Widely respected play-by-play man Mike Tirico is expected to be the main voice on the No. 1 broadcast team once the NBA returns to NBC in the fall of 2025, per Richard Deitsch of The Athletic.
The NBA announced that it has officially reached an 11-year agreement on a new media rights deal with ESPN/ABC, streaming giant Amazon Prime, and yes, NBC.
Also, NBC Sports president Rick Cordella told Deitsch that an hourlong studio show is another goal for the network.
“We hope to have a fantastic studio show and studio talent around what we see as the game of the week and we will use our team appearances working closely with the NBA on making it the best matchup that we possibly can have at that point of the season,” Cordella said. “We’ve obviously had a lot of success on Sunday Football. I’d love to say someone had a eureka moment coming up with the idea for Sunday Night Basketball but I think it was just natural to us at NBC Sports that this would be a franchise we wanted to create outside of football season.
“Certainly we have a (broadcast) window open there (after the NFL season). We pitched it to the NBA and it’s an easy to understand concept.”
Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch added more insight into NBC’s potential plans for NBA coverage.
“In its new iteration, NBC Sports’ NBA coverage could feature as many as five games a week — a Peacock Monday doubleheader, NBC’s two Tuesday night games, and the Sunday night window — likely necessitating a deep bench,” Lewis wrote. “It is likely that NBC will also use Noah Eagle, who will serve as its lead Olympic basketball voice this year.”
Tirico, 57, replaced Al Michaels as the lead play-by-play man on NBC’s Sunday Night Football in 2022.
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