me from “Uncle Drew” basically, really in commercials.
So to have a chance to watch the game through their lens, to me as a dad, was an unbelievable moment just to have the Pacers back in the Finals, 20 years later, 20-plus years later, so that was cool to see.
Again, in my opening remarks, I’ve always been a big proponent of David and Goliath and having the smaller markets being able to compete on the biggest stage, and to have a Finals between OKC and Indiana and the type of Finals that was put on where every game was fantastic, shot-making was off the charts and Shai being Shai and J-Dub being J-Dub, that young team, it was remarkable to see and be a part of.
When we were back in Stamford for, I would say, our own opening ceremonies amongst NBC, I was asked this question about OKC, and I told people -- I always say barring injury, because, know injuries happens -- are we seeing the formation of maybe a young Chicago Bulls team here in OKC with Shai being à la M.J. and J-Dub being à la Scottie Pippen; Chet, Rodman? They have the makeup, the coaching pedigree. They’re very deep. And from everything I’ve been reading and watching, they seem very hungry.
Look, I know the West is loaded and Denver has reloaded, as well, and Minnesota, but to me, OKC, if they stay hungry and healthy, I love their chances of repeating just because this could have been the worst thing that has happened to the league is that this young team found a way when they were down 2-1 and they were down in Game 4 on the road with Indiana and a chance to go up 3-1, and basically that would have sealed the deal. They found a way to win Game 4.
For you non-basketball players, that was -- unlocked something in a young team, and they found a way to win. And that’s scary for a league when you have such a young team that’s that hungry, well-coached, and even-keeled. I love their chances.
Q. As you know, Pat Riley never tanks; his organization doesn’t do it, but do you believe they might be better served by rebuilding and even considering trading Bam or Herro? And, Mike, I was going to ask you how you’re going to juggle the NBA with the NFL as far as how many Tuesday games you’ll do, whether you’ll do Sundays after the Olympics and the Super Bowl. Reg and Jamal, do you want to start on the Heat Bam-Herro-Riley question?
JAMAL CRAWFORD: If I talk, it’s going to cut off again. For me, the Miami Heat just win the day every single day. Talking to people who have played in that organization -- a lot of people don’t know I almost signed there at some point in my career, and I knew mentally, if I did that, what it was going to be every single day.
Q. Reg, thoughts on if this should be a total rebuild?
REGGIE MILLER: Look, tanking, Pat Riley, Erik Spoelstra - congratulations to Spo on his nomination coaching for the Olympic team - I just don’t think it’s in their DNA.
Now, in terms of trading Bam or Tyler, that’s a different situation. I think, first of all, they’ve got to get Tyler back healthy after his surgery, and they’ve got to see where they are as an organization.
But Pat Riley knows only one way as a coach, and obviously as the president and general manager. All he knows is Heat culture, Laker culture. We’ve seen that. Knicks culture. They play hard. They show up. There’s a formula, and that’s why he’s been so successful over the last 40-plus years, 50 years.
So I don’t see them tanking or retweaking. I think they’ve got to get everyone healthy first to see what they have. I don’t think they know what they have yet until everyone is healthy and whole.
With the East being watered down this year, I mean, can they sneak in one of those top six spots? I don’t know. They’ve been -- part of this playing situation over the last six years, beating Chicago three straight, I think they’re still in that -- they’re in that realm right there, but they’ve got to get everyone back healthy and whole first before they can figure out what they have, my friend.
MIKE TIRICO: Don’t give up hope on the end of the season yet. Who knows where we’ll be in December?
But yeah, I will do a good number of games here at the start of the year. Obviously, this is a little bit of a different year with the Winter Olympics in the middle of our relaunch of the NBA and Sunday Night Football and a Super Bowl season.
So I’m going to do the first couple of Tuesday nights, a few more as the season goes on through the playoff time in the NFL. And once we get to the Sundays after the Olympics, I’ll be doing that.
But the good news is, for whatever number of games I can do during the regular season around preparing to host the primetime Olympics and do the Super Bowl and Sunday Night Football, we’ve got such a good group with Noah Eagle, who I’ve known since he was born, and he was born to do this. Noah is awesome.
Love him. Terry Gannon, it’s going to be great to have another shooter at the table, Terry calling games, and Michael Grady, as well. We’ve got a bunch of folks.
I’m looking forward to getting back in it. Want to get in a rhythm with the guys, so I’ll do this week, next Tuesday, then surely a few more before the calendar turns to ’26, and get more heavily involved as we get the run later on in the year post-Olympics, as well.
