{"id":1470,"date":"2025-10-16T15:08:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/?p=1470"},"modified":"2025-11-28T01:29:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T01:29:17","slug":"roundball-rock-returns-home-to-the-nba-on-nbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/sports-media\/roundball-rock-returns-home-to-the-nba-on-nbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Roundball Rock Returns Home To The NBA on NBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba basketball! The iconic anthem &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; by John Tesh returned to NBC on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, during Peacock\u2019s coverage of the<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/\" target=\"_self\"> NBA Preseason<\/a> matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Roundball Rock&#8217;s debut on Peacock<\/strong><\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A fuller version of Roundball Rock in the intro for tonight&#8217;s Peacock NBA preseason game. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gvcvPRMlFg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/gvcvPRMlFg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sports TV News &amp; Updates (@TVSportsUpdates) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TVSportsUpdates\/status\/1978250294354907278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NBA on NBC broadcaster Noah Eagle welcomed the audience to the tune of &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; from Fiserv Forum. While NBC\u2019s preseason coverage began the previous week, Tuesday marked the first use of the original theme.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although many fans celebrated the triumphant return of the song, it faced some criticism. <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WorldWideWob\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SiriusXM NBA host Rob Perez<\/a> shared his thoughts on X in three parts:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;We cannot come straight out of commercial into Roundball Rock. There needs to be the anticipation of the laser peacock intro first, or a full matchup graphic overlay with a swipe on top of the aerial citywide view.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;The crescendo of the opening beat drop cannot be obstructed. Broadcasters need to let it breathe before welcoming us.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;There are two different choruses during Roundball Rock. The latter is meant to be played when the broadcast camera shifts inside and shows players running out of the tunnel, naturally segueing into the courtside broadcast team\u2019s pregame show as the music slowly fades. This second beat is essential to setting the tone, building drama, and injecting the proper dose of nostalgia. It has to run for 2-3 seconds.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The shredded version of Roundball Rock<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The return of &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; has been widely anticipated by fans of NBC\u2019s coverage. Tesh also released an alternative version of the song, expected to be used as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"THE WORLD PREMIERE OF ROUNDBALL ROCK THE SHREDDED VERSION | The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UMP0bsz5RvI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tesh composed the original version of the song in 1990, and it was a staple of NBC\u2019s NBA coverage from 1990 to 2002. Although NBC\u2019s NBA coverage took a long hiatus, the song continued in NBC\u2019s Summer Olympics coverage of Team USA Basketball and FOX\u2019s College Basketball broadcasts. With &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; returning to the NBA on NBC, FOX announced it will debut a new theme for its College Basketball coverage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2013, a Saturday Night Live sketch featured Tesh (portrayed by Jason Sudeikis) and his fictional brother Dave (Tim Robinson) pitching the song to NBC executives, complete with lyrics. The real John Tesh called the skit \u201cthe greatest thing that&#8217;s ever happened to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Hear T.J. Rives and Steve Carney discuss the return of &#8220;The NBA on NBC&#8221; on the newest &#8220;Last Word On Sports Media Podcast&#8221; by clicking play below,<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/cbs-scores-with-bucs-drama-mariners-walk-off-ratings\/id1549396526?i=1000732001070\" height=\"175\" frameborder=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>It almost didn&#8217;t happen<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The return of &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; was not a sure thing. On November 14, 2024, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/11\/14\/cnbc-sport-nbc-still-doesnt-havent-a-deal-for-john-teshs-roundball-rock.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CNBC reported<\/a> that a deal had not yet been finalized for Tesh\u2019s theme to return to NBC. However, on May 3, 2025, NBC Sports announced during its Kentucky Derby coverage that &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; would serve as the main theme for its NBA coverage. The network has featured the song in various promos, including Tesh performing it on the piano at the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Widely regarded by many as the greatest sports theme of all time, &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; evokes nostalgia for the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba basketball! The iconic anthem &#8220;Roundball Rock&#8221; by John Tesh returned to NBC on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, during Peacock\u2019s coverage of the NBA Preseason matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.\u00a0 Roundball Rock&#8217;s debut on Peacock A fuller version of Roundball Rock in the intro for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5665,"featured_media":1481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[277,238,266],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-1470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nbcsn","category-sports-media","category-networks","tag-featured"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1483,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions\/1483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}