John Tesh Says NBC Has Contacted Him About Reviving 'Roundball Rock' for NBA Coverage

Dec 23, 2022; Houston, Texas, USA; General view of the NBA logo on a backboard before the game between the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks at Toyota Center.
Dec 23, 2022; Houston, Texas, USA; General view of the NBA logo on a backboard before the game between the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks at Toyota Center. / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

For most Americans, musician John Tesh is one of those people that is hazily famous—somewhat famous for his new-age musical stylings, somewhat famous for his journalism, somewhat famous for the business of being John Tesh.

For NBA fans, however, John Tesh is the immortal composer of the soundtrack to basketball's late 20th-century golden age: "Roundball Rock."

The 169-second ditty accompanied NBC's coverage of the NBA for over a decade, and has been used for the WNBA, Olympic basketball and college basketball as well. On Tuesday, Tesh pricked up the ears of nostalgists everywhere when he told podcast host Dan Le Batard that NBC had talked to him about reviving "Roundball Rock."

"It's nothing firm," Tesh told Le Batard. "They told me, 'Hey, can we stay frosty on this?' I'm like, 'What? Is this a Navy SEALs thing?'... We're actually talking to them right now about licensing it for the Olympics in Paris."

NBC has long held the rights to the Olympics in the United States, and is reportedly deep into talks to acquire its first NBA package since 2002.

"At the end of June, we're heading to Nashville, we've got a full orchestra on hold and we're going to re-record it," Tesh said. "The recording, I think it still sounds great, but I wanted to make a few changes."


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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .