1. After being out of the NBA business since 2002, NBC is back in beginning with the 2025-26 season.

One of the staples of NBC’s coverage from 1990 to 2002 was showing the player introductions before tipoff. These would be electric during the postseason and have been sorely missed since NBC stopped airing the NBA.

In an interview this week with CNBC, NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said the intros will be back.

“Our goal at NBC Sports is to make big events feel big and be big,” said Cordella. “And so we’re going to bring a lot of that back, show the atmosphere of the arena.”

This is outstanding news for any NBA fan. Those player intros get you pumped up, set an exciting tone and add to the broadcast. To have ABC/ESPN and TNT, as they do now, just come back from a commercial to the 10 players standing on the court waiting for the jump ball is so blah.

It’s truly amazing the player intros ever went away. Cordella, though, clearly understands why showing them is valuable.

“Like, here‘s another example: Michael Jordan‘s player introductions. Very, very small amount people were actually in Chicago Stadium, you know, ‘Sirius’ by the Alan Parsons Project and 6’6" from North Carolina, etc. The reason why people know it so well, because NBC showed it. And so I think that‘s part of it, too. Like, let‘s get in and show the atmosphere. Make this seem like a big game. And so you‘ll see that.”

Cordella is 100% dead on here, but he did lose me with one quote.

“And you know, we'l‘l have our talent on site at the arenas on Sunday nights,” Cordella told CNBC. “We have Sunday night basketball to just again, make it feel like this is a big thing. And similar to Sunday Night Football it is the game of the week.”

One, don’t compare the NBA to the NFL. The NFL has 17 regular-season games. The NBA has 82. Every NFL regular-season game is important. NBA regular-season games aren’t as important. You can call it Sunday Night Basketball, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be like Sunday Night Football. At the end of the day, it’s still just a regular-season NBA game.

Two, while networks think sending talent on site is a big thing, fans couldn’t care less where the studio hosts are located. Being on site doesn’t add nearly as much as executives think. Look at Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. They are in a studio for the entire regular season (and first two rounds of the playoffs). Has their show been hurt at all by not being on site? I rest my case.

2. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features a conversation with Ringer editor-at-large Bryan Curtis.

Topics covered with Curtis, who also hosts the The Press Box podcast, include the reaction to Mel Kiper’s Shedeur Sanders comments during the NFL draft, ESPN’s overall draft coverage and decisions on which talent to use and not use on air.

Also discussed with Curtis is Bill Belichick’s disastrous CBS Sunday Morning interview, Belichick’s book tour and which interviewer would have the guts to ask Belichick tough questions.

Other topics include Shannon Sharpe taking a leave from ESPN, TNT using remote broadcasters for NHL playoff games, Aaron Rodgers’s future in broadcasting, Amazon's NBA hires and a surreal moment on 60 Minutes.

Following Curtis, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we discuss WrestleMania 41, terrible betting losses and how to sell a baseball card collection.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

3. I’ve written about and talked about (on SI Media With Jimmy Traina) the fact that this is the last season local broadcasters will get to call playoff games in the NBA a lot lately.

So it was nice to see Knicks play-by-play guy Mike Breen go out with a double “BANG!” on Thursday night.

4. Kendrick Perkins will deny this. ESPN will deny this. And some of you may think I’m off my rocker. But just speaking for myself.

I think this…

... was definitely payback for this.

Just my opinion.

5. This was the best story I’ve read this week about the Bill Belichick-24-year-old girlfriend fiasco.

6. This is an insane stat.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 53rd birthday to the most entertaining pro wrestler of all time, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBC Sports President Shares Great News for NBA Fans.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate