NBA Game of the Week > Roundball Rock?

This may be a controversial statement, but maybe NBC should not bring back John Tesh's "Roundball Rock" when it carries the NBA again starting next season. I am here to tell you that instead of looking back to the Nineties, the network ought to go to the Seventies:

I love "Roundball Rock," but here are some reasons for my suggestion:

1) It's already been played out with people speculating/celebrating/discussing it.

2) It's been used by Fox Sports for years and isn't as fresh as it otherwise would be.

3) NBC itself killed it with a cheesy promo announcing its return.

On the positive side of things, here is why I embrace the earlier song:

1) It has LYRICS! Every sports theme song should have lyrics.

2) And WHAT lyrics! "Sit back and do something nice for yourself." What could be more evocative of professional basketball?

3) The song combines several musical styles.

4) It still has some mystery. One of the joys of seeing that clip is reading all the comments wondering if it's Terry Kath on vocals.

5) Just imagine this song leading right to Keith Jackson and Bill Russell. That scenario makes me smile on even my darkest days.

If NBC won't do it, maybe new NBA TV partner Amazon Prime Video will. Someone should do it! If not, then please find a higher-quality clip of the original we can all enjoy.

This Day in TV History: June 6, 1984: A great NBA game doesn't do so well

We hear each day about the value of live sports on broadcast TV and how sporting events are one of the only reliable audience draws left for the networks. The NBA is poised to announce a huge media rights deal which is based in large part on getting increased exposure on over-the-air TV.

Yet 40 years ago, June 6, 1984, an attractive NBA Finals match-up pitted the Lakers against the Celtics, Magic against Bird, Kareem against Parish, etc. in Game 4. The game started at 9PM EST and went into overtime, with Boston winning at The Forum to head back home with the series tied rather than being down 3-1. it featured memorable moments like some notable blunders by Magic Johnson and a hard foul by Kevin McHale that floored Kurt Rambis and nearly led to a riot.

Sounds like a ratings winner, with superstars and high-profile teams in a dramatic and hard-fought battle. According to TV Tango, which sometimes posts ratings numbers with its historical listings, the game finished third for the timeslot!

The winner was the execrable 1978 movie Moment by Moment, an ill-advised pairing of John Travolta and Lily Tomlin that somehow was the highest-rated program this Wednesday night. ABC showed it at 9:00 after a Fall Guy repeat.

NBC also beat the NBA game with a Facts of Life rerun and a new Duck Factory before ratings dipped a bit for a St. Elsewhere rerun. A D-Day anniversary special began the night.

In this pre-cable (mostly) and pre-streaming world, the country was more captivated by a Facts of Life rerun than the start of an NBA Finals game between Los Angeles and Boston.

CBS had an acclaimed nature documentary, Lions of Etosha, leading into the game. Today, of course, you would have a pregame special or at least something a little more compatible. In 1984, CBS didn't bother building its whole night around the NBA game, and while 40 years later we can see that it was a key series for the popularity of the league and this was the key game, it wasn't a blockbuster.

YouTube Spotlight: John Tesh's "Roundball Rock"

I have to cheat a little bit on this week's Spotlight post. This clip is from just outside our timeframe. Yet with the NBA Finals underway, this takes me right back to the NBA on NBC and how much fun it was to watch Jordan and Da Bulls. I don't watch much anymore, but back in the day, it was a different story!

Any game was improved by the presentation that began with John Tesh's "Roundball Rock," but take a big match-up like this...I get chills, I tell ya!

YouTube Spotlight: The Soul Train Basketball Championship

One of the best clips in this week's video playlist is this 9-minute segment from a May 1977 episode featuring "The Soul Train One-on-One Basketball Championship:"

With it being 1977, you might think NBA stars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton face off, or maybe college superstars Marques Johnson and Bernard King.  How about Marvin Gaye and Don Cornelius? And why not throw in Smokey Robinson as the ref?

I tried to find more info about this but came up short, unlike Gaye, who beats Cornelius despite giving up several inches in height. The Motown legend was enough of an athlete, or considered himself enough of an athlete, to try out for the Detroit Lions (better than Gary Danielson cutting a cover of "What's Going On"). It's tough to judge his skills here, though, because Cornelius seems gassed after the first bucket!

Was this an open invitational? Who else was in the tournament? Did Cornelius ever make a skyhook? All these questions remain open for now.

This Day in TV History: An Evening with the Harlem Globetrotters (1971)

50 years ago tonight, NBC kicked off an annual series of specials with the world-famous sports entertainers by premiering An Evening with the Harlem Globetrotters. According to Ultimate70s.com, 

Joe Garagiola hosts the first of what will be a series of yearly specials with the famed basketball clowns. The Trotters perform many of their familiar routines, plus some new ones developed during their 43-year history. The antics of Meadowlark Lemon and Showboat Hall will benefit from TV sports techniques of slow motion and instant replay. Nipsey Russell and a 5-year-old basketball whiz named Steve Christry are guests.

I can't find video of the special, but I have this great 1971 Vitalis commercial that made it to our recent YouTube playlist devoted to our 1971 Saturday Morning bonus episode.

And here is some more footage of the guys in 1971:

And here is that great theme song to their cartoon series:

1971 was also notable for the team because it suffered one of its rare losses to the Washington Generals that year, blowing a big lead and giving up a buzzer beater in Martin, Tennessee.

And now a word from THEIR sponsor: More Ivory Soap

Earlier this week we looked at QB Bert Jones, who played for the Bert Joneses, pitching Ivory Soap.  The brand was fond of clean-cut (read: white) athletes promoting its product. Bert Jones was not an NFL Hall of Famer, but he was a multiyear starter, an All-Pro, even an MVP.

The NBA player that Ivory Soap got, though...



Danny Vranes was a star at Utah (of course!) and the fifth overall pick in the 1981 NBA draft. The 6'7" forward had a few years as a starter in the early 1980s, but in his 7-year career never averaged more than 29 minutes, 9 points, nor 6 rebounds per game.

But he was clean!