The WNBA has returned to NBC for the first time since 2002, with the 2026 campaign serving as the first year in a new media rights deal for the league running through 2036 that will see the network broadcast an extensive slate of games each season across Peacock and NBC.
NBC has brought in some of the most respected names in women’s basketball for its coverage, including Cheryl Miller and Sue Bird, who are joined in the studio by host Maria Taylor. Sunday’s Las Vegas Aces-Atlanta Dream game marked NBC’s first WNBA broadcast on its flagship network in over 20 years, and Miller was surprised with a welcome to the team by one of its lead NBA analysts, her brother, Reggie, and his two daughters.
“Unfair, unfair, everyone,” a visibly emotional Cheryl said after Reggie and her nieces videoed into the studio show. “Wow. Y’all got me. Y’all got me good on that. Reginald Wayne, you didn’t even give me a heads up.”
“We just wanted to honor the fact that we get to work with two of the very greats, and we get to be a part of your family, but you are the first family of basketball in our minds. And so we wanted Reggie to come on and celebrate the fact that you’re here with us,” Taylor said before petitioning Reggie for a family-friendly account of what it was like growing up with Cheryl and the impact she has had on him.
“I’ve made it no secret, I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for Cheryl Deann. The best way to describe her, she was tenacious. She was vicious. But on the flip side, for us as a family, loving and kind,” Reggie said. “But if your last name wasn’t Miller, it was trouble. It was trouble. And she made sure that family came first.”
Reggie went on to laud the job NBC had done with its WNBA studio team.
“I just wanted to say this. Just having you three, because you three are so iconic in terms of women’s coverage. And to have my sister with NBC paired with the great Maria Taylor and the unbelievable Sue Bird— women’s basketball is going to be taken to another level because of you three. And I am just so proud just to be a small fraction of it.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.