There may not be a song more synonymous with the game of basketball than “Roundball Rock” by John Tesh. If you watched NBC’s coverage of the NBA from 1990 until 2002, when the network lost the league’s broadcast rights, you know the song. If you never watched that, well, you still might know the song.
The song is iconic, and it says a lot about the track that it’s still recognized as “the NBA song” even though it hasn’t been used for NBA games since 2018. I love it, you love it, and odds are, every NBA fan you know loves it.
It turns out that there are some folks who aren’t totally on board with the song, and unfortunately for basketball fans, it was the people who make decisions for ABC back in the day. Tesh sat down with For The Win to discuss the legacy of the song and revealed that he offered it up to ABC when it got the NBA’s broadcast rights.
What happened next is an absolute travesty for which I will never, ever forgive the executives who made this decision..
ABC, when they got (the NBA), we went to them and said, “If you want to use the theme, I own the publishing.”
They said, “We’re looking for a different sound.”
I didn’t want to beg or anything, I said, “I know Elton John and Billy Joel and Eric Clapton, I can get them all to play on the song, they love it.”
“No thanks.” Okay!
Is this unfortunate? Of course it is, because while ABC and ESPN do a really good job with broadcasting the league, it would have been fun bit of nostalgia if we were still hearing the song whenever basketball games hit the airwaves to this day. Oh well, at least we have the immortal Saturday Night Live skit about when it was pitched to NBC executives.
DUNK IT.
(Via For The Win)
