In today’s age of sports, it is pretty rare for media rights to change hands. The streaming era has allowed for big tech companies like Amazon and Netflix to encroach on traditional broadcast territory, particularly in the NFL, but for the most part live sports are such a valuable commodity that media companies are absolutely loath to give up even an inch of their territory. That has certainly been true in the NBA. ESPN and TNT have enjoyed exclusive broadcasting rights for the league over the first two and a half decades of the 21st century.
But that changed in the latest NBA media rights deal. ESPN is still in, but TNT is out after nearly 40 years, replaced by a conglomeration of NBC and Prime Video.
NBA broadcasts haven’t been the same for the last 20 years. Every season introduces tweaks to the broadcasting experience for fans to mull over. But this season represents a complete overhaul for professional basketball coverage. NBC will bring back familiar sights and sounds from the ’90s, but it will be modernized and therefore borderline unrecognizable—not to mention what the network might do with Peacock-exclusive games. Conversely, Prime Video will be kicking off a new era of coverage and thus have nothing but new things to show the fans. ESPN even has an opportunity to freshen its coverage.
It’s not every day fans get to experience this. Nor is it every day that these networks get an opportunity to veer away from the tropes that litter sports media coverage.
In anticipation of this new era of NBA coverage, here are five things we’re hoping to see from the new rights-holding networks in NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video as the 2025–26 season tips off.
The Wish: Make the games feel important again
One of the most popular and loudest complaints about this year’s NBA Finals presentation from ESPN was that it didn’t feel important. The network had to be bullied into showing the player introductions before the game. There were more minutes of commercials than analysis at halftime. Mike Breen leveled up his enthusiasm and was on his A-game for the whole series, but otherwise it was just a bit ho-hum. Another ESPN NBA broadcast. No special bells or whistles for a winner-take-all series that will be memorable no matter what happens.
It felt reflective of the stagnation basketball broadcasts have experienced over the last decade. More and more it felt as though networks assumed fans were going to watch the game because the NBA is a personality-driven league. It didn’t matter if the broadcast made watching the Lakers’ game fun or cool or unique—fans were going to watch because of LeBron James and Luka Dončić. While that very well might be true how the Nielsen ratings come out, it doesn’t mean the presentation should be abandoned entirely.
Because, well, we’re watching the game! Fans aren’t going to refuse to watch based on the broadcast. But the quality of the viewing experience still matters. Not everything needs to be catered to the diehard basketball fan, but catering to the fans at all would be a pleasant change of pace.
Hopefully we’ll see signs of such changes this season. Some sort of intentionality that the networks want us to enjoy watching the game would be welcome. As would any attempts to inspire awe at the stakes surrounding the biggest matchups.
Wish: To see new analysts and broadcasters make their marks
Inside The NBA has long held center stage and has remained unchanged for many years. ESPN rotates analysts pretty regularly and long had a set-in-stone broadcast team. Those will still be around this season, but the NBC and Prime Video rosters will have fresh faces.
NBC is bringing Mike Tirico back to the NBA after nearly 10 years away as their lead play-by-play analyst, but Noah Eagle will make his introduction to the wider NBA audience as the No. 2 following a stellar Olympics broadcasting run in 2024. The cast of analysts includes Robbie Hummel, who has been praised for his role as a college basketball analyst in recent years, and a group of former players reacquainting themselves with the national audience: Jamal Crawford, Carmelo Anthony and Derek Fisher. The network even dipped into the nontraditional coverage world and added content creator Kenny Beecham. It’s a good mix of familiar faces in new positions and fresh blood who could bring a refreshing twist to traditional coverage.
On the Prime Video front, Blake Griffin will be making his analyst debut and, based on everything we know about him as a personality, could easily be an instant star. He seems well suited to contribute serious analysis while embodying how fun it should be to cover professional sports for a living. Joining him in their television debuts will be Dirk Nowitzki, Rudy Gay and Swin Cash. The network is clearly leaning heavily on former players’ analysis and unafraid to hire first-timers, which will be entertaining even if it doesn’t go 100% smoothly from the get-go.
Some of these names may not last beyond this season. Others may be embarking on a long and fruitful career in the industry. But more networks means more coverage and more coverage means more voices—which can only be a good thing.
Wish: Start the games on time
This may very well be a useless cry into the abyss. But I will make it anyway: Can we please start the game when it is scheduled to start?
