The above NBC intro to the NBA debut game deserves a Clio, or whatever the sports production Clio is for a segment like this. What I love is that NBC acknowledged the elephant in the room: While we grey beards have nostalgia for the old broadcasts, many of the current players have no personal connection to it. That famous song gives me goosebumps, but there’s no reason Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should feel anything when those notes ring out.
And yet, just by playing on the stage that Michael Jordan’s era helped set, the players are part of this. We exist on a continuum. Now the past is back to infuse some magic into the increasingly inauthentic present.
That was the idea, anyway. And hey, maybe. To use another 90’s reference, there’s a, “If you build it, they will come” theory of how this all can work. If NBC treats the NBA regular season with the proper respect and burnishes it with the appropriate grandeur, the games might matter more. The NBA regular season needs saving, and NBC has shown up to lend a hand.
Michael Jordan Effect
I showed the NBC clip to my son, whose main take was, “Michael Jordan…is alive?!” Mike is a living historical figure. He was so transcendent, and afterwards, relatively reticent, to a degree that it’s almost like he’s the sort of important man who predated modernity. The legends we tell kids about typically don’t still exist. And we joke a lot about what the children don’t know, but the ones who like sports have typically heard of MJ. It’s still his silhouette on the most popular basketball shoe.
I’m wary of drawing too much off my own parenting experience, but I’m curious if any of you had similar unexpectedly surreal moments just related to the return of Jordan and NBC. We watched the MJ segment with Mike Tirico, where Jordan spoke of how nervous he got trying to live up to his own legend, on one free throw try, in front of kids who’d been told of his past. Unlike the tiresome replay reviews during last night’s games, this seemingly mundane story held my 7 year-old’s attention.
I heard some carping out of ESPN employees about the NBC nostalgia reboot. If you’re with the World Wide Leader, I get it. The NBC game production has flaws, and the feed was choppy last night. There was no score bug to inform us of the Warriors-Lakers action when Thunder-Rockets ran long. Jordan appears to be less a studio presence than a pre taped interview, spliced into bits over time.
The sense over at ESPN is that NBC’s broadcast has issues, problems the World Wide Leader would be killed for. When Disney tries to please fans by adding Inside the NBA, the media reaction is interspersed with worries that the long loved property will be ruined. ESPN is on the wrong side of the Gordon Ramsey meme of different standards for different participants.
Here’s what I’ll say, with apologies to my ESPN friends…