When you heard the introduction narrated by bob costas or Marv Albert and then the NBA on NBC theme music, you knew you were about to witness something special. Those were the days! I feel privileged to have grown up during the 80s and 90s! Today's kids will never know the feeling...
Now you get to look forward to Van Gundy yapping away, Jackson with his awful catchphrases, crowd noise cut, and strange camera angles. That plus an eighth grader drooling over the first crush. I think we all know what network we’re talking about and what player.
Actually, a few other themes are close, like: - NBC's presentation of the NBA - The National Basketball Association on NBC telecasts - The NBA on National Broadcasting Company telecasts - and The National Basketball Association on National Broadcasting Company telecasts
I was 17 and from Chicago. I have not watched more than five total NBA games since including my Bulls. from the talent to the play to the broadcast production the NBA will never ever be that good again
Living in NY during this time I remember my teachers would come up with some lame excuse to miss work just to watch or attend the games between the Bulls v Knicks. That's loyalty and passion to the game
Marv Albert's contribution to the greatness of the NBA's golden era can not be denied. It was only 3 years, but i believe him and fratello are the greatest broadcast team the league ever saw.
1:23 can we please appreciate the transition with that smooth AF pull back of the camera? The producers at NBC sports back in the 90s were in a league of their own!
Talk about GOOSEBUMPS AND CHILLS!!!! AAAAAA 90'S BASKETBALL WAS THE BEST EVER, ESPECIALLY WHEN WATCHING IT ON NBC!!! THAT INTRO IS THE BEST EVER INTRO IN ANY PROFESSIONAL SPORTS GAME!
The combination of this intro + Marv Albert's iconic voice + and the announcer is just too epic. This shit DEFINED basketball and made it exciting beyond words.I was like 9 or 10 and me and my dad would watch these games and root for the Knicks lol.
That introduction of "he's back!" during game 5 previews put chills down my spine as a Knicks fan. And yes, he was back! I was overseas when my Army buddies were all watching that game. Half the room rooting for the Bulls, other half rooting for the Knicks. Jubilation for the Bulls fans after that game. Agony for us Knicks fans. That game 5 tormented us Knicks fans because we all knew the Knicks were finished. No way the Knicks were winning game 6 in Chicago.
I'm 30 years old from a Chi Town Suburb watched MJ rip apart NY my entire life, these series were the best athletics I ever seen. Pure Intensity and The Bulls never let us down! Thanks MJ + SCOTTIE
That knicks team was STARKED.... errrr I mean STACKED!! I still remember that series even though I was a little kid then. That baseline DUNK by Starks shook america. Back then MJ was BIGGER than the Superbowl.
This theme takes me back to a time where I cared deeply about the NBA and watched as many games as I could. Nowadays it feels like the players sleepwalk through the regular season and it's just not as exciting. Ah, the 90's, a decade I thought I hated at the time but have grown to look back fondly on.
I couldn't get enough NBA during this era. I lived in the DC-area and got the Bullets games. The Superstation would air Hawks games on Tuesdays. You had the NBA on TBS Thursdays and NBA on TNT on Fridays, Inside Stuff on Saturdays, and the NBA on NBC on Sundays (and Saturdays late in the year).
the suspenseful pre game narratives, Marv Albert or Bob Costas voice, the view of the home team's arena and city skyline, and last but not least the theme music...natural energy booster!
My favorite intro for ANY game EVER!!! I remember seeing this for the first time way back in 93. As a Bull fan I was scared after the first 2 games, but the Bulls showed life back in Chi and got "BACK" into the series. What a childhood!!! Thanks Bulls, Thank MJ
One of the great rivalries of all time. Two unbelievable defensive teams and the greatest player stepping up to deliver! this was the NBA at its best....
And now we can say the NBA on NBC is back starting fall 2025 on NBC and peacock. NBC will have regular season games on Sunday nights after the NFL season and Tuesday nights throughout the regular season, NBC will now be the home of the NBA All-Star weekend, the NBA opening night double header and the MLK Day games. Peacock will have 50 regular season games on Monday nights. NBC and peacock will have 28 first and second round games with most of them being on NBC and 6 Conference Finals series, unfortunately NBC won't have the NBA finals. And yes, NBC got round ball Rock back. The WNBA will also be returning to NBC.
