NBA on TBS

Atlanta Hawks

For many years beginning when the station assumed rights to the team's game telecasts in the late 1970s, WTBS (channel 17) in Atlanta – which served as the originating feed of the national TBS cable channel from December 1976 to October 2007 – aired some regular season games from the Atlanta Hawks (which was also owned by Ted Turner at the time), which also aired nationally on WTBS's superstation feed; TBS aired the games nationwide until the telecasts became subjected to NBA blackout restrictions within 35 miles of the home team's arena, resulting in many Hawks away games televised by the network being unavailable to cable providers within the designated market area of the opposing team (this restriction was dropped when TNT gained the right to be the exclusive broadcaster of any game that it chose to carry).

National coverage

When it began to televise games from NBA teams other than the Hawks beginning with the 1984-85 season, TBS maintained a package of approximately 55 regular season NBA games annually on Tuesday and Friday nights. TBS also carried numerous NBA Playoff games as well as the NBA Draft from 1985-1989.

Playoff coverage

TBS was also allowed to televise 20 early round conference playoff games beginning with the 1985 NBA Playoffs. In 1986, TBS (as well as CBS) did not carry Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, relegating the broadcast of that game to television stations in the team's designated market areas; this would be the last time that an NBA Conference Finals game was not televised on a national network. During the 1989 NBA Playoffs, only 13 of the 24 games (comprising Games 1-3 of each series) in the first round aired on TBS or CBS. For example, none of the four games from the Seattle-Houston first round series appeared on national television.

All-Star Weekend

Beginning in 1986, TBS televised the various contests from the NBA All-Star Weekend. In 1987, the slam dunk contest was televised live for the very first time on the network.

Partnership with TNT

In the summer of 1987, the Turner Broadcasting System signed a new joint broadcast contract between TBS and TNT effective with the 1988-89 NBA season; beginning that season, TBS and TNT split broadcast rights to televise NBA games. TNT held rights to broadcast the NBA Draft and most NBA regular season and playoff games, while TBS only aired single games or double-headers once a week.

Both networks continued to expand their NBA coverage during the late 1990s; by this time, TBS only aired games on Wednesday nights, while TNT ran games on Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights. By 1994, the opening round of the playoffs featured overlapping doubleheaders on both TBS and TNT on the first two nights of each series.

1999–2001

For the 1999-2000 NBA season, TBS shifted its primetime game telecasts from Wednesdays to Mondays. For the 2000-2001 NBA season, the broadcasts were moved to Tuesdays, while TNT assumed rights to Wednesday and Thursday evening games.

Starting in 2000, the NBA spread out telecasts of games from the Eastern Conference and Western Conference playoff series so that only two series would play on their scheduled game days (so as to avoid scheduling conflicts and ratings competition between TNT and TBS). TNT would air doubleheaders on most weekdays, while TBS would air one doubleheader each week.

2001–2002

The 2001-2002 season would ultimately mark TBS's final year of NBA coverage. Turner Sports signed a new NBA television contract in which TNT would assume rights to the company's NBA package, while TBS would discontinue game coverage altogether; ESPN assumed TBS's half of the league's cable television rights. During 2002, TBS aired doubleheaders every Tuesday night of the playoffs until the Conference Finals. The final NBA game ever to be regularly televised on TBS aired on May 13, 2002, when the San Antonio Spurs faced the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Semifinals. In that last game, Robert Horry hit a key three-pointer that won the series four games to one for the Lakers to move on to the Western Conference Finals.

Coverage anomalies

On May 3, 1992, the broadcast of Game 4 of the playoff series between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz was moved to TBS from NBC, creating a problem as the game was now required to be blacked out within the Los Angeles television market. The game was only available in the Los Angeles area through SportsChannel Los Angeles, a regional sports premium cable service (as opposed to TBS, which operates as a basic cable channel and at the time, a superstation). SportsChannel Los Angeles chose not to unscramble its signal and as a result, viewers complained in letters to the Los Angeles Times and other sources that the game should have been made available to all cable subscribers as a public service.

On isolated occasions (typically during the playoffs) since TNT assumed partial cable rights to the NBA, TBS has served as an overflow feed for certain games. In 2003, TBS aired a doubleheader of first round Game 6 matchups (the Indiana Pacers-Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs-Phoenix Suns series). On May 22, 2006, due to Game 7 of the San Antonio Spurs-Dallas Mavericks series going into overtime, TBS aired part of the Game 7 Western Conference playoff match between the Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns. On May 14, 2004, the same situation arose, as Game 5 of the New Jersey Nets-Detroit Pistons playoff series lasted three overtimes. However, due to scheduling conflicts with TBS, TNT had to air part of the Sacramento Kings-Minnesota Timberwolves game that was supposed to follow on NBA TV. The first few minutes of Game 4 of the 2007 Western Conference Semifinal between the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs were shown on TBS, due to the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New Jersey Nets running past the former's 9:30 p.m. Eastern start time.

The above situations are not unlike those that have been encountered during TBS telecasts of Major League Baseball Division Series games since 2007; at times, due to certain games running over their scheduled end time, TNT had to air the first few minutes of games that TBS was supposed to cover starting from a certain time.

In 2011, TBS began airing games from the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship during March Madness, sharing the cable television rights with Turner-owned sister networks TNT and TruTV, with CBS holding the broadcast television rights.

Since 2015, TBS started simulcast the NBA All-Star Game on TNT.

Ratings

Ratings for NBA games televised by TBS as well as TNT rose from 6.6 percent in 1985-86 to 7.3 percent in 1989-90.

The first game of Michael Jordan's second comeback (a game against the New York Knicks that aired on TBS opposite the 2001 World Series) scored a rating share between a 3.0 and 4.0.

Play-by-play

Color commentators

Contributors

Studio hosts

Studio analysts

Sideline reporters

Music

At the end of its 1987 playoff coverage, TBS used Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care of Business" as the soundtrack for the closing credits sequence during the game telecast. TBS used Run-DMC to perform and compose its theme during the early 2000s. The song included a version of the Stevie Wonder song "Higher Ground."