NBC is taking a trip down memory lane for this Tuesday's game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Philadelphia 76ers.
In an effort to celebrate the return of the "NBA on NBC," the network had Bob Costas, Doug Collins and Mike Fratello team up to call the Spurs-76ers game. The pregame show, meanwhile, featured familiar faces in Hannah Storm, Isiah Thomas, and P.J. Carlesimo. They were fixtures when the NBC covered the NBA in the 1990s.
"We're all looking forward to this, to the reunion as much as the game itself. I don't want to shortchange the game, but seeing everybody in one place at the same time for the first time in a long time is really heartwarming. And it's going to be funny, and there will be stories exchanged, some of them on the air and some of them not," Costas said.
"If the game is close in the second half, we're going to narrow the focus to the game, but a lot of this is going to be big focus. The difference between the league when we last left it and the league now, the influence of the three-pointers, load management, and the statistics are startling. The average team shoots five times as many threes as the average team shot per game when we last left the NBA."
Fans want more throwback broadcasts.
Just minutes after tipoff between the Spurs and 76ers, fans made it clear they'd like to see NBC's throwback telecast more often.
"Make this a weekly occurence," one fan said.
"NBC this is great," a second fan commented. "Please make more broadcasts like this!"
"Keep doing it. We love it. Listen to your people please," a social media user wrote.
"This should be a yearly occurrence for the NBA with all the networks doing this for one weekend," another person suggested.
Not only did fans adore the intro for its "Throwback Tuesday" telecast, they thought the vintage score bug on NBC was a nice addition.
Will these positive reactions lead to NBC embracing this throwback telecast for the 2026-27 season? Only time will tell, but we sure hope we see it more often.
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