1993 ECF game 5 - THE definitive game of basketball, and the best game ever played, in my opinion. 10 year old me lived and breathed the damn game, and watching this series live (and the Bulls in general from about 1988 on) is the highlight of my entire childhood.
I remember watching this series with my pops. This was the golden era for basketball. The NBA on NBC theme meant everyone who wasn't into basketball go to another room. We watching quadruple headers today. I can barely stand the NBA these days. It's not the same. Marv Albert and Bob Costas was them dudes. Ahhhh the good ol days. We got spoiled in 90s.
Agree,abc does an horrible job compared to back when Nbc had the Nba. Hell even the theme music was way better,now they try too get u pumped up by listening to Flo-rida smh lol
dunde8889 go on Wikipedia and look how much the ratings dropped for the NBA Finals in 2003. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. ESPN not only took over and then vultured ABC Sports but they destroyed their reputation for excellence as well. Literally right up until the day ESPN and ABC merged in 1997, ABC was #1 in sports and had been for years and years. The best games and the best coverage as well. NBC and Fox had pulled to within a close second by that point. And then after the merger, which remember merged the #1 sports network with the #1 sports cable channel, Disney decided to try and take a bigger lead on Fox and NBC in sports by buying the rights to basically every single sport around 2000-05. This priced NBC out and led to their rapid decline as intended; NBC had jettisoned basically every sport by 2002. But having so much content inevitably left some of it neglected, and ESPN and ABC alienated both basketball and hockey fans with its lackluster coverage of both the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals. This was the first ever hit to the reputation of ABC Sports, and Al Michaels didn’t like the criticism of his association with the poorly promoted and produced coverage of both finals. This was too much for him to handle, with the final straw being Monday Night Football moving to cable and becoming the #2 game of the week, together with public sniping in the press at Michaels by ESPN exces, led Michaels to demand his release from ESPN in 2006 after calling ESPN/ABC’s last ever Super Bowl (they lost *that* in the new deal as well ), so he could go to NBC who had by now recovered and were starting up Sunday Night Football (which would catapult NBC Sports to #1 in time). With Michaels leaving and Keith Jackson retiring from college football coverage after calling the legendary 2006 Rose Bowl on ABC (ESPN/ABC was losing most of the BCS in the new college contract as well lol), ESPN retired the ABC Sports branding completely. These public hits to ESPN’s reputation from major names also hurt ABC’s reputation both before and after the name change. And since the change, ABC’s reputation has been effectively *entirely* chained to ESPN’s, and ESPN’s reputation since 2006 is pure shit!
Came here just to listen to the intro song. John Tesh's finest work lol. Man, I miss the NBA on NBC on Sunday afternoons. What an amazing era of NBA basketball, and the absolute best theme song of any sports show.
Metallica song, Jim Fagan the voice, Bob Costas announcing, Michael Jordan vs Patrick Ewing, NBC logo intro the John Tesh's Roundball Rock and Marv Albert's play by play. What a golden era compared to what we have now.
It is a miracle that this is on RU-vid. I don’t remember ever being so hyped for a sporting event. I was 14 and the things I loved the most were Metallica and the Bulls, and here they were. Amazing.
NBA on NBC was the best thing that ever happened to us basketball 🏀 fans in the 90s. Now nbc is expected to be very aggressive in getting the nba package again and I’m on board completely.
One of the greatest introductions ever. Not to mention the greatest nickname ever in broadcasting, “The Czar of The Telestrator.” Marv Albert and Mike Fratello. Genius!
Nope...GOAT was not an acronym back in the 90s at least not for that article....back then GOAT used to mean you were a failure you were the problem....which is why if you look at the articles they showed in the between the word GOAT "the crying game" "the air is human" also negative press towards MJ. LL Cool J had an album in 2000 called G.O.A.T. The acronym skyrocketed afterwards.
Goodness! The Knicks won 27 straight at MSG going into this one? That's pretty amazing. You forget how good they were back then because Chicago and their whole mystique had the tendency to overshadow those things. I was spoiled growing up with this era of the NBA. I feel like the league is finally getting back to this level of competition. These 2015 playoffs were the best I've seen since the 90s.