It’s been both puzzling and frustrating that a 7:30 p.m. ET tip-off on national television doesn’t actually tip off until 7:40. Every time. And it’s just … an accepted practice. NFL games don’t have this issue. Occasionally puck drop or first pitch will come a few minutes later than listed in the NHL and MLB, respectively, but the NBA is the only major American men’s pro league to consistently tell its customers and viewers the game will start at one time when it actually starts at another.
The functional explanation is that the listed “start time” isn’t actually when tip-off is. It’s when players wrap up warm-ups and go through lineup introductions. Most of the time the networks aren’t going to show those lineup intros so they stay in studio until everyone is gathered around center court to tip. It’s not like ESPN is forcing the game to start late so viewers can watch Kendrick Perkins get one last take off. NBC will not have the power to force the Knicks to center court when the TV guide says the game is on.
But they can certainly change the listed start time. If we can’t get the NBA to be as punctual as the NFL, we’ll settle for a more accurate representation of when the game starts from the network. Baseball games often start at weird times like 1:08 p.m. Why can’t NBA games be listed as starting at 7:42?
It sure seems like the answer is as it always is: money, by getting fans to tune in 10 minutes before the game so networks can sell more ads for a higher price point. It obviously isn’t the biggest deal, but is one of those very simple things that frustrates viewers.
So, again, it’s a cry into the abyss to change the listed start time. But we can hope—hope—that NBC or Prime Video will lead the way in making this simple change that benefits fans greatly at a marginal cost to their bottom line.
Wish: A boatload of new graphics and features
This may be the best part about new networks taking over NBA broadcasts: fans get to enjoy a new presentation.
NBC will presumably lean a lot on how it used to do things, especially in regard to the universally loved “Roundball Rock” theme song. But even just updating its graphics package for the modern day will result in a contemporary and fresh on-screen look, and it is getting a head start on trying out broadcast features. NBC will ask Peacock analysts to do their best Pierre McGuire impression and report from the bench. For the first time the network will plant analysts directly alongside or across from team benches and they will report on what they can see and hear to further inform the audience on the flow of the game. What, exactly, that information will be is unclear, which is part of the fun. Maybe it doesn’t work! But NBC is at least trying something new and we can appreciate that.
Prime Video, on the other hand, has no well to draw from. And that’s pretty cool. It’s a rare opportunity to be able to start from scratch. Anybody who loves the Prime Vision aspect of Thursday Night Football probably shouldn’t get too excited for an NBA version (yet). It’s a totally blank canvas otherwise, and it’ll help that the scene will be set by the familiar voice of Kevin Harlan, who signed with Amazon after many years of praise-worthy work at TNT. Like with NBC, maybe the final product doesn’t click. But it’s a distinct and enjoyable feeling to have no idea what to expect when it comes to how we’ll view basketball this year.
Wish: An injection of enthusiasm around coverage
It is human nature for excitement and enthusiasm to wane over long periods of time. The NBA has been in the same broadcasting hands for so long it felt like the sheen wore off when it came to coverage. That isn’t a criticism aimed at any one person or network in particular. It was just … the same. For the better part of 10 years, it was the same. Shaq, Ernie and Chuck would have a laugh while ESPN offered hot takes. And … that was it. The same ride, going round and round again. A lot of it was enjoyable, but sometimes it did get monotonous, especially when those on screen were feeling that monotony. Nobody looked miserable on screen or anything, but at times it was clear there was a certain level of “going through the motions” happening.
But new networks means new faces and new faces means fresh enthusiasm. A fiery energy. A certain je ne sais quoi. It goes beyond whoever is sitting behind what desk, too. ESPN will be challenged to up its coverage thanks to the mere presence of NBC and Prime Video. Those at NBC are undoubtedly looking forward to reintroducing themselves to the NBA, and those at Prime Video are undoubtedly focused on making a memorable first impression.
What’s more, that enthusiasm should linger for a while. Everyone involved is always stoked when the new season begins, but the NBA is famously a bit of a slog in the middle months of the season. The impact of the February and March doldrums are real and hit hard. But hopefully the excitement of new networks tackling this challenge will keep the energy up. The analysts who are enjoying their first opportunities to cover the NBA in front of a national audience will hopefully feel the same way.
It’s a new era of the NBA. Hopefully the incoming rights-holders grant these wishes and continue to push for the best possible basketball-viewing experience for fans all over the world.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA Broadcast Wishlist: Five Things We Hope to See From NBC and Prime Video.