As they prepare to broadcast NBA games again for the first time in decades, NBC will likely be turning to a household name to anchor their coverage.
Richard Deistch of The Athletic reports this week that Mike Tirico is expected to serve as NBC’s lead play-by-play voice for NBA games (citing a conversation with NBC Sports president Rick Cordella). Deitsch adds that NBC will have multiple other game teams and studio analysts as well.
The news comes after the NBA officially announced this week that they have reached an agreement with NBC (and their streaming service Peacock) to telecast NBA games beginning with the 2025-26 season and continuing through the 2035-36 season. Separate broadcast rights agreements were also reached with Amazon and ESPN/ABC (the latter of which is a renewal).
Tirico, 57, is sportscasting veteran who first rose to fame as an anchor for ESPN’s “SportsCenter” back in 1991. He remained with ESPN through 2016 (doing play-by-play work for multiple sports) and then officially joined NBC. Among Tirico’s many duties for NBC, he is the lead play-by-play announcer for “Sunday Night Football” as well as the lead primetime host for both the Summer and the Winter Olympics.
For basketball fans who grew up with the Marv Albert-Mike Fratello team anchoring the “NBA on NBC” in the 1990s and 2000s, Tirico will have big shoes to fill. But the fans will be getting a good dose of nostalgia regardless and can now look ahead to Tirico as the lead voice for 2025-26 and beyond.
