The NBA on NBC is back. And basketball fans could not be happier.
NBC had the honor of opening the 2025-2026 NBA season with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the Houston Rockets with new addition and former Thunder star Kevin Durant.
The NBA on NBC return for the first time in almost 25 years has been met with a ton of hype and hope from basketball fans. After ESPN’s NBA Finals coverage hit new lows and both ESPN and TNT were hit with criticism over being too negative in their approach, it was hoped that NBC couldn’t just hit popular notes of nostalgia, but also bring back the fun and excitement to the sport once again.
And if their introduction to the Thunder-Rockets game was any indication, they passed the first test with flying colors.
Audio issues in the pregame aside, the introduction once the clock hit 7:30 p.m. ET was perfect. It started with the classic NBA on NBC intro, complete with Roundball Rock and the AI-aided voice of Jim Fagan.
If ESPN’s presentation of the NBA Finals lacked any aura whatsoever, NBC’s presentation of opening night was dripping with aura from head to toe. It’s a very difficult act to balance nostalgia and newness, but NBC was able to do so in this intro. It paid homage to the past while also getting you excited about the present and the future. Even the switch from 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratios was perfect.
From there, NBC chose to show the national anthem and starting lineup introductions in full, as was promised when the network first won back rights to the association. The ability to capture the energy in Oklahoma City after the Thunder received their rings and put up a banner was incredible. Even play-by-play man Mike Tirico laid out to let the crowd’s noise fill the broadcast.
From the first notes of the NBA on NBC music to the starting tip, every bit of the tip-off portion of the NBA on NBC’s return was a slam dunk. And fans took notice on social media.
We saw ESPN make some changes to their NBA Finals coverage mid-stream last year to try to make the games feel bigger. But the network still has a long way to go to get where they should be and hopefully some of the positive changes we’ve seen this year with the promotion of Tim Legler and addition of Inside the NBA go some distance in that category.
And when it came to making Opening Night feel like an event and bringing the excitement and positive energy back to NBA broadcasting, fans could ask for nothing more than what the NBA on NBC provided in its grand return. If the NBA on NBC can be as good in the long run as it was in its first ten minutes, it will be one of the best things to happen to the league in a long time.
About Matt Yoder