Q. For Reggie and Jamal, a lot has been made about the off-season additions the Nuggets made with shooters, with depth, with bench, Valanciunas, obviously. I wanted to ask you guys about somebody that doesn’t get talked about a lot nationally, and that is Aaron Gordon. How important is he defensively for what they want to do, given how much better and how many more pieces they’ve added offensively? And with his skill set and his health, how important is his health, and how important is his defense to what they need to get done, given what their roster looks like right now?
REGGIE MILLER: I would say this: I mean, obviously gets most of the praise and rightfully so, followed by Jamal Murray. I’m not sure they win that championship if it wasn’t for Aaron Gordon and his defense. I’ve known Aaron for a while, and this is a guy who was the man. He was the guy in Orlando.
Flip the switch once the trade happened and got into Denver, and understood that for them to be successful, he was going to have to take on a different type of role.
Sometimes it’s been a chameleon-type of role. Sometimes he’s called upon to be a scorer a little bit, sometimes just to rebound. But at the end of the day, it’s defense that’s been his calling card because he can guard really 1 through 5. That takes a lot of sacrifice on a guy who, when he was in Orlando, was more of an offensive type of player, and now he’s being asked and called upon to be more defensive-minded.
To me, yes, Jokic, yes, Murray, but to me, Aaron Gordon has always been that X-factor for the Nuggets. And in terms of their chances of winning another championship, healthy and whole, I love the Nuggets’ chances because they do have the best player on the planet in Jokic. The retooling that they have done, adding more shooting, more space for these guys to operate, again, the West is going to be so fun to watch.
But Aaron Gordon, to me, I’m not sure they win that championship if it wasn’t for Gordon.
Q. This could be for anyone or for Sam, but fragmentation is an issue amongst sports fans, and it gets magnified when new media deals begin. What will NBC do to sort of integrate the NBA across its linear digital products, Peacock, and avoid that confusion with its own games and even with other partners having games this year? There will be a lot of learning for NBA fans. So I’m curious how NBC is approaching that, making things and educating fans in the best way possible.
SAM FLOOD: Well, Jenny Storms and her marketing team have the message out already. So to begin the year, Monday and Tuesdays is the NBA on NBC and Peacock, with Monday being the exclusive Peacock date and Tuesday being available both on NBC and on Peacock.
It’s a pretty simple pattern. We’re very fortunate with the parts of the schedule we have, and obviously, once Sunday Night Football ends, that Sunday night spot goes to basketball. The NBA product on the NBC platforms is on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. It’s nice to be back-to-back-to-back. Three straight days of basketball on NBC, and like the other partners, we’ll be happy to promote the full schedule of NBA and make people aware of where to find the great NBA product across the other two partners, Amazon and ESPN.
So we’re ready to work as one to make that happen, but most importantly, Jenny Storms and her team are making a lot of noise about how this is going to work. If you’re in New York City right now, 30 Rockefeller Plaza has 30 rocks outside the building with massive basketballs representing all the teams in the league, and partners and other fun and games there with an LED court that people can go shoot around.
Noise is being made, and we’ll have the opportunity floating across all the sports properties we have. For example, this weekend we have one of the biggest races of the NASCAR season in Talladega. There will be plenty of noise made about the NBA on that. Then Sunday night, Mike will be calling the Falcons-Niners game, and we’ll certainly be promoting Tuesday night on that platform, as well.
So the cadence of promotion and the ability to tell the story of this league is going to be front and center for everything we do across all the platforms at NBC.
Q. Reg, wondering what you make of Cade and Pistons this season coming off last year? And for you and Mike, what does it mean to have that franchise back in the mix again, if you will?
REGGIE MILLER: Who doesn’t love the bad boys, right? Look, if it wasn’t for a few missed calls or non-calls in that Knicks series, a lot of people had Detroit favored in that series. I thought they really should have won Game 1. They came back and won Game 2.
They retooled minimally, bringing in Duncan Robinson, another shooter. Hopefully, he can take the place of Beasley’s contributions to that team. But Cade, let’s face it, he’s making his first All-Star game, and he was tremendous.
How they play and the type of pace they play with, again, we talked about the East being somewhat watered down. If I were Detroit, I would be trying to get one of those top four seeds, with Indiana and Boston both having issues this year from star players. Securing one of those top four seeds should be a priority for Detroit to have home court, starting in the first round, and just to have that type of confidence.
Again, injuries kind of derailed them last year with Jaden Ivey going down. How does that look now with him and Cade in the backcourt going forward?
A lot of promise, but to me, they should be a top four seed in the Eastern Conference this year because it was a great -- that was a great series with New York.
Hopefully, it was a learning curve. Hopefully, that made them hungry. Sometimes losses make players hungry, and I think this could be one of those teams where a playoff loss could be a win for a franchise. Hopefully, this lights a fire underneath them.
MIKE TIRICO: I’ll add to that. Reg, you’re right about them being hungry, and I think it also reenergized the fan base that had kind of gone a decade dormant to be honest. Jaden Ivey’s addition is huge. You can say who did the Pistons add this year. Getting Jaden Ivey, fifth overall pick, he missed almost 50 games last year, which could become a massive addition to a team that was trending in the right direction with Cade really becoming a league guy.
I saw Reg at Game 3 of that series, and I was there as a fan just watching the game, and just to watch Cade as that series went on, become the guy. Reg has lived that. He knows it. Jamal has taken games over. In those spots, you find out who wants the ball and who doesn’t. And if you watch those games, you watch Cade kind of develop into no doubt that guy, and how the people around him continue to take a step up. And Ivey can come in and be added to that group, that’s a big add, I think.
With the East, given everything Reggie has correctly said, I think this could be a very good year for the Pistons. And personally, I wouldn’t mind a few games that I don’t have to get on an airplane, so I’m all for their growth this year.
Q. Sam, one of the big elements for NBC’s coverage with Peacock is the idea of having the analysts like Reggie and Jamal sit with the teams as opposed to sitting with Mike or Noah or whoever is calling the game. How is this going to work? What kind of communication issues do you have to deal with to make sure this is possible, and how does this impact the role of the court-side reporter, people like Zora, who will be doing the first game, and Ashley ShahAhmadi, who is going to be working with Noah Eagle on the second game on Tuesday night?
SAM FLOOD: Well, to begin with, this is a concept we’re using on Monday nights for one and occasionally two games on a Monday night, but it’s really about one game on Peacock on Monday night a week. The concept is one analyst viewing the game through the lens of the team they’re assigned.
So they’ll go to the morning shootaround of the team they’re assigned to, so let’s call it Cleveland. One analyst goes to Cleveland’s shootaround, works with prepping to cover that team through their lens. The other analyst will go to the morning shootaround with Detroit, spend time with the team, and learn the stories they need to learn.
And then when the game begins, they’ll be sitting as close as possible to the bench of their respective teams, and they will break down the game as if they’re calling it from that lens.
We’re excited about giving it a shot. We’ve had analysts in separate locations on multiple occasions. The NHL had “Inside the Glass,” where our analyst was between the two benches, and the play-by-play talent was five stories above the ice surface.
In this case, Noah did a rehearsal game out West with Austin Rivers and Robbie Hummel serving as the on-the-bench reporters, and they were able to see each other across the way. There was no issue with them talking over each other. But you’ve got to flow, and we’re confident that they’ll build into that flow as we do this week after week on Monday nights on Peacock with a unique and we hope, special way to shine new light on the NBA.
MIKE TIRICO: I think it’s awesome. There are 1230 NBA games during a regular season. So to have some small percentage of them done in a very unique way kind of gives an ability to stand out amongst the volume that is the regular season with a unique broadcast.
The game has been done the same way for a long time. He’s my boss, but I can give Sam a compliment, too. Full credit to Sam for kind of shepherding this just to give us something different as announcers and as fans to look forward to.
It’ll make the Mondays a viewing that you want to watch because it’s a little bit of a unique product.
I think if there are two things, jumping into the regular season for us, that I’m most excited about, it’s those Monday games that I’m not going to be a part of coming off the Sunday night games with football, and excited to watch Noah and the rest of the guys crush those.
And the fact that the Tuesday games are on the NBC Broadcast Network. They’ll have a game on the East Coast for the NBC affiliates and a game on the West Coast for the West Coast affiliates, and either game will be available on Peacock.
But the fact that the NBA is going to be on broadcast network TV, still the broadest reach of anything in media, every Tuesday night, bar a couple during the regular season, is really cool. That is so big for just exposing the NBA to more folks and getting a better, deeper pool of fans going towards the Playoffs, where it really builds up.
Those couple of things are the unique parts of this new journey for all of us at NBC that I think have all of us excited. We’re into all of it, right? Opening night is going to be unbelievable, all that stuff.
But just even that, the ring ceremony, the banner ceremony, which has been on Turner for a long time, that’s going to be on NBC with a double-header on the back end of that. That’s a huge deal, just the number of people that game is available to, and I think it’s going to be a great way to give a little boost to the start of the NBA season. Both of those initiatives are the ones that I’m looking forward to the most as we’re all a part of this journey to begin here next Tuesday.
--NBC SPORTS--
