The Athletic has live coverage of Rockets vs. Thunder and Warriors vs. Lakers from 2025-26 NBA Season Tip-Off.
They won’t outright publicly say it, but if you listen closely enough to the plans of the NBA newcomers — NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video — you can tell that they hope to be the anti-“Inside The NBA.”
While the Charles Barkley-led show that is migrating from TNT to ESPN is iconic, there is a perception that the program’s analysts, led by Sir Diss-a-Lot Barkley, are haters.
What makes Barkley the best studio analyst of all-time is that he’s willing to say anything about anybody and will do it with humor. To be fair, both NBC and Amazon admire Barkley, to the point they looked into hiring him after TNT lost the rights to broadcast NBA games.
Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson have been a tremendous watch because of their shenanigans and disses more than their court analysis. But, just like ESPN, led by Stephen A. Smith from dawn to dusk, “Inside the NBA” has been a little more about the soap opera than the sport.
As they debut for the 2025-26 season as the NBA’s new, billion-dollar broadcast partners, NBC and Amazon hope to match the authenticity and impact of “Inside the NBA” while also celebrating the game.
Insults are out. Uplifting is in.
NBC and Amazon’s big on-air talent hires for their pre- and post-game shows — Blake Griffin, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade for Amazon, and Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter for NBC — are from a more recent generation than the 62-year-old Barkley or his cohorts, the 53-year-old O’Neal and the 60-year-old Smith.
Hearkening back to its previous era as a national NBA broadcaster from 1990-2002, NBC will also lean on nostalgia from its previous go-around with the NBA. The network signed Michael Jordan to do some cameos, including a pre-taped interview with Mike Tirico that will air at halftime of Oklahoma City versus Houston on opening night. NBC will also bring back John Tesh’s beloved “Roundball Rock” as its NBA theme music.
Amazon wants to be fresher, with Griffin likely to be positioned as its studio star next to host Taylor Rooks.
While the newcomers’ pre- and post-game shows will need time to jell, the top game broadcast teams for both Amazon and NBC are almost guaranteed to be strong right from the first tip-off because of who will headline the on-air calls.
Amazon hired the best basketball play-by-player around as its No. 1 in Ian Eagle, who already has college hoops’ highest honor as the voice of the Men’s Final Four on CBS.
The booming voice of Kevin Harlan will transition over after decades on TNT, joining the on-the-rise Michael Grady to round out the top Amazon game callers.
NBC’s play-by-play is also in good hands at the top, but it didn’t require any work. Tirico, the versatile face of NBC’s sports division, could probably call a hopscotch competition skillfully and should easily return to the NBA, which he did in a previous life for ESPN. Their No. 2 voice, Noah Eagle, Ian’s son, provided play-by-play on the Paris Olympics men’s basketball gold medal game last year and, at just 28, already elicits respect on the mic.
NBC and Amazon’s game analysts include familiar voices, from Stan Van Gundy on Prime to Reggie Miller on NBC.
In terms of the schedule, in the modern digital jungle, the NBA did pretty well in maximizing its dollars ($76 billion over 11 seasons from ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video), while making it so fans need a maximum of just three subscription-based services to view its nationally televised games. The NBA Finals remain on broadcast TV with ABC.
For its part, the NBA picked up many more national TV broadcast windows than they had before: The seven-day-a-week regular season schedule of nationally televised games starts with Peacock exclusives on Mondays, then Tuesday double-headers offer a unique wrinkle to NBC’s coverage:
For the 8 p.m. ET game, viewers in the Eastern and Central time zones will watch on NBC. If you live in the Pacific or Mountain time zones, the game will be on Peacock. Then, for the 11 p.m. ET game, viewers in the East and Central time zones will need Peacock, while western viewers will watch on NBC.
The novel programming idea will make Peacock more of a must-have for hardcore fans while preserving a level of easy discovery for casuals. It marries broad distribution with digital dollars.
After the NFL season ends, the NBA will try to pick up on fan viewing habits around “Thursday Night Football” and “Sunday Night Football” with basketball versions for the NBA. Amazon will have “Thursday Night Basketball,” while NBC will feature “Sunday Night Basketball.” ESPN will have fewer regular-season games, going from 100 to 80 with its windows on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Amazon Prime will also have games on Fridays and Saturdays.
The seven-day-a-week plan is less complicated than it may initially seem, and, by next year, it will probably become rote for true NBA fans.
When the playoffs come along, the three entities will share most of the postseason games until the Finals. The playoffs will be split between ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Prime Video, with The Finals remaining every year on ABC, where analyst Tim Legler will replace Doris Burke in the No. 1 booth alongside Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson.
Recently, ESPN featured Legler in a well-received new segment in which he breaks down plays with NBA coaches. It was a notable turn from the soap opera coverage. Maybe the new TV era for NBA coverage will expand even further.
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