There were a lot of teams overshadowed. Shaq and Penny in the Magic. The Jazz with Stockton and Malone. Heck even the 2 time champs the Rockets were overshadowed by the Bulls. Sad part is that yhe Knicks could have won at least 3 championships. That last opportunity was during the NBA lockout. The knicks were really stacked with Larry Johnson, Allan Houston, Ewing, and Sprewell. Its a damn shame.
there isn't much - if anything - that compares to the NBA on NBC intros for Jordan-era Chicago Bulls playoff games in the 90s with regard to getting me hyped out of my sanity!
Had to come here after seeing some people try to say espn's nba theme will be just as revered in 10 years. I feel sorry for those who didn't get to see the NBA in the 90's.
Dramatic montage with epic recapping -> cut to intro logo with amazing music -> narrator fills us in on the setup Simple formula that no one seems to grasp anymore!
Agree 100% wacthing this brings chills too the back of my spine. This is when u use too get your whole family too wacth a game together. Unfortunately times have changed the nba isnt even exciting anymore
Now it’s a bunch of crybabies whose stars are all BFFs so they can team up for an easy ring without having to work hard during the season. Ewing and Jordan wouldn’t have teamed up. Neither would Magic or Bird. The stars wanted to beat each other back then.
I was born in 88, wish I had been born a little earlier so I could've enjoyed even more great 90's basketball. Having said that, it's difficult for me to watch 2000+ basketball having been spoiled by these awesome, awesome games.
You talk about a legacy defying game for all involved. This series/playoffs pretty much cemented Michael Jordan as the greatest ever. This game I feel gets lost among the greatest games ever played in the NBA. I think it's easily top 10. The Knicks wanted to beat Jordan so bad and had him on the ropes, 0-2 and didn't want to let their lead slip. And Jordan, wanted that 3-peat and to show the media there was no doubt who the greatest ever was. The stakes were so damn high. Helps when you also have two of the greatest coaches and two of the greatest cities in America going at it in the golden era of the NBA. I'm biased, but no better rivalry in basketball was better when Jordan's Bulls matched up against Ewing's Knicks.
I am a TRUE Laker fan to the heart, but I must say, this is one of the greatest rivalries of all time, bulls and knicks. I love to see these teams went at it during this era. I lived in Chicago before these days, and I love this rivalry. Bulls/Knicks, Bulls/Pistons, Knicks/Heat, and as always Lakers/celtics. These rivalries made basketball exciting to watch.
Nothing beat nba on NBC I remember racing home after Sunday church as a kid to watch the weekly triple header which always seemed like the bulls would be playing the Knicks unreal days
NBA on NBC and those who worked for them during that time understood how music, scripting, tone, narration, and editing made for memorable moments. This is in the Top 5 for Television Sports intros of all time. What a game this ended up being.
I watched this game live at my house with my dad when I was 8. I didn't know who Metallica was until I was 12 but that intro and "he's baaack"...... goosebumps.
They need to retro this for the first round playoffs this year coming up. The nostalgia alone will get people hyped. Can be the bridge for the older and younger generations.
it's like the beatles have come to town. yep i remember those years, when TV was the internet and cellphone and ruled pop sports talk. no websites to read or twitter. this was it!
DAMN I MISS THIS. my family would skip church just to watch the NBA on NBC and when we did go to church, we'd leave early, cook dinner, and watch whoever was playing, plus forget mother's day and father's day. the women went to church while the guys stayed home. AHH the memories.
From the music intro, to the story lines,hell even the guy with the deep voice saying 'This is the NBA.....on NBC",to the commentators brought the chill bumps.The NBA on NBC was the best.Everything about it got you pumped no matter who was playing!!!!Da dada dadadadada.........Da da da da da da da da......This...is the NBA.....on..N B C
I will remember this game and this series for that matter for the rest of my life. This is my favorite NBA playoff series of all time. Just when you thought the Bulls were done after the Knicks won the first two games...BAM! The Bulls rattle of 4 in a row (and stop NY's 27 game home win streak in the process).
Even though this Knicks team lost, I'd gladly trade the 2013-2014 Knicks team for this team. The 1990's Knicks teams weren't the most talented, but they had heart. This Knicks team just has guys who only care about increasing their points per game like Melo.
I'd take Patrick Ewing and John Starks over Carmelo Anthony anyday. Today's Knicks fans confuse Carmelo Anthony with an MVP because he's a high scoring player and a ballhog and because the rest of the team sucks
